ERASMUS + FOOD ON CANVAS RENAISSANCE. The Renaissance is a period from the 15th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and.

ERASMUS +

FOOD ON CANVAS

RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance is a period from the 15th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern history.

It started as a cultural movement in northern Italy and cities like Florence, Genova, Bologna and Venice in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe.

T h e R e n a i s s a n c e i n P o r t u g a l

T h e P o r t u g u e s e R e n a i s s a n c e r e f e r s t o t h e c u l t u r a l a n d a r t i s t i c m o v e m e n t i n P o r t u g a l d u r i n g t h e 1 5 t h , 1 6 t h a n d 1 7 t h c e n t u r i e s .

T h e R e n a i s s a n c e h a d a m o d e s t i m p a c t i n P o r t u g u e s e a r t s a n d m a d e P o r t u g a l m o r e h u m a n i s t p u t t i n g t h e h u m a n b e i n g “ a t t h e c e n t e r o f t h e u n i v e r s e ”

M a n u e l i n e s t y l e o r L a t e G o t h i c w a s t h e c o r r e c t d e fi n i t i o n f o r t h i s A r t p e r i o d i n o u r c o u n t r y.

Basket with cherries, cheese and pottery jars (1670-1680), Josefa de Óbidosoil on canvas 50x110cm, Private collection, Lisbon, Portugal

Josefa de Ayala Figueira (Josefa D’ Óbidos) was a Spanish-

born, Portuguese painter (1630-1684). She was part of the Late

Gothic art in Portugal.

She was known for her still life paintings with food items and

her love for religion, mainly due to her three year stay in a

Monastery and a strict religious education.

In this particular painting Josefa D’Óbidos depicted some typical

Portuguese food items like cheese and “tigeladas”, a kind of

dessert baked in the oven with a great amount of eggs, flour,

brown sugar, honey and lemon.

The table looks organised, clean and full of calm and

harmony which could be related to the painter’s connection

to religious imagery.

FOOD IN THE RENAISSANCE

MEAT

Meat was very popular during the Renaissance,

even though the poor didn't have it often. The

meat back then was very spicy, so it was extremely

salted to hide the spicy flavor. Meat was usually

served in ragouts or pottages which was good for

dealing with preserved meat.

Cucina

Vincenzo Campi

Possibly 1580-90, Cremona, Lombardy

Oil on canvas

Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Mila,

Vincenzo Campi (Cremona, Italy 1536 — 1591). He was known for his various

painting of still life (vegetables, fruit and food). In this case he painted a kitchen

scene which was more typical of Dutch painters.

The kitchen (cucina) belonged to the network of service spaces - from pantries to

wine cellars - that kept the house supplied with food and drink.

Many servants rarely left the kitchens, and the woman of the house paid frequent

visits to supervise their work.

This Kitchen scene shows us a lot of life and action happening at the

same time. Women and men , probably servants, are preparing the animal meat

before it is cooked and there are a couple of pets as well, making this a typical

domestic scene, probably in the kitchen of a noble family, for whom so much meat

would be something common on special dates.

The Renaissance was a period of Discoveries as

Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas

during the 14th century.

A variety of vegetables, spices and fruit were

introduced, which made the European kitchen

hungrier for more new tastes and flavors.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

The rich usually had more fruit than the poor, but they

both had it. Preserved fruit was the closest thing to "sweets"

that there was. The season for fruit was short, so the fruit was

either preserved "wet" or "dry", wet meaning it would be made

into marmalade, and dry for example, it would be like orange

peels. The vegetables were usually preserved in brine or

vinegar. The most common vegetables were leeks,

cauliflower, artichokes and chicory.

B A C C H U S , C A R AVA G G I O C . 1 5 9 7 ; O I L O N C A N VA S , 3 7 3 / 8 X 3 3 1 / 2 I N ; U F F I Z I , F L O R E N C E

Michelangelo Merisi (or Amerighi) da Caravaggio (1517-1610) was an

Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1592 and 1610.

His paintings, which combine realistic observation of the human state, both

physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative

influence of Baroque painting.

The painting shows a youthful Bacchus reclining in classical fashion

with grapes and vine leaves in his hair. On a stone table in front of him is

a bowl of fruit and a large carafe of red wine; with his left hand he

holds out to the viewer a shallow goblet of the same wine, apparently

invinting the viewer to join him.

V E R T U M N U S , A R C I M B O L D OA P O R T R A I T D E P I C T I N G R U D O L F I I , H O L Y R O M A N E M P E R O R

P A I N T E D A S V E R T U M N U S , T H E R O M A N G O D O F T H E S E A S O N S , C . 1 5 9 0 - 1 . S K O K L O S T E R C A S T L E , S W E D E N .

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) was an Italian painter

best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of

food items, such as fruit, vegetables, flowers, fish.

In this painting Arcimboldo mixes a variety of fruit with a

classical Roman Empire figure, typical of Renaissance art. He

created Rudolph’s image as the character of the Vertumnus, the

God of plant life, growth and the change of seasons, compiled of

fresh fruit and vegetables.

SEASONS FOR FOODSSeason plays a big part on food. One does not get

lamb in August, or fresh artichokes in March.

