International

Food symbolism in art includes religion, status, pleasure, and daily life.

Food in contemporary art is no longer just a subject. From about the 1980s, artists around the world have used food as medium, performance, politics, and provocation.

Food in Pop Art is food as everyone already knows it, from the supermarket shelf, the fast food counter, the advertising hoarding, the television commercial.

Food in modern art is food taken apart.

Food in 19th-century art is food brought down to earth.

Food in 18th-century art tells the story of a century divided against itself.

Food in Baroque art is rarely just decoration; painters used bread, oysters, fruit, wine, game, and imported luxuries to show wealth, technical mastery, and the fragility of earthly pleasure.

Food in Renaissance art is food seen afresh; painters and sculptors across Italy, the Netherlands, and northern Europe brought a new spirit of observation to everything around them and food was no exception.

Food in early Christian and medieval art is rarely about appetite. During this period, artists across Europe and the Byzantine world used food to speak a spiritual language.

Food in ancient art is rarely just food. Across ancient civilizations depictions of bread, beer, fish, fruit and wine carry meanings that reach beyond the meal itself.