The Art of Advent: Day 6

For day number six of HASTA’s Art of Advent Calendar we have another ‘Top 10’ by Anna Niederlander. Anna has compiled the ten most mouth watering paintings of one of the most important parts of the festive period - food! Enjoy these amazing depictions of all things delicious…but it might be a good idea to wait until your lunch break or your stomach will definitely start to rumble!

Arguably nothing beats Christmas dinner… The whole family bickering at the table, Christmas music playing in the background, and so so much comfort food. Food is not only the substance that keeps us going, but also a means that brings people together. 

Two of my favourite things to talk about are.. food and art. So here are my top ten artworks that revolve around food. 

No. 1 Mound of Butter by Antoine Vollon (1875-85)

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I deeply apologize to anyone who is reading this who is lactose intolerant, but to me nothing beats fresh creamy full fat butter, and there is no better painting that depicts this. Antoine Vollon was a French Realist painter, best known for his still life paintings. Vollon uses the oil paint in a layered and textured manner, in order to creative the allusion of thick and rich allusion of butter. One almost feels as he used butter itself as the medium to paint this work. While today we are used to seeing butter come in a plastic container, in Vollon’s day, this is how butter looked like when one got it from the farmer, and then was wrapped up in cheesecloth and kept in a cool place. As Sebastian Smee from The Washington Post stated, “Only one question remains: Who’ll fetch the bread?” 

No. 2 Pastry Case I (1961-62) by Claes Oldenburg 

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Oldenburg is an artist known for his humorous reconstruction of everyday objects. Using plater and paint he has created a plate of frosted cookies, two Sundays, a cake, an oversized rack or ribs, and a half eaten caramel apple pie, all framed within a pastry case. He exported still life from painting to sculpture. The pastry case is filled with the kind of food one would see in the deli or diner. The actual pastry case he puts his art into is one which one could buy at the time. Also, the plates and metal dishes are also those typical in a diner at the time. As the artist himself said, “I am interested in objects that revolve around food and clothing, and I think that has to do with my interest in myself and other human beings… The whole basis of my work is about my relation to my surroundings.” As is common of the pop art movement, he focused on items in popular culture. Here he affectionately portrays food, however one also feels as though he is mocking consumerism at the same time. Oldenburg creates a calculated balance between irony and affection in his references to American Culture. 

No. 3 Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples, c. 1893

As one of his six still life’s produced in 1899 in his Parisian studio that all feature the same objects, it demonstrates his meticulous study of perspective. Though the arrangement of the objects is similar to 17th century Flemish still life’s, Cezanne approaches this still life in his dual perspective style. In order to truly see the real object as it is, an artist must depict it as a human would see it, not from one angle, but through time and space, thus introducing multiple perspective onto one canvas.

No. 4 The Milkmaid (1957-1958) by Johannes Vermeer 

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Done in oil, Vermeer depicts a milkmaid in an photographic realistic way. This work demonstrates Vermeer’s commitment to carefully crafted compositions. The right triangle formed by the figure and the table are balanced within the rectangle of canvas shape. He also selects a relatively low vantage point, that emphasized the milkmaids height and puts her in a position of power. According to the Rijksmuseum, the painting "is built up along two diagonal lines. They meet by the woman's right wrist." This focuses the attention of the viewer on the pouring of the milk. Also, in much Dutch literature and paintings at that time, milk maids were often depicted as subjects of male desire, however here Vermeer depicts the maid as a empathetic and dignified figure. However he still uses traditional symbols which would be instantly recognized at the time. For example, he includes a footwarmer box in the bottom right corner of the canvas, a symbol used frequently to suggest desire in Dutch genre painting at the time. 

