The Story of Patient Griselda, Part II

The Story of Patient Griselda, Part II by the Master of the Griselda Legend is one of three surviving panels illustrating Boccaccio's famous tale from the Decameron — the story of a nobleman who tests his wife's patience through increasingly cruel trials. This secular narrative cycle, painted for a Sienese patron around 1494, represents the Renaissance fashion for decorative cycles depicting classical and literary subjects for aristocratic interiors. Griselda, stripped of her children and dignity yet steadfastly obedient, embodied a Renaissance ideal of feminine virtue. The three panels are among the finest surviving examples of Italian narrative secular painting of the fifteenth century, remarkable for their elegant architectural settings.

The panel uses continuous narrative — multiple scenes unfolding across a single space with architectural divisions. Figures in contemporary dress occupy coherent Renaissance settings of archways and loggias. The master's palette is warm and descriptive, prioritizing narrative legibility over dramatic intensity.