Uffizi Gallery Response

Alonso Lopez

Professor Villa

20 October 2015

Making the Mediterranean—Uffizi Gallery Reflection

            It is important to note that food rarely appeared in the artworks at the beginning portion of the Uffizi gallery where, instead, religious paintings prevailed. Food’s only notable appearance in such religious paintings were in the form of fruits like the pomegranate as depicted in ‘Madonna of the Pomegranate’ (1487); peaches and citrus fruits illustrated in The Nativity, the Flight into Egypt and the Presentation in the temple (1423); and bread and wine, as portrayed by St Benedict Drinks Poisoned Wine (1415-20). Food doesn’t make a prominent appearance until the later years of the Renaissance where, although old world products dominate, new world products also start appearing. Such phenomenon of the Columbian Exchange is revealed in the painting I have chosen to do a close reading on: Abraham Mignon’s Still-Life (Second half of the 17^th century), which shows the old world products of grapes (also in the form of white wine), a lemon, coffee beans, and grain in the form of bread. It also illustrates the new world products of what looks to me like a pumpkin and walnuts. Reading the image closely, I notice that the old world products are depicted in more obvious forms whether through larger size or at the front of the food bundle. This can be seen through the size of the pumpkin, which is barely bigger than the lemon. In fact, there is an abundance of grapes on the table. This perhaps symbolizes the dominance of old world products in Europe since the arrival of new world products took time to be accepted as staple foods (like in the case of the tomato). The pumpkin is barely able to peek through the abundance of grapes as well as the walnuts, hidden between the braes, lemon, and coffee beans. Perhaps this symbolizes the new world products slowly adapting to European diets after their initial rejection. The reason why this painting interested me so much was because it was the first and one of the few images I saw in the gallery that contained new world products. And even then, their appearance could only be noticed with a close reading of the image as they are not as abundant and obvious as the old world products.