The Significance and Symbolism of Sugar Sculpture at ...€¦ · The Significance and Symbolism of Sugar ... like the art of napkin folding which ... The Significance and Symbolism

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Draft Version: Not for Citation or Attribution

The Significance and Symbolism of Sugar Sculpture at Italian Court Banquets

June di Schino

Abstract: Drawing on new research and unpublished archival material, this paper analyses the significance of the extraordinary sugar sculptures which adorned the Italian Renaissance and Baroque banquet table from both the artistic and gastronomic points of view, with special reference to their symbolism and the difficult techniques required for their manufacture.

The Renaissance, the golden age of the table in Italy, heralded the birth of Italian gastronomic literature and created a position of unparalleled culinary hegemony in Europe. The banquet feast resembled il giardino delle delizie with the most spectacular exhibition of opulence imaginable. Lavish trappings abounded on walls hung with fine damasks and splendid tapestries often depicting the banquet scene. The credenza presented a sumptuous multilevel showcase of glittering silverware, rock crystal bound with gold for precious wines resplendent as jewels, and elaborate delicacies nestled in lustrous polychrome majolica. The table became a spectacular stage for all the arts: music, dance, and poetry contributed to create a feast for both the spirit and the palate, exemplified by the banquet of 796 dishes served to Charles V in Rome.1

Clearly the complexity of the convivial ceremony required new techniques and innovative professions known as offitiali della bocca: lo scalco, the grand supervisor, and il coppiere, the cupbearer, but perhaps prominence should go to the carver, an extraordinarily theatrical figure who performed an acrobatic act with a formidable range of knives. He would dexterously slice, cut, and chop all manner of foods in the air: a suckling pig, an artichoke, a pike, even an egg. If he carved on a plate, he would be instantly recognized as second rate, a judgment that would reflect on the prince’s prestige.

Every detail was invested with ingenious creativity, like the art of napkin folding which required snowy white linen to be carefully starched and ironed, then folded a thousand times to form a myriad of fantastic castles, towers, unicorns, and lions.2

The table was pure theatre. One gorgeous display was described as ‘Arches, Castles, Galleries and works of art which put Nature to shame’.3 The key word to this wealth of imagery was magnificence. Such carefully choreographed construction was created as part of a strategy to enthral the guests caught in a web of enchantment, that proved yet another expression of princely power.

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The Significance and Symbolism of Sugar Sculpture


The chronicler Sforza Pallavicini describes the food of these banquets as ‘an extraordinary array of dishes dressed with pomp and splendour, luxury and wealth’.4 During the Renaissance the concept of taste was completely different. Today we have a clearcut distinction between flavours; generally the meal begins with the savoury and ends with dessert. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, flavours blended together in an intense stratified adventure of the palate. Elaborate dishes were prepared with subtle alchemy redolent of exotic lands, with spices like grains of paradise, musk, cinnamon, and amber. Sweet and sour flavours were infused with aromatic vinegars, figs and candied fruit. Particularly fashionable at the time were rose and other perfumed waters, which left a distinct flowery aftertaste.

However sugar was considered the pinnacle of all palatable pleasures, the most sublime edible substance. Exceedingly costly, it was the icon of aristocracy, and sugar sculpture represented the peak of all ephemeral art forms. In Italy sweetness became a princely passion that represented both wealth and power: for over two centuries sugar defied all sumptuary laws to reign supreme on the table.

The significant role of Venice brought about sugar importation in many forms: loaves, cones, crystals, and fine powder are recorded in such archival documents as the Statuto Capitolare Nauticum, which dates back to 1255. Venetian merchants and speziali sold numerous varieties of sugar,5 perfumed with violets or roses, coloured with vegetable dye and cochineal, and shaped in various sugar loaves called caphetino, campanon or panon, and pyramids called babilonia:

• Varieties and Forms of Sugar Muscabà: ordinary, low quality sugar Zucarum album: plain granulated sugar Tre cotte: refined quality sugar Fioreton: high quality, very white sugar Fine white powdered sugar from cyprus (cipria) Chrystalized white sugar from Candia Capheton, campanin, panon: rounded sugar loaves Bibilonia: sugar pyramids Sugar cones to be grated Rosatum e violatum: rose and violet perfumed sugars Coloured sugars in saffronyellow or spinachgreen

Sweetness, the epitome of tastes, took on at least five different roles in cuisine. Sugar was ever present in all dishes: meat, pasticcio, fish, soup, vegetable, and biancomangiare. Renaissance gastronomic literature abounds with recipe collections in which we continuously read et zuccaro sopra: sprinkled with sugar on top to form a crystalline crust.6

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Platina da Cremona, the first librarian of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, wrote in De Honesta Voluptate et Valitudine, ‘There is no dish which cannot be improved with sugar’.

Sugar was used to glaze all kinds foods, while pasticci and tarts were bedecked with strips of trellis work. Banquets ritually opened with a galaxy of sweetmeats such as sugared strawberries, marzipan delights, fine mostaccioli, and pisani biscottini. And banquets concluded with a wonderful array of almond paste desserts, candied fruits, jellies and a surfeit of ‘confetti’: sugar covered comfits ranging in size, coating, and filling.7 In fact, during the Italian Renaissance the art of confectionery, which involved the mastering of boiling sugar, was perfected.

