De las mujeres de los Minias · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: De las mujeres de los Minias
Subject: Famous Women; Minyans; Greek Mythology; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Sparta; Ancient Greece; Lacedaemon
Description: The engraving depicts a man guarding a jail, with three figures standing behind the bars of the jail and three figures leaving the jail wearing heavy garments. The three figures leaving the jail are Minyan men who had been sentenced to death for their crimes against their city. Boccaccio explains that the Minyans wives had gone into the jail and swapped clothing with their husbands and switched places with them. The men in disguises slipped past the guards unnoticed and into freedom, while their wives were executed in their place. Boccaccio explains that he chose to write on these women to demonstrate that there is no greater love than a wife’s love for her husband.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:14868
Language: spa
Source Name: De Las Mujeres Ilustres [On Famous Women]
Parent Collection: 1494 Mujeres Ilustres
Image: mta_14868_OBJ.png