JULES JOSEPH LEFEBVRE (FRENCH 1836–1911)
Fiammetta (Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta)
signed (upper right ) and titled FIAMMETTA (upper left)
oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, or The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta, is a novel by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, probably written between 1343 and 1344. Written in the form of a first-person confessional monologue, it describes the protagonist, Fiammetta's, passion for Panfilo, a Florentine merchant, and takes place in Naples. It has been characterised as the first psychological novel in Western literature. It consists of a prologue and nine chapters.