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.)
Young’s picnic Russia With Love is not in Ian Fleming’s novel. Young’s picnic begins when Bond and his current lover Sylvia Trench are punting in a boat on /River Cherwell in Oxford. It’s summer. They are tied up in the shade, dressed in bathing suits, and comfortably...
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. The seashore is a tumultuous blend of barren, jutting rocks. But Carracci, the focus of which is a serene woman dressed in red sitting...
Passeri’s A Party Feasting in a Garden seems like a happy end to an alfresco luncheon. Young couples are deep in conversation, flirting, and courting, which suggests this is a garden of love. It is casual and innocent, though Passari is a moralist. Close examination...
Claude should have named his painting scampagnata (holiday in the country), merenda sull’erba, or lolazione sull’erba (picnic on the grass). But Claude enhanced Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca with a biblical allusion to Genesis, 24, the...
Pepys’s “frolique” is a euphemism for a picnic, which did not exist as a word in English. It was among his favorite ways to spend an afternoon with friends idling. It was a favorite way for him to spend an afternoon with friends idling. We know this...
