From Leonardo da Vinci to Renoir, through Brueghel the Elder, van Gogh, Caillebotte, Manet .. masterpieces celebrating the art of the feast and food in good company

1. From Leonardo da Vinci to Renoir, through Brueghel the Elder, van Gogh, Caillebotte, Manet ...
masterpieces celebrating the art of the feast and food in good company

2. Art of the Feast …
in European paintings

3. Around 1400, Jean de Berry, third son of King Jean le Bon of France, commissioned the Limbourg brothers
to illuminate a manuscript that was to serve as his Book of Hours.
Within this work we observe a festive scene corresponding to the month of January …

4. Calendar, January.
Festivities at the Duke of Berry’s castle …
In one of his palaces, the Duke of Berry is receiving guests for the new year.
Wearing a thick blue greatcoat and a fur bonnet, he is sitting at a table;
servants are busy,
cupbearers serve drinks;
the food on the table appears to be mainly poultry,
but no bread or vegetables are shown,
at the end of the table is a pastry chef
and
on the table are two small dogs
Frères de Limbourg Limbourg brothers
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Janvier
The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry[, January
1412 -1416
Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, Chantilly

9. This is probably the most famous and iconic feast in art ...
the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John –
specifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles will betray him.
Jesus, in the centre with his hands is pointing to the bread and wine,
Judas, with a small pouch containing the reward for his treachery in his hand,
tries to reach the bread, and knocks over a saltcellar, a sign of misfortune.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Supper
La Cène
1495-1498
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

13. A great feast
where the hand of God appeared and wrote the inscription on the wall
prophesying the downfall of Belshazzar's reign
« mene, tekel, upharsin ».
Belshazzar, King of Babylon, gave a great feast at which wine was drunk
in the golden and silver vessels looted by his father Nebuchadnezzar,
from the temple in Jerusalem
the guests see the mysterious writing on the wall,
frightened faces
and
Balthazar's horror
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Belshazzar's Feast
Le Festin de Balthazar
1635-1638
The National Gallery, London

16. A banqueting room with columns on both sides …
dressed in black, Daniel stands at the center of the foreground,
interpreting the supernatural writing on the wall of the hall.
Belshazzar recoils in astonishment and dread
and
others look on in shock and horror.
…
Belshazzar was killed that night ...
John Martin
Belshazzar's Feast
Le Festin de Balthazar
1820
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

19. Another course at a party …
the head of John the Baptist
Herodias prods the Baptist’s tongue with a fork
and
Herod shrinks back in horror.
Peter Paul Rubens
The Feast of Herod
Le Festin d'Hérode
1633
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

22. The finely dressed guests seem to be on the dessert course,
but none of them are eating ...
The wedding, at which Christ has just turned water into wine,
has been transposed from Cana to contemporary Venice
… here the feast is a public pageant,
a showcase for wealth and power
Paolo Veronese
Les noces de Cana
The Wedding at Cana
1563
Musée du Louvre, Paris

26. A banquet given by the god of wine
and
an incident that embarrassed Priapus, god of virility ...
naiads, satyrs
gods Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Bacchus, Mercury, Silenus
and
the beautiful nymph Lotis, lulled to sleep by wine
and
Priapus, overcome by lust, seized the opportunity to lift her skirt.
(… his attempt was foiled when an ass, "with raucous braying, gave out an ill-timed roar)
Giovanni Bellini and Titian Giovanni Bellini et Titien
The Feast of the Gods
Le Festin des dieux
1514
National Gallery of Art, Washington

30. An golden apple to a feast of the gods ...
All the gods and goddesses had been invited
except
Discord who arrived unexpectedly with his bat wings, hair entwined
with snakes and her golden apple …
an apple inscribed 'For the Fairest’
and
Venus, Minerva, and Juno , expectantly extend their arms,
and
Jupiter, who refuses to judge which goddess is the fairest,
and passes on the task to Paris, a Trojan mortal
Edward Burne-Jones
The Feast of Peleus
La fête de Pélée
1872-1881
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham

34. An legendary banquet
and
a priceless pearl ear-drop …
Mark Anthony, invited to a banquet by Cleopatra,
expressed surprise at its magnificence. In reply, Cleopatra removed a pearl ear-drop,
and dissolved it in her glass of wine which she then drank, showing by this ostentatious gesture
her indifference to riches.
(... envy, regret and admiration of Mark Antony
and
and the grotesque grin of the court jester for the ridiculous nature of Cleopatra's wastefulness)
Jacob Jordaens
Cleopatra's Feast
Le Banquet de Cléopâtre
1653
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

