In this sumptuous exploration of food images in European and American painting from the early Renaissance to the present, Kenneth Bendiner sees food painting as a separate classification of art with its own history. He reconsiders famous works by the likes of Brueghel, Rembrandt, Chardin, Manet and Warhol, and intriguing paintings by lesser-known artists, such as Adriaen Coorte and Peter Blume. The book underlines the central importance of 16th-century innovations in food subjects, and the great influence of 17th-century Dutch food paintings in the development of food imagery. Kenneth Bendiner shows how myth, religion, medical theories and traditional social privileges can determine the meaning of food imagery. He covers aphrodisiacs, bottled water, menus, antisocial eating scenes, dogs in the dining room and many other visual representations relating to food. He also deals with images of food that are purely symbolic, the sexual references of surrealist food art and food as a marginal element in allegories. He illustrates the optimistic, human-centered, Renaissance spirit of food, and the way abundance, success and fulfillment pervade this art. Drawing together two pleasurable and engrossing subjects-eating and handsome paintings-Bendiner offers up a tempting and irresistible feast of facts and images. Those who want to learn about the history of food, as recorded in images, will find the book rewarding. And those who wonder what Brueghel's peasants are eating or why Chardin decorated a brioche with an orange blossom will find their understanding of art history enriched. Kenneth Bendiner is professor of art history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the author of An Introduction to Victorian Painting (1985) and The Art of Ford Madox Brown (1998). " Food in Painting loads its table with good things to see. The analysis is shrewd; the commentaries incisive; the illustrations . . . suitably mouth-watering. From still-life to Surrealism, Bendiner shows the variety of symbolic flavours in food-themed art. However, unlike many art historians, he's not so blinded by symbolism that he fails to savour all the evidence about changes in diet, cooking and taste. A visual and mental feast." ― The Independent Published On: 2005-02-04 "This is not a traditional art historical study; rather, Bendiner's approach represents what many students and museumgoers seem to crave today: creative connections and nonlinear thinking, more in tune with the relatively new field of visual culture in which chronology is sublimated to ideas. . . . Refreshing and pleasurable to read. . .  .An intriguing and provocative study. Reading Bendiner's book leaves one with the general tools to consider images of food in Western art form the Renasissance to the present in relation to one another, resulting in a rewarding game for the reader/viewer and a refreshing contribution to the field of art history." -- Dorothy Moss ― Gastronomica Published On: 2006-06-01 Kenneth Bendiner is Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the author of An Introduction to Victorian Painting (1985) and The Art of Ford Madox Brown (1998). Used Book in Good Condition