Food, class, and affects in late 16th century Italian visual culture
Abstract
In Renaissance Italy lower class food culture was associated with many negative images which were produced and strengthened both in dietary literature and visual culture. From the late 16th century forward Italian artists produced a number of genre paintings which often associated food and eating with lower classes and excessive sexuality.
This article explores how visual culture mediated and ‘stuck’ negative affects and emotions towards lower class food culture by analysing two genre paintings – Merry company by Bartolomeo Passerotti and Ricotta eaters by Vincenzo Campi. Furthermore, the article studies the fascinating way in which food, class and sexuality were intertwined in the paintings and highlights the potential of the use of images and art as source material for historical research.
The paintings depicted the food practices and table manners of lower classes in a moralising and disapproving way but also expressed amusement towards the uninhibited behaviour and simple pleasures of the figures. They portrayed lower classes as a caricature, an other, against which to mirror oneself and offered the upper-class viewers material for their identity construction.
Keywords: Food history, visual culture, affects, Renaissance Italy, class
