SC - Tidbits

[Huette von Ahrens]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2000 09:11:22 -0600 Bear wrote:

>As a small thought on the adoption of New World 
>foods, I would recommend you look at the art of 
>Vincenzo Campi.  The Fruit Seller (circa 1580) shows
>squash and what is probably a pumpkin.  It does 
>not show maize or potatoes.  The Poultry Seller, which 
>I beleive is an earlier work, shows a Central American 
>turkey.  The paintings were done in Cremona in Northern 
>Italy, an area which adopted New World food stuffs early.  
>The paintings are of food stuffs sold in Northern Italy.  
>While there are other reasons maize and npotatoes might 
>not be shown, it suggests that these may not have been
>adopted as early as believed.  Of course, that is speculation 
>on my part.

While Campi does not depict maize in his period paintings,
Arcimboldo does in his 1563 work "Summer".  You have 
probably seen it and not realized how early the work was.
Arcimboldo painted men composed entirely of fruits and
vegetables.  Interestingly enough the maize for the ear of
the man in this painting.  The chicken or egg question is:
Did this painting cause corn to be called "ears" due to its
position or was an "ear" of corn as a term prevalent enough 
by 1563 to have the artist make a visual pun.  I do not believe
that this is mere coincidence.  
Turkeys are also accurately depicted in an early 17th 
century painting by Joseph Heinz the younger hanging in 
the Museo Davia Bargellini in Bologna, in a 16th century
manuscript in the Museo Civico in Padua and in Bernardo 
Strozzi's "The Cook".  All of these turkey paintings are in
Gillian Riley's "Rennaissance Recipes -Painters and Food"
Pomegrante Artbooks, San Francisco, 1993.  If someone 
on the list has access to more detailed sources for these
paintings and can get exact dates for the works, we would
have an excellent basis for co-oborating the widespread 
use of turkey in Italy from the early middle of the 16th century.

Akim
"No glory comes without pain"