Schedule

LECTURE 1 – The Art of Cooking & Dining in the Italian Renaissance Home

– Tuesday, March 26

Food and food-related culture was as important in Italy during the Renaissance as it is today. Illustrated with images of kitchens and meals from late medieval manuscripts, prints, and paintings, as well as with a variety of Renaissance cooking, serving, and dining utensils, this lecture examines what people from different social classes ate, how they ate it, and where their food was prepared in both humble homes and palatial residences.

LECTURE 2 – Last Suppers & Monastic Meals: The Art of the Italian Renaissance Refectory

– Tuesday, April 2

Although he painted it for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the northern Italian city of Milan, Leonardo’s Last Supper is deeply indebted to the longstanding Tuscan tradition of decorating ecclesiastical refectories with images from the life of Christ or that held particular relevance for the members of various religious orders who looked upon them each time they took their communal meals. In addition to exploring the function and iconography of refectory paintings, this lecture examines the rituals and foods associated with monastic and conventual dining during the Italian Renaissance.

LECTURE 3 – Festive Feasts: The Art of Banqueting in Renaissance Italy

– Tuesday, April 9

In Renaissance Italy, weddings, visits from foreign dignitaries, and other special occasions were marked with elaborate meals at which bustling servers presented guests with the finest foods and tables were outfitted with the most refined tableware. This lecture will bring the practice and pageantry of early modern banqueting culture to life through an investigation of the visual culture of celebratory dining as it is recorded in contemporary paintings and descriptive accounts.