Gareth Long and Derek Sullivan

Seventh Day, Second Story, June 6, 2020

pencil and coloured pencil on paper

2@8.3 x 5.8” (21 x 14.7 cm)

In a new iteration of Gareth Long and Derek Sullivan’s collaborative drawing project the two artists will methodically work their way through Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, each illustrating the one story per day in the isolation of their own studios. They will Zoom conference and draw together, but make separate drawings. The resulting pairs will be dated and numbered according to the story. The project will be continued until complete, or social distancing restrictions are lifted, whichever comes first.

Decameron (completed 1353 CE), set in Italy during the time of the Black Death, tells of a group of seven young women and three young men who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a deserted villa in the countryside for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories.

Summary of Seventh Day, Second Story: Peronella hideth a lover of hers in a vat, upon her husband's unlooked for return, and hearing from the latter that he hath sold the vat, avoucheth herself to have sold it to one who is presently therewithin, to see if it be sound; whereupon the gallant, jumping out of the vat, causeth the husband scrape it out for him and after carry it home to his house.