Analysis
Sigismunda mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo illustrates a scene from the first tale on Day 4 of The Decameron, a medieval collection of short stories (novelle) by Italian author and poet, Giovanni Boccaccio.
Seated at an ornate wooden table, wearing a pearl tiara and flowing silk, is Sigismunda (called Ghismonda in Boccaccio's original tale), the heroine of one of the novelle. It is probable that Hogarth modelled her on his wife, Jane. She clasps a golden goblet containing the heart of her murdered husband, Guiscardo.
Guiscardo was a servant and page in the court of Sigismunda's father, Prince Tancred of Salerno. When Sigismunda's father discovered that Guiscardo and Sigismunda had wed secretly, he angrily ordered his men to murder the low-born Guiscardo, and had Guiscardo's heart delivered to Sigismunda in a golden cup. Despite having committed to die without shedding a tear, she weeps as she realises her father has murdered her husband. She adds poison to the cup containing Guiscardo's heart, and commits suicide by drinking it.
Hogarth claimed to have long been interested in the story of Sigismunda, which had appeared in England in several versions by the mid-18th century. It had become popular after being translated in John Dryden's 1699 volume of Fables, Ancient and Modern, and adapted for the English stage by James Thomson in 1745.
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