THE ART OF THE TABLE: FEASTS AND FANTASY / ABOVE THE SALT

At the heart of the home, whether rich or poor, is a fascination with food, and this shared experience not only provides the perfect opportunity to flaunt wealth and status through elaborate artefacts, but also illustrates shifting fashions and styles of eating. Through the centuries food and its rituals have provided a consistent theme for artists to celebrate, to analyse their world and even to develop complex ideas of morality. For the medieval and Christian world, bread and wine are the emblems of faith, in 17th century Spain and Holland still-life painting captures the prosperity of the age, and in the 19th century the informality of cafes and bars illustrates the arrival of a new social and urban order.

From the medieval refectory to the complex arts of Mrs Beeton, styles of eating and the artefacts of the table demonstrate fashion and status. The arrival of the fork, condemned as impious by the Church, the sumptuous salt cellars of the Renaissance, the impact of mass production, which enabled Wedgwood and others to create fine tableware for a new market, all mark stages in the developing ritual and sophistication of the meal. Through painting and the decorative arts, we examine settings and trappings to explore the experience of eating over the centuries.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund