I’m a great believer in the Oscar Wilde axiom: ‘You should take serious things flippantly and flippant things seriously.’ That is particularly true today in a fun article I’ve just read in my favourite online art magazine, DailyArt.com. Author Alexandra Kiely tells us about some Italian artists with food in their names. So how about a little bit of Parmesan cheese, perhaps in a roll?
And do you, like me, enjoy grilled sea bass and does it make you think of the glittering portraits of the ruling Medici of Renaissance Florence?
Okay let’s begin the beginning. Parmigiana is how they define the famous cheese from Parma and Parmigianino, which I suppose means a little man from Parma, was the nickname of Francesco Mazzola (1503 1540), one of the pioneering artists of the Mannerist style, with its sinuous exaggerations. (Not, I must say, entirely my cup of tea.)
And with our cheese we must have a roll, in Italian, a panino, plural panini. Enter Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765), a relatively undistinguished Roman painter of ‘views’, picture postcards as it were, to sell to travellers on their Grand Tour. Here’s his Pantheon in Rome.
Our next two artists both had dishes (or glasses) named after them: Vittorio Carpaccio (1460/66-1525/26) and Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430/51516), Renaissance painters from Venice. Alexandra says: “Both of them were celebrated for their religious paintings and brilliant colours… Both lent their names to new foods that were invented in their home town but have now spread far beyond it.†The inspired inventor of the ‘foods’ was another Italian genius Giuseppe Cipriani,founder of Harry’s Bar and the Cipriani Hotel.
Alexandra says: “Reportedly, a 1963 retrospective of Carpaccio’s work inspired Venetian restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani to name his new dish after the artist. The Carpaccio features very thin slices of raw beef drizzled with sauce, and supposedly the blood red of the raw beef reminded Cipriani of the red tones seen throughout Carpaccio’s paintings.
“This wasn’t the only time Cipriani found inspiration in art history. He christened his now-famous peachy cocktail the Bellini because the drink’s colour reminded him of the colour of a Bellini saint’s garments.â€
I think Alexandra cheated a bit when it came to the next artist, Bronzino (1503–1572) . He was court painter to Cosimo I de’ Medici and is famous for the glittering portraits he made of the ruling family of Tuscany. His real name was Agnolo di Cosimo, but was universally known by his nicknamed Bronzino, meaning ‘bronze,’ probably because of his dark complexion.
Branzino (Alexandra says: “spelled slightly differently, but close enough,†– is a type of sea bass: “It’s .â€difficult not to think of the artist whenever it comes up on the menu.â€
There are more examples of Italian ‘foodie’ artists in Alexandra’s article which you might enjoy during your coffee break. Click here to call it up.
You might contemplate coming on an artistic course with us at the Watermill and staying in one of the delightful rooms named after Renaissance artists: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Lippi, Vasari, Bronzino, Ghiberti, Botticelli, Fra Angelico and Gentileschi. For an example, visit a video of the Gentileschi bedroom below.More details about all our creative courses and our rooms are to be found here.
Meanwhile pass the Parmesan panini, per favore