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Love of Lemons in Northern Renaissance Art with Dr. Demet Guzey
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In the 17th century, more than half of all still life and genre paintings produced by Dutch artists – over a quarter of a million – portrayed lemons. Lemons were not easy to grow in Northwestern Europe, neither were they widely available. They were not the sweetest fruit, nor the prettiest. Why was this waxy, knobbly yellow fruit painted so frequently in Northern Renaissance art?
Join us in this interactive seminar as we learn about lemon’s place in paintings, luring our senses into the scene, playing a balancing act of color, texture, and form, and offering moral lessons. The lemon twist in paintings offers us a tool to understand the desires of the society of its time. Reviewing artworks by Pieter Claesz, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Gerard ter Borch, and their contemporaries we will discuss the lemon’s lure and lemon’s cure: its symbolism, its role in the art market, and its meaning in moral lessons and medicine.
Led by an expert on history, art, and science of food, Demet Guzey, this course will make you see lemons in a new light and start noticing lemons in all Dutch paintings. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of food in art as a window to the European food culture of the past and today.
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Demet Guzey is a food writer based in Verona. She is the author of two culinary history books, Food on Foot and Mustard. Her writing on food history, travel, and art appeared in EATEN, Fine Dining Lovers, and Gastronomica. She teaches Food and Culture at USAC, an American study abroad consortium in Verona, and Food in Art for Le Cordon Bleu Online. She has a Ph.D. in Food Science, a diploma in Gastronomy, and a Level 3 WSET wine certification.
This conversation is suitable for all ages.
90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.
This class was my first experience with Context online classes. I have been in Europe on a few Context tours for a few hrs and they have all been wonderful so I decided to sign up for an online class. Dr Guzey was wonderful and knowledgeable. The class content was so informative and organized. I loved how science, art and cooking was woven together! Thank you for this wonderful presentation. I will definitely try to sign up for Dr Guzey’s artichoke class! Now I’m going to have a lemoncello🍋 from my freezer:)
Great balance of information about lemons as sustenance and presentation of lemons in art, their function and beauty.
Beautifully illustrated with period art of lemons & their uses, meaning & symbolism.
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