Food in Painting: From the Renaissance to the Present

(Hardback)

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Food in Painting is a sumptuous exploration of food images in European and American painting from the early Renaissance to the present. Kenneth Bendiner sees such images as a separate classification of art, with its own history, and offers novel reconsiderations of famous works by the likes of Bruegel, Rembrandt, Chardin, Manet and Warhol, and some intriguing paintings by less-well-known artists, such as Adriaen Coorte and Peter Blume. The book underlines the central importance of 16th-century innovations in food subjects, and the great influence of 17th-century Dutch food paintings in the development of food imagery. The author examines a wide range of images, such as aphrodisiacs, bottled water, Renaissance menus, anti-social eating scenes and dogs in the dining room, demonstrating how myth, religion, medical theories and traditional social privileges can determine the meaning of food imagery. He also deals with images of food that are purely symbolic, such as the sexual references of Surrealist food art, and food as a marginal element in allegories. Two attractive and engrossing subjects - eating, and handsome paintings - come together in this book. Those who want to learn about the history of food, as recorded in images, will find the book rewarding. And those who wonder what Bruegel's peasants are eating, or why Chardin decorated a brioche with an orange blossom, will find their understanding of art history enriched.

Reviews

Food in Painting loads its table with good things to see. The analysis is shrewd the commentaries incisive the illustrations except when satire or sermon appears on the painter's menu suitably mouth-watering. Bendiner shows the variety of symbolic flavours in food-themed art. However, unlike many art historians, hes not so blinded by symbolism that he fails to savour all the evidence about changes in diet, cooking and taste. A visual and mental feast. * The Independent *
. . . an intriguing and provocative study . . . Reading Bendiner's book leaves one with the general tools to consider images of food in Western art from the Renaissance to the present in relation to one another, resulting in a rewarding game for the reader/viewer and a refreshing contribution to the field of art history. * Gastronomica *
Totally refreshing and a pleasure to read . . . an extraordinary contribution. * Robert Rosenblum, New York University *

Author Bio

Kenneth Bendiner is Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is the author of An Introduction to Victorian Painting (1985) and The Art of Ford Madox Brown (1998).