THE BREAK..... CRUST (2021) Painting by Laurence Pustoc'H.
Brief dreamlike introduction
If you have ever woken up with a jolt in the middle of the night, remembering with great accuracy the details of the rich courses of lunch, which you have just finished dreaming about, you could decide, in addition to wanting to prepare a succulent banquet for the same day, to consult the book of La Smorfia napoletana, volume inextricably linked to the Campania capital, which is used to interpret dream visions, in order to draw suggestions regarding the winning numbers to play the lottery game. Precisely according to La Smorfia, lunch, in its various facets, would lead back to different meanings and, consequently, numbers to choose to try your luck. For example: dreaming of attending a lunch means manifesting a love of comfort, an inclination that is linked to the number 23; preparing a dreamily banquet alludes to great satisfactions, to be accompanied by the bet from number 3; dreaming of making yourself beautiful to take part in a lunch means, alas, following unattainable reveries, inexorably linked to the number 8; etc. Leaving you to your bets, hoping that you will only make good use of my teachings, I intend to concentrate on the etymology and history of the term lunch, a word that in the Romance languages originates from the Latin name "prandium", which combines "prae" which means "before " and "dium" meaning "day". In ancient Rome, this term referred to the small meal eaten in the morning, just before noon, quite distinct from dinner, which was a lavish shared event eaten between three and four in the afternoon. Around the fifth century, however, breakfast was introduced as a morning meal immediately after waking up, so that midday lunch became known as "second breakfast". Over time, this last term, which had become obsolete, was replaced with that of lunch, while dinner, also called "coena" in the medieval period, gradually moved towards the evening hours. Regarding the Anglo-Saxon culture, the midday meal was often called "noon cheon" or "nuncheon", which means midday meal, a name which then evolved into the English term "lunch", while the ancient "morgen-mete" , aimed at indicating the early morning meal, was instead renamed with "breakfast". Finally, the task of closing this brief review, which wanted to analyze the custom of lunch from multiple points of view, more or less fictitious, belongs to the history of art, a discipline which, like a sort of revealed dream, made the aspect of our most secret dreamlike trips, regarding the second meal in the morning, to give it shape in the most famous masterpieces of all time.
Top 10
Nicolas Lancret, The Ham Dinner, 1735. Oil on canvas, 188 cm × 123 cm. Musée Condé, Chantilly, Oise.
10. The Ham Dinner (1735) by Nicolas Lancret
Who knows what lotto number one should play if one stumbles upon such a dream, that is, aimed at projecting us into a wild, informal, and enjoyably boisterous luncheon, in which the excesses of champagne, a clear drink generously poured into glasses by the personage almost at the center of the composition, make their effects felt on the participants in the event, pouring out, most likely, also on the attitudes of the animals, who, caught wandering, despite some squabbling between the breeds, among the broken plates and bottles in search of food, are made hopeful that the drunken state of their masters, will make them more generous in sharing their meal with them. The masterpiece in question, depicting an aristocratic ham dinner scene set in a rural setting, was devised by the inventor of the pictorial genre of the quintessential hunting meal scene, namely Lancret, who was also the author of another work of similar subject dated 1725, executed for Marquis Henri-Camille de Beringhen and housed in the Louvre Museum. The Ham Dinner, on the other hand, was commissioned in 1734 by King Louis XV, a monarch who placed the masterpiece in the dining room of the apartments of the Palace of Versailles, a destination that the work changed during the Revolution, when it was transported to the Central Museum of the Arts, the ancestor of the aforementioned Louvre. Subsequent disputes also took the masterpiece to England, although the painting managed to return to France, where it is now kept at the Château de Chantilly, currently owned by the Institut de France.
Hunting Book (15th century), folio 67, by Gaston Phébus
9. Hunting Book (15th century), folio 67, by Gaston Phébus
Sometimes dreams also take us to very distant eras, when art, eternally updated, had already immortalized the subject of lunch, just as evidenced by folio 67 of the Book of Hunting by Gaston Phébus, Count of Foix and Viscount of Béarn, who dedicated the work, made between 1387 3 1389, to the Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Hardi, disseminating a masterpiece whose mintages were intended to share the knowledge of its creator. wanted to share his knowledge about tame and wild beasts, nature, dog care, and instructions for hunting with dogs, traps, snares, and crossbows. Regarding the miniature in question, however, it illustrates a banquet on a heroic scale, that is, extended in time and courses, which takes place before the hunting party, well defining the hierarchy of the invited characters. Finally, the aforementioned widely circulated manuscript folio is now at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. In addition to the manuscript versions, the work was printed three times in the 16th century: once around 1500 and twice around 1507. Since 1854 it has also been the subject of numerous modern editions, including one of the most recent entitled "Das Jagdbuch des Mittelalter."
