Details

ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE
“The Art of Cooking & Dining in Renaissance Italy”

Course Description:

What went on in Renaissance kitchens and how did people consume their meals before forks and individual place settings became common? What meanings did the paintings that decorated the walls of ecclesiastical dining halls—of which Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is the most famous—have for the monks, friars, and nuns who contemplated them as they dined? What foods were served at Medici and other courtly banquets and who produced the cleverly crafted sugar sculptures and elaborately folded napkins that adorned the tables at which they took place? Drawing from a rich body of images, printed texts such as papal chef Bartolommeo Scappi’s recipe book of 1570, and tableware made of glass, brightly painted ceramics, silver, and other prized materials, this course traces the history of the visual culture of cooking and dining in Italy from c. 1400 to 1600.

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings, syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Information will be provided upon registration.

Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

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.

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Sally J. Cornelison is the director of the Florence Graduate Program in Italian Renaissance art for Syracuse University and a specialist in the history of Italian late medieval and Renaissance religious art. She teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on the history of sacred, as well as secular, art and architecture in early modern Italy. Many of her publications concern art, devotion, ritual, and patronage as they relate to the cult of saints and relics in Renaissance Florence. More recently, the focus of her research has been the sacred art of Giorgio Vasari, and she is currently completing a book on Giorgio Vasari’s work at the prestigious church of the Pieve in his hometown of Arezzo