Titian, Raphael, Picasso, Banksy… On Easter Monday, an itinerary between picnics and breakfasts on the grass that (also) talk about society, its dreams and illusions
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It can be something idyllic like the Country concert (1510-1511) by Titian where the only refreshment allowed is the water that a woman (naked, beautiful and chaste) is pouring into a glass jug. Or something far more earthly like The boaters’ lunch (1880-1881; sotto, Phillips Collection, Washington) di Pierre-Auguste Renoir, where more than
food seems to count love desire. Outdoor lunches on a day of celebration — also defined as feasts by Giovanni Bellini or tables set in the garden by Pierre Bonnard — have always been part of the artistic imagination.
an imaginary (much loved by the French and in particular by the Impressionists) tackled in no particular order by Matisse, Poussin, Bruegel the Elder, Botero, De Nittis and the Macchiaioli. And still of a picnic (this time by the river) they tell the same way that
post-impressionist masterpiece
That A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte by George Seurat or that emblem of universal photography that Sunday on the banks of the Marne (1938) by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
In the beginning the picnic was
a custom reserved for the nobility, who loved having lunch outdoors during hunting breaks or to escape the rigid ceremonial of official aristocratic banquets. Thus an outdoor lunch, just after a hunting trip, is represented (complete with crockery, tablecloths and provisions) in a miniature of the hunting book (above: Paris, Bibliothque National de Paris), defined by scholars as one of the most influential texts of its time. This book-manual, dedicated to Philip the Bold, was written between 1387 and 1389 by Gaston III, Count of Foix, also known as Fbus or Phoebus, Duke of Burgundy, one of the greatest hunters of his time.
The snack
(above: 1776, Madrid, Prado) by Francisco Goya, intended for the dining room (dining room) of the princes of Asturias, reflects the fashion of the mayism very widespread in the European courts which imitated (in an extravagant way) the customs of the people, after obviously having duly ennobled them. The model can be found in the French Rococ and, especially, in the Ftes vnitiennes by Antoine Watteau.
That inaugurated by Goya a completely new genre
who precisely reinterprets the habits of the people, reviving them with a very lively spirit, completely immune from any mannerist or academic influence. A profoundly original spirit, essentially Spanish, with a freshness, a spontaneity comparable only to that of certain primitive frescoes.
Thomas Cole dipinge A Pic-Nic Party (above: 1846, New York, Brooklyn Museum) choosing as a subject
a picnic to describe the ideal coexistence between nature and civilization. Combining figuration and naturalism, Cole somewhat follows the fashion of the time which increasingly paid attention to outdoor recreation (including hiking and picnics). In Cole’s painting, evocative and poignant, the atmosphere is only seemingly carefree: the cut tree in the foreground recalls the inexorable passage of time.
lunch on the grass (above: 1863, Paris, Muse d’Orsay) by Edouard Manet is proposed as a reinterpretation of two famous Renaissance examples: the Country concert by Titian and the Judgment of Paris by Raphael. But in addition to being considered an absolute masterpiece today, on its first release lunch been too
a painting that caused a great, very great scandal. A scandal that did not arise so much from the choice of theme, but from the fact that the presence of the naked girl next to the two dressed men was not justified by any mythological, historical or literary pretext. Because the woman depicted by Manet is not a nymph, or a mythological character, but a Parisian of the time, like men of their time were her two companions, this time not disguised in classic-Renaissance dress but according to modern French costumes.
Picasso, now octogenarian, decides to re-propose lunch on the grass in his own way (above: 1969-1970 , Paris, Muse d’Orsay). But his admiration for the work was born much earlier. In 1932, he wrote: At the sight of Breakfast on the grass of Manet I see future pains. For George Bataille,
Picasso was attracted by the modernity of the work, from its subversiveness. A work with which Picasso will continue to deal with until 1970, with the creation of 27 versions and 150 preparatory drawings.
Banksy also addressed the theme of the outing (above: Picnic, 2005, private collection) and did so with his usual
style that combines satire and social protest, dream and transgression. On Banksy’s stage, a group of indigenous Africans disoriented at the sight of a white middle-class family having a picnic on the beach are contrasted. Two very distant universes that Banksy seems to have wanted to represent as unapproachable.
April 10, 2023 (change April 10, 2023 | 07:21)
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