A Man, a Woman, a Cherub, & A Dog exploring love & odors in a 17C Garden

Crispin de Passe (1565-1637), The Five Senses - Smell

16C Marketing & Preparing the products of gardens, farms, fields, & waters in Italy

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) The Fishmonger & Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536–1591) continued the Flemish theme of markets & people dining, but only rarely did he insert the religious scene in the background of his paintings. In fact, some of the paintings of Campi, such as his depictions of people eating, have been seen as lustful. While lust was certainly depicted between men & women in the Flemish paintings, it was seldom inserted into people's interactions with food itself.

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) The Fruit Seller

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) Chicken Vendors

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) Market Scene

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) Fishmongers

Vincenzo Campi (Italian painter, c 1536 – 1591) Fishmonger

Butchers, fishmongers, & poultry peddlers appeared in the northern Italian art of  Bartolomeo Passarotti (1529-1592)  & Annibale Carracci, many made in Cremona & Bologna between about 1580 & 1585. The evolution of these Flemish-based scenes from daily life signaled the birth of more realist genre painting in Italy.

Bartolomeo Passarotti (Italian artist, 1529-1592) Butcher Shop, 1580s. 

Bartolomeo Passarotti (Italian artist, 1529-1592) Les marchandes de volaille, 1577. Note: looks as if the market maid is wearing a tennis shoe...

Bartolomeo Passarotti (Italian artist, 1529-1592) The Fish Stall

Bartolomeo Passarotti (Italian artist, 1529-1592) Two Market Women with Boy selling poultry, gourds, & onions

Bartolomeo Passarotti (Italian artist, 1529-1592) Baker Preparing Pies

Annibale Carracci (Italian, Bolognese, 1560-1609) may have been the most admired painter of his time & a vital force in the creation of Baroque style. Carracci rejected the artificiality of Mannerist painting, championing a return to nature & everyday people engaged in daily activities. While he did produce religious paintings, he did not insert religious vignettes into his paintings of everyday folks fishing & hunting for, preparing, or eating food as the Flemish painters had several decades earlier.

Annibale Carracci (Italian, Bolognese, 1560-1609) The Butcher Shop

Annibale Carracci (Italian, Bolognese, 1560-1609) Butcher Shop c 1580

1539 Courtly Gardens & Grounds - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor's Imperial Court of Augsburg

Lucas van Gassel (Dutch artist, 1490-1568) A 1500s depiction of Gardens & Grounds at Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor's imperial court of Augsburg illustrating the temptations of David & Bathsheba using Tennis & Beugelen

The principal literary source of inspiration for this paintings came from the pen of Antonio de Guevara, in particular his Del Menosprecio de la corte y alabanzade la aldea (A Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier), published in 1539. At the end of his preface to the Menosprecio, the author refers to the adultery of David & Bathsheba, as described in the bible. Gassel probably included the maze in his paintings as a tempting symbol of courtly pleasures from which it would be difficult to escape. The subject obviously appealed to the nobility, because between 1540-1560, about 12 copies were made at Gassel’s workshop of the original, all very similar in their layout & all including games such as beugelen & an open tennis court. illustrating the temptations of David & Bathsheba using Tennis & Beugelen.

A hedge maze in the background of this painting is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe. Early garden mazes began to appear in the 16C. These initial mazes were constructed from evergreen herbs, but, over time, box became a more popular option due to its robustness. Italian architects had been sketching conceptual garden labyrinths as early as 1460, and hundreds of mazes were constructed in Europe between the 16C-18C.  Initially, the hedge maze was not intended to confuse, but to provide a unicursal walking path. Puzzle-like hedge mazes featuring dead ends and tall hedges arrived in England during the reign of King William III of England. It was possible to get lost in the much-admired labyrinth of Versailles, built for Louis XIV of France in 1677 and destroyed in 1778. This maze was adorned with 39 hydraulic sculpture groups depicting Aesop's fables. The oldest surviving puzzle hedge maze, at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, was built for King William in the late 17C. Its distinctive trapezoidal shape is due to pre-existing garden paths running alongside the maze.