The wealthy urban bourgeoisie of Renaissance Italy liked to take refuge from the summer heat or epidemics in their countryside villas. As Boccaccio recounts in the Decameron, here they would relax, with instructive and amusing stories, music, dance and witty conversation - in other words, they paid tribute to the muses. It was no coincidence, then, that they often adorned the walls with pictures of the muses. This was the case in what was perhaps one of the most famous summer retreats, the dukes of Ferrara