Strawberries are intense, but brief in in pleasure in

June. Meats are seasonal too. Pigs get slaughtered in

December and their remains get served as sausage,

bacon, etc. and are eaten until spring. Spring is the

most difficult season for food because the food that was

harvested in the late summer and Autumn and is

often gone and it would be too early to grow crops, but

then lamb season comes quick. This would be the food

that both the rich and the poor would have back then in

the renaissance.

T H E P E A S A N T W E D D I N GB R U E G E L

1 5 6 8 – N E T H E R L A N D SK U N S T H I S T O R I S C H E S M U S E U M , V I E N N A

Pieter Bruegel was born in Anthuerp in1525, he died on September 9,

1569.

He was born in Anthuerp but he spent some time in France and Italy and

then in 1551 he was accepted as a master in the painter’s guild. He

travelled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in

Brussels permanently 10 years later.

He was a Dutch Renaissance painter known for his landscape and

peasant scenes.

He painted scenes of everyday life such as this painting, full of warmth and life while

describing a peasant wedding with different types of food (meat, cheese or the typical beer

of Anthuerp)

In Renaissance dining, fruit is essentially an important element in completing a fine

meal. Usually served last in forms of marmalades or salads or what we call now as

desserts. The term “dessert” was not used during those times as it carries with it a point for

debate. “Dessert” was simply called the last meal course. This rose into popularity when sugar

became more available for European consumers as new crops of sugarcanes were brought in

from the Americas. On the painting a large tray of puddings is being served to the

wedding guests

The Royal Feast (1579), Sanchez CoelloOil on canvas, Warsow Museum

A L O N S O S A N C H E Z C O E L L O ( 1 5 3 1 - 1 5 8 8 ) .

This Spanish painter travelled to Portugal in his youth where he

started his artistic education working for the king João III. The

king enjoyed the painter’s work and sent him to Flanders where he

had the opportunity to work with the Spanish painter António Moro.

Then he went back to Spain and became the personal painter of

Filipe II who later became a King of Portugal.

He became famous for his royal portraits and depiction of

noble life scenes.

The Royal Feast represents a meal of Filipe II’s and his court.

Fruit items, such as pears and grapes, bread and wine are

depicted in this painting making every guest’s delights. One of the

nobles seems to be serving soup and fish to the king.

We can see sophisticated plates with golden details, revealing

all the wealth of the Spanish court due to South American Empire.

T H E L A S T S U P P E R - P A I N T E D B Y L E O N A R D O D A V I N C I 1 4 9 5 - 1 4 9 7 .

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)was a famous Italian painter , scientist, inventor and polymath.

Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded

him by Francis.

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination.

One of da Vinci’s most famous paintings, which is also the most famous dinner party of all

time, was based on the time when Jesus Christ revealed in the middle of a meal that

one of his apostles had betrayed him.

According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the event takes place at

Passover, a time when lamb would normally be served, but scripture is silent on the

menu for this particular seder.

.Emphasysing religious figures and details it seems the artist didn’t pay much attention

to the meal itself and all one can understand is the presence of bread, meat and wine.

UTENSILS

In the Renaissance, kitchen and table utensils were quite basic and

table manners were mainly a matter of the nobles. There were some cutlery

items, like knives and a few forks, but most of the time people ate using their

bare hands.

Even in large kitchens, the equipment was quite basic. The most important

item was the mortar (ancestor of the modern blender), used for grinding and

mixing all sorts of ingredients. But there were also pastry cutters to make

pies, terracotta pots for slow braising and spits for roasting meat. Few

of these survive, and most come from archaeological excavations.

BODEGÓN Francisco de Zurbarán 1636

F R A N C I S C O D E Z U R B A R Á N ( 1 5 9 8 - 1 6 6 4 ) .

As a child he showed a talent for painting and he was sent to

Seville in 1614 to apprentice with the artist Pedro Diaz Villanueva.

Years later he became a painter in Seville and at the time, religious

orders were a significant source of work for artists.

In fact, the majority work of this Spanish painter followed religious

themes.

Many of his theologically inspired paintings are simple, yet

emotionally compelling, works that show his naturalistic style, as

well as his skilled use of light and shadow.

Zurbarán's few secular pieces include exquisite still life

images, such as “Bodegon- Still Life with Pottery Jars”( the one we

chose) "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose" (1633), and a

"Labors of Hercules" series painted for the Buen Retiro Palace in

Madrid.

The term bodegon comes from the Spanish word “bodega” which

translates to “pantry”, “tavern”, or “wine cellar”. In art, bodegon

refers to the depiction of household objects like vases, flowers,

fruit, game and other foods and utensils.

In Spanish art, Bodegón is a still life with pottery jars depicting

pantry items, such as victuals, game and drink, often arranged on

a simple stone slab, and also a painting with one or more figures, but

significant still life elements, typically set in a kitchen.

ERASMUS +

Work done by:

Cristian Martea

Francisco Pedro

João Gil

Martim Gonçalves

Nuno Faria

Rodrigo Dias

Teresa Soares Carneiro

Tiago Osório