Budapest, Hungary. Art Museum.
Have you ever hesitated before walking into a museum, with some kind of reluctance at the prospect of spending an entire afternoon looking closely at dozens of paintings ? There is a way to circumvent this anguish when visiting these temples of the long bygone past : Look out for your passion there . Of course if your passion is about motorbikes or Rock & Roll, you may have a problem here , but what about wine ? It worked for me... I walked into the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts , bought a ticket and a photo permit , walked down to the basement to see the great Dürer exhibition (no pics allowed ) and then walked up to see the other collections, very rich collections indeed , with paintings from the italian, spanish, dutch schools and masters . I never used any flashlight of course , and will post only wine related details of the paintings .
On this still life above, two glasses of wine at each end of the painting . The one on the left is so bright-red, so light , as if water had been added to it , and the other one , a very different style of glass, with what seems to be white-amber (maybe sweet?) wine . I showed the pics to B. , she says the painters then did not necessarily mean anything like such wine goes with such cheese or such food , their first concern was the composition .
Actually the first painting where I spotted wine . This tiny little glass of wine was so discreet on the table in the context of the scene , that I nearly missed it . The artist who authored this painting comes from a very distant era . 150 years before the previous still life above , very different pictural techniques .
And people seemed to be so frugal at the time , look at this quite empty table, with a tiny glass with very little wine in it....
There was something strange, looking at this glass of wine on this painting , these odd-looking dishes on this quite empty table, this all seemed so distant from our modern way to relate to the world .
This is a surprising painting . There was this old tradition about giving strength and vigor to little children with wine . But here of course , wine has a sacred meaning . Wine has been sacred for many cultures , not only Christianity , just think to the zoroastrians, or to Osiris in ancient Egypt .
This could be a question to meditate for the heinous bigots who pretend to subjugate us infidels (and wine lovers) . Wine abstinence could partly explain their pathological behaviour...
The two details here show wine in the comfortable setting of an aristocatic family enjoying good food and (we suppose) good wine . This scene is much easier for us to imagine than the one that inspired the bare table with a tiny glass of wine above (but yet I am fascinated and puzzled by what perspires through this simple tablecloth and the underlying frugality) . More than 200 years between them, another universe...here We can relate with these people, with our own relation with wine . Look at the lady on the right : the wine has some effect on her , she seems to flush (asian flush?) , or is it because of what the man behind murmurs to her ?
This painting is surprising : These striking portraits on the edge of caricature were certainly schocking at the time , I guess : all these gluttons and drunkards avidly ingurgitating all kind of food with wine . Bones and rubbish scattered on the ground . The painting looks like an illustration of greed as opposed to the moral standard and moderation . Not the best image for a wine drinker too .
This servant pouring a trickle of red wine seems to come from the dark . She is partly in the shadow , and so is the jug . When I showed the painting to B. she said it was very intriguing : she saw some sort of resemblance with the Cards Players painting by Cezanne , in the composition , the gestures . She studied Art History and knows more than I do .
The whole scene seems to take place in the garden in front of a chateau . Columns and stairs on the right, rectangular basin and geometrical garden in the background , adults chatting and eating , children playing around the tables . Here also, the servant raises the jug up high where it trickles out in a long spurt , like it is done for tea in some parts of the world . Seems that was a common way to pour the wine . The servant looks unkempt , with wine stains
on his ( B. says it seems to be a boy) collar . Note that he holds the glass delicately like an authentic modern winetaster ...
Sitting at a table, a lady drinks some of this same red wine . Glasses are big and filled to the top .
In this painting , lobsters, fruits , grape clusters, a knocked-over pewter wine goblet and a container that looks like a beer tankard (also knocked-over), a couple of carafes in (cold?) water . You can see the reflection of a small panes window on the carafes . The carafe on the left is made of a darker glass , and must contain a very different type of wine , maybe sweet white wine . Looks like someone had a feast here . 
The red wine here is so light , so translucent , could be because at the time it was common to add water in wine ( it was even a common practice in France in the first halh of the 20th century) .
On the table, a full glass of red wine with apple peelings and a few oysters .
merci pour ces superbes images. Je collectionne depuis quelques temps des livres sur l'art du vin et les natures mortes sont une source merveilleuse pour des images de rêve de verres et leur contenu.
À votre santé!
Iris
Posted by: Iris | October 04, 2005 at 11:39 AM
Bonjour Bertrand,vos occupations sont bien sympathiques
chacun son dada: je scrute aussi les oeuvres d'art, mais pour y chercher ...des alcools.L'histoire du Cognac, en particulier, une des boissons fétiches des anglais et hollandais dès le 16° avec un véritable âge d'or aux 18° et 19° siècle me laisse supposer que pas mal d'oeuvres doivent représenter aussi du cognac et non du vin. Mais il est vraiment ardu de déterminer si on a affaire à des vins ou des alcools. L'avant dernière photo en particulier me semblerait bien candidate pour représenter une flasque de porto à côté d'une carafe de cognac...ce qui expliquerait l'aspect si translucide et cuivré qui vous frappe. Mais le fait qu'ils soient mis à rafraîchir est troublant.
Autre explication possible pour la couleur: la teinte rouge sombre des grands bordeaux par exemple n'existe que depuis "la révolution de consommation" dûe au changement des moeurs anglaises à la fin du 17°s, avec l'habitude de consommer des boissons plus fortes (porto, mais aussi café ou chocolat) Cette mode a poussé les producteurs de French Clarets (les Bordeaux, rosés et non rouge à l'époque), à modifier les méthodes de vinification pour commercialiser des boissons bien plus corsées: les new french clarets, les rouges que nous connaissons maintenant.Ils ne sont jamais revenus en arrière.
Déjà des producteurs à l'affut des tendances de consommation...
Posted by: Veronique LEMOINE | January 21, 2006 at 05:52 AM
Hi there! I was doing a little research on "wine in art" and this site came up. Interesting article, and a great site for wine lovers! Ciao.
Posted by: yuki | January 21, 2006 at 03:17 PM
Bonjour à tous,
2 livres remarquables que je recommande à tous les passionnés d'histoire viticole.
(2 wonderful books for anybody interested in wines and wine history. I'm afraid they exist only in French)
- Vins vignes et vignerons, Histoire du vignoble français- Marcel Lachiver (Fayard 1988)
-Histoire sociale et culturelle du vin - Gilbert Garrier (Bordas 1995)
Tiens, ça me donne envie de les relire...
Bonne lecture à tous
Posted by: Veronique Lemoine | January 26, 2006 at 10:42 AM
I hope I can learn more from this web. I am a artist oil painter and busy now with compositions of the topic of wines
Posted by: Bux Fouche | September 21, 2008 at 11:32 AM