37. An feast in a barn in the summertime ...
soup, porridge and bread, but it seems enough to have fun,
an unbreeched boy licks a plate,
a dog emerges from under the table to snatch pieces of bread,
a huge tray, made of a messy door, from oatmeal bowls and soup
and
a door carrier that appears have an extra foot
The bride sitting passively amidst the eating and drinking
but ...
the groom is nowhere to be seen
( ... according to Flemish custom he was not allowed to take part in the celebrations
until the evening. Following the same custom, the bride was not allowed to eat
or speak to anyone until the groom came)
Pieter Brueghel the Elder Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
The Peasant Wedding
Le Repas de noce
1568
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

40. a table laden with food and drink,
a tree,
a peasant, soldier and a scholar dozing on the ground,
a knight with an open mouth, waiting for a roasted pigeon to fly in,
a man clutching a spoon forces his way out of a large cloud of pudding,
a half-eaten egg in its shell runs,
a roast goose lays itself down on a silver platter to be eaten,
a roasted pig with a carving knife
(... Behind the fairy-tale fantasy of the land in which there is nourishment in abundance lies
the experience of ever-recurring famine)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
The Land of Cockaigne
Le Pays de Cocagne
1567
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

44. While feast scenes in the High Renaissance depicted gods or nobles,
Dutch artists in the 17th Century turned to domestic scenes,
sometimes with a moralizing gaze.
Steen’s revelers indulge in just about every sin imaginable:
the man in black is trying to seduce the serving maid,
the woman is so busy getting her drink on that she doesn’t notice she’s trampling
a bible underfoot.
and
the large ham of this feast, it’s been abandoned on the floor, ready to be eaten
by the family cat.
Jan Steen
The Dissolute Household
La Maisonnée dissolue
1663-1664
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

48. three children playing the flute for a drinking party attended
by three toothless old men ...
a well-stocked table
a family of good burghers from Antwerp
(... the owl is a reference to death and the succession of generations ?)
Jacob Jordaens
As the Old Sing, So the Young Pipe
Les jeunes piaillent comme chantent les vieux
1638-1640
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes

51. A well-deserved meal ...
a simple family gathered together after a hard day at work to eat potatoes for dinner,
as they had nothing else.
Van Gogh used earthy browns and greens to show the peasants’ connection
to the earth and the potatoes they had dug up themselves.
Vincent van Gogh
The Potato Eaters
Les Mangeurs de pommes de terre
april 1885
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

54. A meal that combines oysters and coffee ...
three characters indifferent to each other,
combat weapons,
and
a black cat
Édouard Manet
Le Déjeuner dans l'atelier
Luncheon in the Studio
1868
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

57. a table laid with care, the glasses and decanters catch and reflect the light ...
a solemn moment of a family meal
an intimate scene,
a bourgeois interior
figures absorbed in their activity
Gustave Caillebotte
Le Déjeuner
The lunch
1876
Collection privée

60. The fruit, wine, and glasses on the table indicate that lunch is over ...
a group of boaters relaxing after a meal in Chatou, a popular vacation spot
situated on a small island in the River Seine.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Le Déjeuner au bord de la rivière (Les Canotiers)
Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch)
1875
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

63. A basket of fruit, a round loaf of bread
and
a nude woman casually lunching with two fully dressed men ...
…
A naked lady wouldn’t normally shock a 19th-century gentleman
if she looked like Venus or was called Danae.
But a naked lady who looked like a contemporary French courtesan,
who moreover sat in the company of clad men, was simply outrageous.
In addition, she looked directly at the viewer, as if challenging him.
That was too much for the French Salon.
The painting was rejected.
Édouard Manet
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
Luncheon on the Grass
1863
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

67. good food, good wine,
good company
and
good nature …
a group of Renoir´s friends relaxing and enjoying food, drinks
and good conversation on balcony overlooking the Seine
at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou.
There’s plenty of wine left in the bottles,
and they’ve saved a place for us at the table …
It is impossible to ignore the most famous lunch in nineteenth-century painting !
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Le Déjeuner des canotiers
Luncheon of the Boating Party
1880-1881
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

70. Art of the Feast … in European paintings
L'art de la fête … dans les peintures européennes
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