Gareth Long and Derek Sullivan

Fifth Day, Fifth Story, May 20, 2020

pencil and coloured pencil on paper

2@5.8 x 8.3” (14.7 x 21 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 Fifth Day, Fifth Story: Guidotto da Cremona leaveth to Giacomino da Pavia a daughter of his and dieth. Giannole di Severino and Minghino di Mingole fall in love with the girl at Faenza and come to blows on her account. Ultimately she is proved to be Giannole's sister and is given to Minghino to wife.