Still Life | The Rambling Epicure

Food Writing Prompts: The Morality of Plenty

Published by Elatia Harris + Friday, July 25, 2014 Permalink 1

The Morality of Plenty

Splendid Food — Does it Have a Moral Dimension?

by Elatia Harris

In The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, Simon Schama tells of the sickening tensions produced in 17th-century Amsterdam when far too much in the way of material goods sat badly with an ethic that twinned virtue and thrift. The Dutch were suddenly able to have anything they could name, from anywhere in the known world. Immediately, they began ascribing sinfulness to certain new foodstuffs, candied fruit being high on their long list of gruesome luxuries.

Dutch painting of the 17th century illuminates a question familiar to us now: Has splendor beyond dreaming no moral dimension? Paintings such as this — Still Life, by Adriaen van Utrecht, painted in 1644 and now in the Rijksmuseum — both celebrate and condemn the expanding sensual world, full of the transient beauty that distracts without sustaining, but that so delights us. We too know that struggle, that makes it hard to think of the rarest and most wondrous foods without ambivalence.

For a writer, is it a matter of tone? Or one of content?

Elatia Harris is a writer and consulting editor in Cambridge, Mass. She is most often at work on books and articles about food, wine and travel. Contact her at elatiaharrisATgmailDOTcom or via text at 617-599-7159.

Food Art: Lute and Fruit, by Henri Matisse

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, February 14, 2014 Permalink 0

Food Art: Lute and Fruit, by Henri Matisse

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, February 3, 2014 Permalink 0

Food Art: Still Life with Mouse, by Giovanna Garzoni (Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1600-1670), Rome

Garzone was one the first women painters to paint still lifes. Collectors loved her work, and she was able to immediately sell all she produced at just about any price she named. Garzone painted on vellum. She worked mainly for aristocratic patrons, such as the Medici family, and often took decorating commissions in their villas and palaces. She was most likely influenced by Jacopo Ligozzi, who was a botanical and zoological painter for the Medici court. Garzoni bequeathed all her work to the painters’ guild in Rome, the Accademia di San Luca, in exchange for the right to be buried there. Source: Getty Museum

Food Art: Still Life with Pears, Apricots and Grapes III

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 26, 2013 Permalink 0

Food Art: Still Life with Pears, Apricots and Grapes III, a Painting by Mia Brownell

Still Life with Pears, Apricots
and Grapes III, by Mia Brownell.

Mia Brownell, Still Life with Pears, Apricots and Grapes III, 2006, Giclée print, courtesy of the artist, New Rochelle, New York. See more at Art State.

Big pears, little pears

Food Art: Still Life with Geraniums, painting by Henri Matisse

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, June 21, 2013 Permalink 0

Still Life with Geraniums, by Henri Matisse

Food Art: Still Life with Geraniums, painting by Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse painted “Still Life With Geranium” in 1906, when he was considered the “King of Fauvism.”It was the first Matisse painting to be purchased for a public exhibition.

An everyday subject matter is depicted in primary colors, thus infusing it with energy and emotion. At the same time, it resembles traditional decorative art.

Matisse was the leader of the Fauvist movement, and used vivid, primary colors long before his contemporaries. The colors always lent a sense of turbulent emotion to his work.

The term “Fauve” means literally “wild beast”. Another prominent member of this movement was André Derain.

Food Art: Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, food painting by Alexej Georgewitsch Von Jawlensky

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, June 20, 2013 Permalink 0

Food Art: Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, food painting by Alexej Georgewitsch Von Jawlensky

Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky was a Russian expressionist who lived from 1864 to 1941. “He was a key member of the New Munich Artist’s Association (Neue Künstlervereinigung München), Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group and later the Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four),” says Wikipedia. There is very little biographical information about him in Western literature.

Every artist works within a tradition. I am a native of Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to the art of old Russia, the Russian icons, Byzantine art, the mosaics in Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and to Romanesque art. All these artworks produced a religious vibration in my soul, as I sensed in them a deep spiritual language. This art was my tradition.—Alexej Georgewitsch Von Jawlensky

Food Art: The Incredible Sensuality of a Lemon, a still life painting by Ralf Heynen

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, June 5, 2013 Permalink 0

Ralf Heynen is a contemporary still life and portrait painter from the Netherlands.

The incredible twists of the lemon peel bring a particular energy to this painting. Although it appears to be simple, the lemon peel is hanging on to the pulp of the lemon itself for dear life, just by a string. Meanwhile, the lemon is staid, still, unflinching in its almost perfect roundness. It looks heavy and sure of itself as compared to the peel, which is thick and rough and “struggling” to wrench itself from the body of the fruit or “mother”.