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 incidental picnic. At the time, there was no word for a picnic; it […] read more

Titian’s The Bacchanal of the Andrians has the appearance of a picnic devoted to drinking. Sometimes called The Stream of Wine on the Island of Andros, it relates the miracle in which spring water is transformed into wine. In the foreground, the legend on the sheet music informs the viewer, “Who drinks and does not […] read more

Brant illustrates Aeneas and his crew a regular luncheon meal set at a table. Aeneas sits in a chair (left), listening to his son Ascanius say, “See, we devour the plates which we fed.” See Sebastian Brant. Works of Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maronis Opera]. Strasbourg: Johann Grüninger 1502; http://spiritoftheages.com/Vergil%20-%20”Opera”%20(1502).htm Featured Image: Master of the Aeneid Legend […] read more

Daniel Hopfer’s Tafelnde Bauern beim dorflichen Fest, or Peasants at Table at a Rustic Festival, also called a kermesse, may celebrate a patron saint, though in this instance, it seems secular, most likely a celebration of spring. Hopfer illustrates the shift in decorum as the peasants are released from the winter cold, darkness, and food […] read more

Veronese’s Moses Rescued from the Water is a fête champêtre, and Pharaoh’s daughter enjoys alfresco entertainment. Surrounded by courtiers and ladies waiting, Pharaoh’s daughter’s pleasantries are interrupted when Miriam presents her with the infant Moses. The scene is picnicky in mood and not as serious as one might expect for such a momentous and serious […] read more

Fouilloux’s La Venerie, aka Hunting, differs from Gaston’s 1389 description (See Le livre de chasse). Accordingly, the assemblée is replaced with un repas chasse, a hunters’ lunch attended only by men.  However, when George Gascoigne adapted La Venerie for his The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting (1575), he included Elizabeth I, an avid hunter, […] read more

Gascoigne adapted Gaston Phébus’s The Book of the Hunt (1380) and Jacques du Fouilloux’s in La Venerie (1560) into English, retitling the work The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting (1575). (The book is dedicated to Lord Clinton, Elizabeth’s master of Hart Hounds.) Borrowing from Fouilloux’s illustration in La Venerie, Gascoigne depicted the hunters’ assemblée […] read more

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 instance, Valckenborch has no word for it, a picnic, at least that I know of. Leaving confines […] read more

  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, and food and drink are abundant. Het Luilekkerland means “the lazy luscious […] read more

Cranach’s paintings often conflate the spiritual and erotic, particularly The Fountain of Youth and The Golden Age, both completed in 1546.  The subjects seem pagan, but his friendship with Martin Luther deeply influenced Cranach. The Fountain of Youth narratives the myth of the old arrive decrepit, bath, and emerge youthful, sexually active, and hungry. Cranach […] read more

When Alfonso d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, and his wife Lucrezia Borgia asked for a painting expressing worldly delights, drinking, and sensuality, Giovanni Bellini could not refuse the offer, though he was eighty-five and in failing health. The Feast of the Gods [Il festino degli dei] is an illustration of one of Ovid’s many Priapic […] read more

Inspired by Giovanni Bellini’s The Feast of the Gods, Lorenza De’ Medici created this menu forth Artist’s Table (1995). De Medici promises foods are full of the flavor of the Renaissance. But it’s difficult to imagine Bellini or his patrons Alfonso d’Este, the Duke to Ferrara and his wife Lucrezia Borgia dining on Spuma di Tonno […] read more

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 waiting to begin a feast. This a formal gathering fully catered […] read more

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 a white robe, and Vice, in a transparent robe revealing […] read more

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 architecture is not like the Duke of […] read more

Piero’s primary resource is Ovid’s Metamorphoses (XII). Ovid does not mention the wedding guests dining alfresco in a picnic style. But Piero prominently depicts a white embroidered picnic cloth in the center of the composition. In other details, Piero is faithful to Ovid’s narrative. He situates the feast in the open and not in a […] read more

Merienda first appears in the anonymous picaresque novel The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes in 1554, * ninety-five years before the French word pique-nique in 1649. It is used to denote a snack. But when Francesco de Quevedo uses merienda in El Buscon (The Swindler), it is a luncheon in the park at which hot […] read more