I went to the National Gallery Early Renaisance Galleries (No51 to 65) to look for food imagery as a way of exploring the history of ideas about food and in particular friuit. So what do you find on such a search?
In the early rooms there are images relating to birth or St John the Baptist and Salome. In the later rooms images of the virgin, with reminders of the role of Eve in original sin symbolised by orchard fruit in bowers and cornucopia around her. So these slightly later pictures with a stronger influence from classical
culture and the relationship of the birth of Jesus to the virgin and her role in redeming us from that sin, and then the virgin offering a pomegranate to the baby: Symbolising her knowledge of his later suffering.
So the food that is present is not for sustenance but symbolic, and representing female sexuality, bodiliness and sin. Thinking back to the aspiration voiced in Bee Wilson’s book to gain a healthy relationship with food based on pleasure and without associated guilt, it is important to recognise just how old, and embedded the ideas of guilt, sexuality, sin, femininity and food are. They are biblical in origin.
In the galleries representing the earliest part of this period the images of food were very rare. The paintings are largely early Christian, lots of beautiful gilding work, where the red bole can be seen emerging from behind the, now cracked, hundreds of year old gold surfaces which were originally made on wood.
But the food? Where was it? Can its noticeable absence can be explained by the reliogious ideas of the time, seperating the spiritual from the corporal: It was the spiritual is being celebrated here. And the dominant idea of the masculine as spiritual and feminine as corporal .
So I was thinking about the role of fruit to represent sexuality and sin in Christian iconography, and the way this dominated medieval thought. Original sin is after all represented by an apple (or perhaps any orchard fruit) offered by Eve to Adam and the dominance of original sin in religiosity and in determining the role of women in the Church, and in this early stage very linked to medieval thinking.
The few images of food in these paintings were largely associated with child birth so that in the birthing chamber scenes that were depited and the preparation of food for the mother can be seen. This is where the corporal and spiritual meet, in the magical virgin birth and the images of food are minor details in small panels. But also perhaps a reminder of the link between suffering in birth and original sin and food as a symbol of that sin.
The other images of food are in the early galleries are associated with St John the baptist, where the food is short hand for bodily indulgence and sinfulness and again associated with the corporal and sinful tempting feminine. In “The Assencion of John the Evangelist” Giovanni del Pomnte 1383-1437 one of the minor images on the frame there is a figure who appears to be holding three gilded fruit on a plate probably referring to the dinner that lead to St John’s demise perhaps? In the image in room 52 both these motifs can be found in the minor panel of Pietro’s “The Baptism of Christ with the Saints” 1387. There is an image of on the lower right hand panel of the feast table with the head of John the Baptist, and of a woman in bed being fed after the birth of her child. The other incidents of portrayal of food in this gallery are images depicting more clearly the dinner which leads to the beheading of St John the Baptist at the request of the dancer Salome, who is the biblical embodyment of female sexuality as an agent of revenge. So original sin and then later biblical sin.
And then we get to the 1400s and the van Eyke’s “Potrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife” 1434. This is the first image without a Christian religious narrative. This painting celebrates material power and wealth and features some beautifully painted oranges and a lemon sitting on the windowsill among all the other potent symbols in the painting of wealth and power. These oranges were rare in Northern Europe at the time, a symbol not only of the wealth of the sitters, but also of the sophistication of the painter, a boast maybe that he had travelled to Southern Europe and seen them growing, and also an indicator of change, in trade and farming across Europe. (Carola Hicks*) so here we have food as power. A celebration of knowledge, and a shift in knowledge as positive power.
So in later galleries galleries we can see the change that came about through the influence of the pagan images of ancient Rome, where fertility was celebrated as a good thing, fruit representing that abundance. This is coupled with the rising symbolism of Mary’s role in the redemption of Christain women through motherhood of Jesus. The beauty of the fruit in the images of the Visitation and of images of Mary as the mother of Jesus appear. And we have the exhultation of the asexual mother-woman Mary with Jesus as redeemers.
So perhaps the early absence of food depiction is more to do with the placement of food stuffs firmly in the feminine realm, which appears to have been understood to be essentially material and sinful. These stories would be familiar to medieval and early renaissance people, and their symbolism would have been clear. The later images perhaps illustrate changing thought, with an increaing emphasis on redemption, and the exploration of the material and knowledge as more acceptable.
As we go through the 1400s and images of the Virgin decorated with fruit appear, classical imagery is used, so that cornucopia and fruit are embedded in the images of Mary emphasising her fertility in a new way where there is repeated use of pears, quince, some kind of gourd and peaches, they are notably orchard fruit. Is the presence of the gourd or cucumber a symbol of purity and Chirst(Riley2016)? Are the orchard fruits reminders of the exchange Mary is making in repressing her sexuality and suffering the birth and loss of Jesus in making up for original sin? These are particularly prevalent in the paintings of Cosimo Tura 1431-1495 and Carlo Crivelli 1430-1494. Is this the virgin transformed into an albeit asexual fertility goddess? At least in the imagery the influence of ancient Rome is clear but perhaps not the symbolism.
And yet we are still not clear of the association of femnine sinfulness or suffering and fruit: Delilah cuts Sampsons hair under a bower of grapes in Room 61, and the same artist includes images of fruit with St John the Baptist wherever he goes. And this use of food boding ill persists across the room in Bellini’s image of the virgin and child passing a pomegranate between them, a symbol of Passion. Mary knows that her child will suffer, her passion is her love for God which overides her wish to protect her child. His Passion in the sense of the suffering of Christ leading up to his death. So this is suffering but moral suffering.
It’s still dangerous this fruit, consistently dangerous, feminine fertile and sinful. Even in portrayals of childbirth, which was itself the biggest danger a woman of the time faced, birth was seen as the punishment given to women in payment for their role in original sin so is the food here a reminder of that?
So here we are in the 21st century, and food is still a marker of material wealth, a power show, associated with desirable life styles(as in the Arnolfini). Disfunctional
relationships with food are still tied up with ideas of guilt and sin “naughty foods” but usually with fruit and veg presented as good or healthy. And debates around food are often presented in moral (moralistic) terms, and as an extension of that so is health. To change this discourse, and to create functional relationships with food within this environment of plenty requires an understanding of where these ideas originate. To change this discourse, and to create functional relationships with food within this environment of plenty requires an understanding of where these ideas originate. Food should be seen in relation to health and pleasure rather than sin. Over consumption and waste as unhealthy and dangerous for the environment rather than evil.
