Week 2 Response

This week, we learned about the New World and the Old World meeting through the lens of the history of chocolate. Chocolate was compared to wine and to coffee, and, depending on who spoke of it, it had different cultural significance and came with various connotations. In Baccus in Tuscany, chocolate was an undesirable indulgence unsuited to the narrator. This dithyrambic poem praises wine as the ultimate beverage and activity of Tuscany, and with that, carires judgment of not only chocolate, but coffee as well. “I would sooner take to poison, than a single cup set eyes on of that bitter and guilty stuff ye talk of by the name of Coffee”; this stanza shows that in this particular setting, wine, and its position of the drink of the Tuscans, was source of not only pleasure, but also pride. The idea of letting the Arabs and Turks keep their coffee, for the Tuscans are not interested, understates the previous stanza.

Parini also criticized coffee and chocolate. His satirical analysis of the source of coffee and chocolate tells both his time (the Enlightenment era), and his place (Italy). The line, “they wrecked to kingdoms to refresh thy palate” is pointing out the devastation that the creation and trade of chocolate (and, implied by the first stanza, coffee as well), creates. In class, we discussed how the Enlightenment was a time where this kind of criticism of imperialism was abundant and new. With the new understanding that there are different ways of being and that not everything is about Christianity, human rights became an important ideal that hadn’t been given as much consideration previously. This criticism of imperialism, however, was not a common sentiment among all Europeans; after all, imperialism and colonization on a large scale continued to take place for centuries and, arguably still do. Parini’s tone in particular draws the reader in by setting up an image of a common occurrence- watching someone order a drink- and invites the reader to critically analyze the impact of small decisions like buying a drinking chocolate.

The True History of Chocolate reading was not a poetic or satirical criticism of chocolate, but a critical history. Like Baccus in Tuscany,  this piece talks about how the Jesuit priests in Spain’s American colonies “were not in the long run sympathetic to the native populations in their charge [but…] one native custom was gladly adopted by them: chocolate drinking” (140). In each of the countries discussed- England, Italy, Spain, France, and the Americas, there was a different way of consuming chocolate and the act had varied significance. It was interesting to me that in the history of chocolate, the importance of the coffeehouse came up again. We studied this closely in the Istanbul module of this course- coffeehouses in the Ottoman Empire and their adaptation in Europe. Here again, the coffeehouse is discussed as “one of the greatest English institutions, retaining its social and political importance well into the next century” (167). This is a fascinating period in time; finally there is a space for public discussions with strangers, a space for democracy to take place, and in England just as in the Ottoman Empire, it was a contentious space where citizens could criticize their governance. All of this was centered around a beverage- coffee- that has roots in a far away land marked by imperialism and slavery.

            Our final reading, Tastes and Temptations, complemented our visit to the Uffizi Gallery very well. Reading about how cultural context and time period affected how food was portrayed in art gave me a better lens to do a close reading of a piece in the Gallery. In particular, reading about how the hunger in Spain inspired a different kind of still-life gave context to different still-lifes. For example, Cotam’s Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber, which portrayed food without desire, though still “with meticulous and unidealized accuracy”, made me think about how the biological circumstances of the artist and their nation affected the art. In sum, this week’s readings informed a nuanced way of thinking of the way food was idealized in the Late Renaissance and the Enlightenment eras. 

Chocolate Bar in Vienna that I saw; I saw many chocolate bars like this.

Close Reading from Uffizi Gallery

The painting I chose is The Dutch Courtesan by Frans Van Mieris Il Vecchio.  It is of a woman, presumably a woman of wealth, because of the title and because of her fancy robe, which is open, revealing her breasts. She looks passed out, and in the background, there is a porcelain pitcher. She is the main focus in the photo, she is illuminated by light; even the label reads “the use of light accentuates the gown and the flesh of the sleeping courtesan”. At first glance, what stood out to me was that she was passed out drunk. At second look, I saw the pitcher in the background, less illuminated, but still visible enough to where it is the second thing most viewers notice. Finally, I notice the veiled woman in the background.

            I think it is wine in the pitcher behind the Dutch Courtesan. It reminds me of Baccus in Tuscany; the love of wine, to the point of excess. Just like the dithyrambic poem, the end point of this piece of art is the excessive consumption of wine. Wine brought out the spirit of the people in Tuscany as in other parts of Europe, and this may be a realistic depiction of the time. It makes me wonder if people in the Dutch Court and other courts drank to excess, and also I am thinking of this in the context of Baroque paintings which did not always have an interest in elaborating a moral. So, it is likely that this painting is not  a judgement of the woman who drank to excess and passed out, but a realistic depiction of something that happened during this time. It also reminds me of a reading we had in the Istanbul module of Making the Mediterranean about alcohol consumption in Turkey. It was about how it is harem in Islamic law, so if a Muslim is to break the law at all, to drink, they tended to do it in excess, because one drink or a whole night of drinking is considered the same level of sinning. So, when Muslims did drink, they drank heavily, so as to get their fill while they are sinning. The concept of drinking to excess and passing out is interesting to me because it is not something I used to think of as a historical practice, but now I do.