Picnic and death are paradoxical, sometimes. In their search for interest and inventiveness, filmmakers are keen to include death at a picnic. Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal is set during a time of plague when death is rife. Agnes Varda’s Happiness is...
Picnicking and war are antithetical. But for artists and writers, the contrast is a powerful incentive to evoke interest and recognition of the paradox. Edwin Landseer’s A Dialogue at Waterloo contrasts Wellington’s return to Waterloo with peasants...
Anderson’s rooftop is an example of the urban version of tar beach. For another example, see Ringgold’s Tar Beach. See Carlos Anderson Sunshine Canyon (1943c.)
Suds. Hamptons, New York, and Paris. Money. Two middle-aged beauties find romance and love. Perfect beach house. Perfect weather, Perfect wine. Aw shucks. “Erica and Harry sit on a blanket on a cloudy day, having a picnic lunch. Harry is telling Erica a story, and she...
Terrence Young’s picnic in From Russia With Love does not happen in Ian Fleming’s novel. It’s inconsequential, shaken but not stirred. Young’s picnic begins when Bond and his current lover, Sylvia Trench, are punting in a boat on /River Cherwell in Oxford. It’s...
The feast that decorates Vibia’s resembles a picnic. Her life story is painted in an indented arch. In a comic strip style, Vibia journeys through Hades to Elysium at her death. On the left, Vibia is being led through an archway labeled Inductio by Good Angel, Angelus...
The Garden of Paradise recasts in a contemporary Hortus Conclusus as an allegory of life before the Fall. Tucked into a protected garden, free from original sin, homage the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus are at ease. The secluded garden offers serenity in a busy...
Xenophon’s Memorabilia of Socrates (371BCE) tells that when Hercules was approaching manhood, he was given a choice of a life of pleasure or a life of Virtue. While sitting at a crossroads and considering his future, he is approached by two immortal women, Virtue, in...
Van Orley’s The Month of June is part of a series of tapestries called The Hunts of Maximilian [Les Chasses de Maximilien. The June episode depicts an elaborate Orley halt on the hunt [halte de chasse]at which Archduke Maximillian (later Emperor of Austria) is...
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...