Claes Oldenburg, Floor Burger, 1962. New York: Moma. @mettmuseum
8. Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich) (1963) by Claes Oldenburg
Until Pop art, lunches were immortalized in a wide variety of ways, though mainly pursuing the aim of conveying to us the idea of a more or less extended time, serenely spent enjoying the pleasures of the table, to be consumed mostly in company. With the advent of Andy Warhol's movement, individual dishes, transformed into "minimalist" icons of the food customs of the masses, have become the synthetic symbols of new culinary habits, aimed at making the meal dimension live with the haste of an unstoppable consumer society, which has led us to consume our food quickly, in order to return to the workplace as soon as possible. Powerfully summarizing this context, which is still extremely relevant, is Claes Oldenburg's Giant BLT, one of the first soft sculptures made by the artist, intended to add to his equally soft hamburgers, ice cream cones and French fries, the result of his 1962 discovery of shiny vinyl fabrics, which, available in many colors, became the ideal material for making malleable, changeable objects as an alternative to the hard, fixed forms of conventional sculpture. It is good to highlight how in the particular case of Giant BLT, Claes used kapok, or a feather-like substance, to compose in different layers, such as that of bread, bacon, lettuce and tomato, a sandwich that was pierced with a wooden toothpick.
Claude Monet, The Lunch, 1876-1877. Oil on canvas, 201 x 160 cm. Paris: Musée d'Orsay. @claudemonet_
7. The Lunch (1876-1877) by Claude Monet
The slowness of a lunch consumed as a family, fully enjoying the shade that shelters the strong midday sun, aimed at warming a garden, is evoked by the scene captured by Monet, having the specific intent of immortalizing the moments, which succeed the consumption of the second breakfast. In fact, the task carried out by the subject is to highlight the traces of a simple and spontaneous family life, in which, however, the people are not the main focus of the work, as the artist asks us to contemplate the habits of their lives, rather than their figures. The result is the impression of a moment in time spent lethargically, within which we catch glimpses of two female figures and a more detailed child, namely Jean Monet, caught as he is intent on quietly playing with some pieces of wood. In contrast to the latter painting, the moment of lunch is well summarized in The Luncheon (1868 - 1869), another Monet masterpiece, which was rejected by the Paris Salon, although four years later, it was presented at the first Impressionist exhibition, an event in which Monet "introduced" his family, a guest and a servant girl during lunch.
Giuseppe De Nittis, Lunch at Posillipo, 1879. Oil on canvas, 111 x 173,3 cm. Milan: Galleria d’Arte Moderna. @rosastorace
6. Lunch at Posillipo (1879) by Giuseppe De Nittis
A group of characters is gathered around a large table covered with a white tablecloth, the surface on which the place settings and dishes, which will be used by the diners, are placed, intent on discussing while waiting for lunch. The above view is enriched by the presence of some musicians, harnessing guitars and singing, while behind them the sea of Naples opens up, presenting itself in its coastline and the buildings of Posillipo. This description introduces to position number six in my ranking, occupied by Giuseppe De Nittis's masterpiece entitled Lunch at Posillipo, an oil on canvas from 1879, aimed at immortalizing a festive evening, which the Italian master spent between the end of 1878 and the spring of the following year, that is, during his stay in the Campania capital, which succeeded the advent of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. It was precisely at Posillipo that the artist used to meet with other painters on the terrace of the gulf, a place where their talks on art were often accompanied by music. Among the effigies of Lunch at Possillipo, however, only the depiction of De Nittis's wife Léontide, who appears in a central position, is certain, while the woman and man seated on the right could be the painter Edoardo Dalbono and his wife Adele, characters who, evoking Manet's painting, would seem to have been portrayed from life.
Diego Velázquez, The Lunch, 1617. Oil on canvas, 108.5 cm × 102 cm. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
5. The Lunch (1617) by Diego Velázquez
We seem to be observing one of the most typical shots between friends, aimed at popularizing the world of social media, as inside an informal tavern, some men consume a poor meal with a rather complicit manner, turning their gaze toward the viewer, just as does the proud figure to gleefully hold wine in his hands and the one, who, in a very confidential manner, makes the thumbs-up gesture. If you had any doubts regarding the dating of the work and the existence of the latter, I would like to point out how the origin of such a gesture is recorded from the time of ancient Rome, that is, when the aforementioned was contrasted with that of the more nefarious thumbs-down. In spite of this dated origin, such custom spread all over the world, reaching its greatest notoriety, only during World War II. Returning to the painting, The Lunch is one of the earliest masterpieces created by the famous Spanish artist.Completed around 1617 and housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, it brings to life a composition, which revolves around a table draped with a crumpled cloth, on which rest two pomegranates and a slice of bread. In addition, the scene, which depicts several people attending the lunch meeting, bears a striking resemblance to another Velázquez artwork, entitled The Peasants' Lunch (1618).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Rowers' Breakfast, 1880-1881. Oil on canvas, 129,5×172,5 cm. Phillips Collection, Washington.
