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 in their Alabaster Chamber, a room dedicated to sensuality, drinking, and otherworldly delights.
De Medici’s menu:
Tuna Mousse/Spuma di Tonno
Wild Boar in Sweet and Sour Chocolate Sauce/Cinghiale in Dolceforte
Glazed Baby Onion with Raisins/Cipolle all’Uvetta
Spiced Cannoli/Cannolly all Spezie
Featured Image: Giovanni Bellini. The Feast of the Gods (1514/29), oil on canvas. Widener Collection. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The painting was revised by Dosso Dossi (1516) and Titian (15290), who added symbolic details identifying the guests.
See Carol Eron, ed. The Artist’s Table: A Cookbook by Master Chefs Inspired by Paintings in the National Gallery of Art (CollinsPublishers: San Francisco, 1995)