Bruegel the Elder’s The Land of Cockaigne, aka Het Luilekkerland, makes you think it’s a picnic. Not. It’s a satirical look at Cockaigne, a mythical place where it’s always spring and never winter, in which life is all play and no work,...
Valckenborch must have loved dining, food, and wine. His paintings are filled with depictions of meats, fish, and fruits, so he might be called a painter of feasting. His calendar paintings, such as the one celebrating October’s bountiful grape harvest, include an...
Valckenborch’s Spring, aka Frühlingslandschaft (Mai), depicts the new season arousing a desire for revelry after winter’s confinement. It’s part of a series of calendar paintings celebrating the months of the year and appropriate seasonal activities. Though, in this...
Feast In The Park Of The Duke Of Mantua, or Fête dans le Jardin du Duc de Mantoue, is picnicky but not a feast. The curators of the Musée des Beaux-Arts probably assigned the title. It is a garden of lovers dining alfresco in an imaginary architectural setting. The...
Trevelyon’s Miscellany is a meticulously illustrated compendium of 1608. It’s stocked with a calendar, scenes from the Bible, current events, court, political figures, costumes, fabric designs, games, dances, etc. It’s among the marvels of bookcraft...
Van de Velde’s reputation is now based on his naturalistic landscape. But he was in demand among the affluent Amsterdam community, for whom he painted many scenes of their parties, especially garden parties, of which An Elegant Company in a Garden is an exemplar. The...
Though it is unmistakably a merienda at the beach, the title given for this painting in the Pitti Palace is Landscape with Bathers. Though the seashore is a tumultuous blend of barren, jutting rocks. the focus is a serene woman dressed in red sitting on a white picnic...
Early in the 16th century, Dutch emblem books primers or handbooks for youthful aristocrats. Among the more socially and sexually suggestive of these books are The Garden of Love [Hortus Voluptatum] (1599) and New Mirror for Youth [Nieuwen ieucht spieghel] (1617),...
Napoletano’s Merenda sull’erba is a landscape with Florentines enjoying an informal outdoor lunch by a lake. Merenda is Italian for picnic, which was not coined until 1649 in Paris. The picnickers have spread their cloth in the shade. To the left, a cook works at a...
Hals’s De_buitenpartij (627) is of family and friends dining outside in the garden of their estate. It was meant to show off. Featured Image: Dirck Hals. Debuiten partij or The Fête Champetre (1627). There are two other versions of this group. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam...
