A feast for the eyes

by Gillian Riley

"Van Gogh painted sunflowers with the enthusiasm of a Marseillais devouring his bouillabaisse. Gillian Riley shows a similar enthusiasm in her book of extraordinary facts, sumptuous pictures and delicious recipes. This book is a feast for all the senses. We are introduced, whether through Crivelli or Cezanne, to gastronomic pleasures found in works of art from the Renaissance to the Impressionists. Incidental domestic details in religious paintings give endearing glimpses of housekeeping in sixteenth-century Macerata, or table manners in Tiepolo's Venice; the glowing lobster and fruit of a Dutch still life tell of pleasure in prosperity in the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Cezanne's passionate renderings of fruit and crockery are reminders of the splendours of Provencale cuisine; Velazquez deploys in the reluctant hands of his sulky Martha the essential ingredients of a basic Spanish sauce, while Caravaggio's intense realism serves us a succulent guinea fowl and a numinous bowl of fru