The Portrait of Francesca. Inferno V

In illustrations of the critical moment, the jealousy-crazed husband was depicted as interrupting their first embrace, the open book lying face-down at Francesca's feet, like a grotesque parody of the Annunciation (Fig. 2).3 The sword drawn as the couple embrace hints at double vendetta: to kill them before they have time to repent, so as to send them directly to Hell. Hell is reserved for obdurate sinners, whose sin is grievous, habitual and premeditated.\n In the context of Francesca's damnation it has the ring of a curse, but Boccaccio's Decameron proudly bears the subtitle of "Prencipe Galeotto," as if to announce boldly the seductive intent of the book: to bring solace to idle ladies, disappointed in love.