Giambattista Basile’s "Pentamerone" illustrated by Franz von Bayros

Since Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales film is really beefing up the promotional material for Cannes, I thought you might like to see something a little older regarding The Pentamerone. Although Basile's book contains fifty tales the film is only (reportedly) using five (and I don't have my own copy - YET! - to check which exactly sorry! My library isn't being cooperative for copied either, sadly.)

These illustrations are by Austrian illustrator and painter Franz von Bayros from 1909. I don't recommend you look him up if you have delicate sensibilities. He is best known for his very lewd and explicit illustrations and paintings and that's putting it mildly (totally NSFW or kids). Perhaps because of this, he is, however, a master at the human form.

Anyway - these are quite lovely though and considering the source material, I'm sort of amazed they are as family friendly as they are... I haven't included all ten. You can see the rest on the Tumblr site HERE if you'd like.