No. 5 Summer at Emmaus (1602) by Caravaggio

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This work is Caravaggio’s first work where he uses his famous intense contrast of light and shadow. It depicts the intense moment when after Christ breaks the bread and pronounces the blessing, just as he had done during the last supper, the disciples recognize who he is. The dramatic expressions of the outstretched arms of the man on the right and the man clutching his chair, reveal their shock. Christ’s outstretched hand and that of the man on the right, almost reach into the viewers space, making us feel as though we are sitting at the table with them and making us part of the miracle itself. To add to this, Caravaggio places the basket half on and half off the table closest to us, and one feels as though it is about to fall off. It is almost as if Caravaggio is asking us to catch the basket when it falls. 

No. 6 Still Life with Cheese (1615) by Floris Claesz. Van Dijck

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Using oil on panel Van Dijck depicts fruit, bread, cheese is arranged on a costly damask tablecloth. The pewter plate extending over the edge of the table, like in  Caravaggio’s Summer at Emmaus (1602) looks like it is about to fall.  Further, this work’s sense of clarity and precision, demonstrates how Van Dijck was one of the pioneers of Dutch still life. He has elevated Wine and Cheese night to a whole new level.  

No. 7 Vertumnus (1590) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

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Here Archimboldo depicts the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, who the artist has portrayed as the eponymous Roman god of the seasons, growth, gardens, fruit trees and metamorphosis in nature. He uses fruits and vegetables from all four seasons, including apples, pears, grapes, cherries, plums, pomegranates, figs, beans, peas, corn, onions, artichokes and olives to represent prosperous agriculture. Interestingly, this work acts almost as a propaganda work. The portrait flatters the Emperor, who was the patron of this work and much of Archimboldo for eleven years. He was not a popular ruler, and this portrait that connoted godliness, power and prosperity as meant to improve his image.  

No. 8 Freedom from Want (1943) by Norman Rockwell 

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Freedom from Want is the third in a series of four oil paintings entitled Four Freedoms by Norman Rockwell. They were inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's January 1941 address to Congress in which he listed four basic and universal human rights — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear and freedom from want. The table with all the food, and not the people, take up the majority of the canvas, creating an unusual composition at the time. A multigenerational family gathers as the grandmother is placing the turkey on the table and the grandfather stands behind. As Lennie Bennett stated in Tampa Bay Times“The painting is about freedom from want, not freedom for excess, and the idea of the joy in sharing what we have with those we love.” 

No. 9 A Glass and a Half (2018-2019)by Flora Yukhnovich.

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One can presume this work depicts a group of people lounging in a field endiulding is food, as is a common subject matter in the works in Rococo art, which heavily inspires Yukhnovich’s work. Though this work does not obviously showcase food, the way the Yukhnovich applies paint creates a creaminess texture that reminds one of food. As Yukhnovich states, “I think most of my ideas come from consumerism. I like the idea of foodieness. There is something alluring about that and repugnant at the same time.”

No. 10 Welcome to the World’s Famous Brands (2008) by Luo Brothers 

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The Luo Brothers are known for their political pop art that uses symbols and characters such as oversized fast food, smiling babies and graphic Chinese suns. Made of fiberglass resin this sculpture of a baby holding a burger the size of itself.  “Their work is meant to serve as a barometer of the socio-economic and cultural change in China rather than a critique of either Communism or Capitalism” 

Sources used: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/entertainment/antoine-vollon-mound-of-butter/

https://plazalondon.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/claes-oldenburgs-store-1961/

https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/270/3513

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/czanne-the-basket-of-apples

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/milk/hd_milk.htm

https://www.caravaggio.org/supper-at-emmaus-1602.jsp

http://www.artnet.com/artists/luo-brothers/

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/rethinking-the-rococo-painter-flora-yukhnovich-adds-a-contemporary-twist#.

https://www.tampabay.com/features/visualarts/freedom-from-want-and-norman-rockwell-are-about-more-than-nostalgia/1261746/

Hessel, Katy. Interview with Flora Yukhnovich. The Great Women Artists Podcast. Podcast audio. May 20,2020. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/flora-yukhnovich/id1480259187. 

HASTA