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1.8

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

1.9a and 1.9b

Source: (a) © Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Photos: Ingrid Geske. (b) Bridgeman Images.

obsoniaxenia

obsonia

literally spoils or prizes, prepared food as a subject for painting in Hellenistic art.

xenia

guest gifts, a class of paintings described by the Roman architectural author Vitruvius, including provisions such as poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and the like.

To us the subjects of the paintings might seem generic, which they were, and unworthy of comment other than whether they reflected the use of space. We might expect that these food scenes would be found in or around food preparation, storage, or serving areas, notably the latter, perhaps dining rooms. That does not seem to be the case for the Romans, who did not carry the same unspoken expectations of space and use and decoration that we do. The subjects, however, carried connotations of class to a Roman viewer. Pliny the Elder, a contemporary author from the area writing on painters and paintings, notes (Natural History 37),