4. The Rowers' Breakfast (1880-1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
We are inexorably approaching the podium, so that an icon of Impressionist painting par excellence, namely Renoir's The Rowers' Breakfast, a canvas aimed at immortalizing friends and acquaintances of the master, who shape a common gathering of acquaintances, taking place under a dehors and animated by rowers, men and women of the bourgeoisie, who find themselves placed around a table, on which the remains of a meal they have just eaten are presented. Such a scene, full of characters conversing pleasantly, finds its setting on a warm afternoon on the Seine, specifically in the open veranda of the Fournaise restaurant on the Isle de Chatou, habitually frequented by Parisian rowers. The result is a convivial, festive and slightly bohemian atmosphere, accentuated by the dense network of glances, which expressively binds the various characters, rendered in the lightheartedness of a Sunday afternoon, whose noise of words and laughter, it seems, can reach even up to our ears, if only we try to linger for a moment in observing the small groups of conversation, which animate the oil. Finally, the painting is also noteworthy because it was probably one of the last masterpieces, which Renoir produced before his trip to Italy, a move that brought about a drastic stylistic change dictated by the sight of the Renaissance models, works that aroused in the French artist a strong spiritual unease, since he saw himself stripped of his certainties, to discover himself artistically ignorant and poor in the resources offered by the very Impressionist technique.
Claude Monet, Luncheon on the grass, 1866. Oil on canvas, 248×217 cm. Paris: Musée d'Orsay.
3. Luncheon on the Grass (1866) by Claude Monet
"I owed rent to the owner of the house and, unable to do otherwise, I pawned him the canvas which he kept wrapped in the cellar. When I finally succeeded in procuring the sum necessary to take it back, you will well understand that the canvas had had plenty of time to mold." Monet's words introduce the masterpiece dated 1866 and titled Breakfast on the Grass, a fragment kept at the Musée d'Orsay, which, together with another part kept in the same place, represents a testimony to the monumental Breakfast on the Grass, a work begun by the French master in early 1865, intended to represent a homage to Manet's masterpiece of the same name, if not an open comparison with it. In spite of these important intentions, Monet abandoned the said project in the same year for the reasons that the quote above reveals, so much so that the master did not return to possession of the canvas until 1884, when he cut it into three fragments, the third of which is unfortunately considered to be missing. Briefly describing the masterpiece, The painting's central theme was meticulously planned through a series of small sketches, later followed by a larger and more detailed one, which allowed the artist to translate his composition onto an expansive canvas, where vibrant colors and skillful manipulation of light took shape, portrayed while delicately illuminating the surrounding clothes, faces and natural elements that enclose the painting's figures.
Édouard Manet, Luncheon in the Studio, 1868. Oil on canvas, 118 × 154 cm. Neue Pinakothek, Munich.
2. Luncheon in the Studio (1868) by Édouard Manet
Why does the silver medal go to a painting that, though titled Luncheon in the Studio, does not depict an artist's studio? Actually, title inconsistency aside, the masterpiece deserves its coveted place on the podium, since it is, among other things, one of the French master's most reworked works. In fact, as is evident from the X-ray of the oil, it was initially set in an atelier, a environment that was later covered with a dark household wall. In the latter context, an after lunch has come to life, animated, starting from the right side of the stand, by a reflective gentleman intent on smoking, a waitress ready to serve the characters, and a boy placed in the foreground, officially recognized as Léon Leenhoff, Manet's presumed son, captured as he stares toward the viewer without crossing his gaze. The latter also turns out to be the only character in focus, along with some of the details on the table and armchair. On the subject of chromaticism, however, it is important to note how the yellow of the peeled lemon is combined with that of the young man's tie, pants, and hat, a peculiarity that makes us wonder how Manet might have wanted to evoke Vermeer, given that he admired the Dutch master in Amsterdam, a well-known author of peeled lemons, such as those found in the Portrait of Zacharue Astruc and the Dutchman's Woman with a Parrot. Finally, all these stylistic features combined result in a work charged with profound strangeness, that is, decidedly linked to the absent nature of the fleeting glances of the three characters, who, manifesting neither feelings nor affections, generate an atmosphere of expectation.
Édouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863. Oil on canvas, 208×264 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
1. Luncheon on the Grass (1863) by Édouard Manet
Occupying the highest place on the podium is the masterpiece, which, initially known under the title of The Bath and later known as Breakfast on the Grass, represents a foundational work in the history of Western art, as it introduced a novel pictorial approach, encompassing, within it, three fundamentally distinct artistic genres, namely that of portraiture, landscape and still life, which became part of a single depiction for the first time. In fact, briefly describing the painting, it depicts a nude woman sitting in the presence of two dark-suited bourgeois, creating a composition, in which the presence of still life is to be interpreted as the remnants of a tasty lunch in the open air, surely enriched by a stimulating conversation. The background to what is described is a second woman in petticoats, immortalized at the moment when she is bathing in the pond, which occupies the entire second floor of the stand, where, on the right, there is also a small boat resting on the shore, while, among the trees in the center, a landscape in the distance can be glimpsed. Finally, the work is also noteworthy for historical reasons, in that it, produced between 1862 and 1863, was rejected, along with 3,000 other works, by the infamous jury of the Paris Salon, a reason that prompted Napoleon III to have the rejected paintings exhibited at the halls of the Palais de l'Industrie, thus sanctioning the birth of the Salon des Refusés.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
