Pieter Bruegel and the Culture of the Early Modern Dinner Party

ISBN-13: 9780754667322 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 188 str.

Claudia Goldstein

Opis

Mining a rich, interdisciplinary mix of sources, including stoneware jugs, personal correspondence, paintings, inventories, and literature written for the dining room, this study offers a critical and entirely original examination of the function of early modern images for the people who owned and viewed them. The study explores the emergence, functions and material culture of the Antwerp dinner party during the heady days of the mid-sixteenth century, when Antwerp's art market was thriving and a new wealthy, non-noble class dominated the city. The author recontextualizes some of Bruegel's work within the cultural nexus of the dining room, where material culture and theatrical performance met humanist wit and the desire for professional advancement. The narrative also touches on the reception of Northern art in Lombardy, on intersections among painting, material culture, and theater, and on intellectual history.

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction: private parties and public life; Opulent precedents: Jerome de Busleyden’s humanist banquets; Wine, beer, and butter: Jan Noirot’s dining room and social life at the Antwerp Mint; The dinner party as performance; Sea gods battle and peasants dance: the material culture of the Antwerp dinner party; Antwerp and beyond: envisioning the early modern dining room; Select bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Claudia Goldstein is an Associate Professor of Art History at William Paterson University, USA.