Food and Drink in 17th Century Dutch Painting

Abstract

In seventeenth century, political, economic, religious, and social circumstances created a unique and fruitful climate for the arts in Netherlands. One of the main changes in art was its evolution from devotional to non-religious since Protestants objected to depictions of biblical scenes on the church walls unlike Roman Catholics. The dramatic decrease in the market for religious art forced painters to create new ways of generating income enough to survive. These included portraits of people during a banquet or celebration, genre paintings of ordinary people’s daily life surrounded by food and drink in taverns, markets, kitchens and festive occasions. Food and drink were one of the greatest sources of Dutch painters to come through a serious economic crisis. The rich cornucopia of foods and spices generated by fishing, manufacturing and trade were reflected in Dutch paintings and were sold. In this study a tremendous transformation of a society is aimed to study through art and gastronomy. Food and drink items, utensils, special occasions represented by the painters are studied within historical, societal and figurative context. The paintings of well-known Dutch masters such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Job Berckheyde, Johannes Vermeer and Willem Claesz. Heda are investigated..