[Sca-cooks] Re: Odd looking things in paintings

[Johnna Holloway]

Daniel Myers wrote:

>> Howdy,
>> In the paintings below, there are these things that look something 
>> (but not completely) like a baby brie cut in half.  Any ideas what 
>> they are?
>>
>> Here they're on the tray on the table
>> http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/aria/sk/z/sk-a-3.z
>
> I think cheese here.
>
>> There's only one here - leaning on a pitcher - I'd think it was a 
>> mushroom cap, but the inside doesn't look right.
>> http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/aria/sk/z/sk-a-4821.z
>
>
> I think that's just a roll of bread myself. The cheeses here are stacked
> behind in the pile. Take a look at the work titled The Baker-- it's on 
> the front cover

of Matters of Taste.  www.peterrose.com/ lectures.html 
<http://www.peterrose.com/lectures.html>
or see the page: www.rnw.nl/culture/ html/taste021031.html 
<http://www.rnw.nl/culture/html/taste021031.html>

>> At the butcher's, lower center - there's one white, one beige, and 
>> two that are reddish-brown (if it's brie then Yuck!).
>> http://www.wga.hu/art/a/aertsen/butchers.jpg
>
>
> It turns out that Aertsen's The Meat Stall is a much commented on 
> painting. There's more than 10 pages 

devoted to this work in Honig's Painting and the Market in Early Modern 
Antwerp. (Yale, 1998).
There are a number of elements in this painting. The Holy family
pausing on the Flight to Egypt is shown in the background landscape.

I thought cheeses here although after looking at some other works, I 
think the darker brown ones
might be the rusks, although perhaps flat blood puddings might better 
fit in with the scene of a butcher's
shop. Peter Rose in Matters of Taste identifies similiar looking flat 
foodstuffs as rusks, such as those that are
pictured in Clara Peeters Still Life with Crab, shrimp, and lobster. It 
was on the web as it was
in the Albany show, but it's been taken down. It's in the book on page 109.

Johnnae