Sugar had unexpected uses. During religious festivities, despite the prohibition of meat, illusory foods like giant hams would appear on the table made from pink marzipan masquerading as the real thing! Everything on the table could be embellished with sugar. Even small game birds were dressed up in shirts of shiny pistachio sugar paste. Sometimes sugar was moulded into architectural supports such as the two giant sea horses which upheld a majestic mortadella cooked in wine presented at an official banquet offered by Clement IX.8 The table was also exquisitely decorated with beautiful sugar flowers and gilded festoons.

Fortunately, the welldocumented feasts of the Venetian Serenissima Repubblica recount the profuse presence of sugar in cuisine and as a showpiece. To honour Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino and chief captain of the Venetian troops, the Compagnia della Calza ‘I Valorosi’ offered a sumptuous banquet in July 1524 with numerous allegories and symbols made of sugar representing both states and ambassadors. According to Marin Sanudo’s detailed diary, the states, including Urbino, Milan, and Mantua, were presented in a triumphant chariot of finely wrought gilded sugar: un caro triumphal lo presentò al Signor duca di Urbin, et una aquila di zucaro all’orator cesareo, et un bisson a l’orator dil duca di Milan, et uno altro presente a l’orator di Mantoa.9

Sugar represented such a socially predominant phenomenon that a special new repast composed exclusively of sweetmeats and confectionery was invented to satisfy the insatiable desire for all things sweet. This was known as the exceedingly fashionable ‘collazione’ at the time.

The Compagnia della Calza ‘I Reali’ offered another splendid reception to honour Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, in October 1530. Before the dinner at Palazzo Ducale, there was a public parade through the city of the extraordinary sugar showpieces carried by 460 servitori. The populace was astounded at the vision of the gods like Venus, Neptune, Mercury, and others made of sugar that appeared in giant silver bowls, and it was cosa molto dilectevole da vedere.10

This continual ostentatious ‘saccaromania’ caused the Venetian Senate to act against ‘the sinful excesses’ of princes and prelates, and on 8 October 1562, a sumptuary law was

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promulgated forbidding confectionery and sugarcraft during weddings as well as public and private receptions.

Significantly, this law was completely ignored, as the wealthy and powerful were not was willing to renounce sugar, a status symbol par excellence. In June 1564 the Compagnia della Calza, de Gli Accesi, organized a most sumptuous colatione close to the Rialto bridge, where over a thousand servers carried more than a thousand trays of gilded sugar statues, figures and superb sweetmeats made of pistachio, cinnamon, pasta reale, candied melon, peaches, figs, pears, and apricots to the eagerly awaiting guests.

Such extravagance had begun much earlier. Archival documents show that, in May 1493, a ‘collazione’ was organized by the Compagnia della Calza de ‘I Potenti’ at Maggior Consiglio di Palazzo Ducale in honour of Beatrice Este, wife of Ludovico il Moro where 300 marvellous compositions of sugar decorated with goldleaf were presented to the enraptured guests; the sugar sculptures depicted a multitude of figures such as the pope, the prince and duke of Milan with their respective heraldry, and St. Mark (patron saint of Venice), followed by many other fantastic figures in a bellissimo spectaculo.11

After the presentation of the melodrama La Vita Umana written by Giulio Rospigliosi for Christina of Sweden, a spectacular selection of seventysix different varieties of confectionery, preserves, candied fruit, vegetables, and biscottini was offered to the guests.12 The documents recorded in the Vatican Secret Archives indicate that the artist Giovan Francesco Grimaldi, who created the scenery, did not receive complete payment despite his letters of protest, yet the exorbitant accounts for the dulcet delicacies were paid in full clearly showing their social significance.13

Further testimony is furnished by the accounts of the banquet offered by Giovan Battista Borghese to Innocent XII in 1687.14 In the open countryside near Carroceto an extraordinary fake setting made out of wood and plaster with painted cloth for frescoes was erected to host a grand luncheon for the pope and his retinue of 400. This filmlike setting required four months organization and transportation of foodstuffs, materials, and professionals from Rome. Among the confectionery listed are the prices for candied fruit, cinnamon, aniseed confetti, preserves, ‘folignati’, and quince jelly which amounted to the enormous sum of 131.42 scudi.

The era between 16th and 17th century represented the triumph of sugar sculpture. Not by chance are these known as trionfi in Italian, to evoke the element of superiority by emulating the very signs of the victorious conquests of Ancient Rome. Sugar showpieces signified social prestige and frequently involved the design of great court artists and the expert workmanship of the credenziere. Sugar sculpture symbolized wealth and power, and it was imbued with many forms of subtle communication: political, allegorical, and religious. This much neglected aspect of the table, one of the finest forms of decorative art, deserves recognition for its aesthetic value, the expert craftsmanship, social and economic

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significance, and wide ranging symbolism. It probably originated with the early presence of sotleties or subtleties fashioned according to the theme of religious occasions, such as the coronation of an archbishop of Canterbury in 1433, or as heraldic representations at medieval feasts. The objective of these creations was to induce contemplation on subjects of inspiration or pertinent to the event. The earliest documentation I have found dates back to 1474 with the theatrical marriage SforzaAragona where the Sun brought down la cucina from heaven and Moon la credenza and the Tempio Malatestiano and sugar statuettes for the wedding celebrations of Roberto Malatesta and Elisabetta in Rimini (1475).15

Figure 1: Bronze equestrian statue.

Great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Giulio Romano, and Tiziano paid homage to the table, and Jacopo Sansovino and Gianlorenzo Bernini dedicated their talents to these exceptional centrepieces. For an official dinner at Casa Falconieri, offered by the Spanish Embassy on 30 October 1668, Pietro da Cortona designed all the apparati effimeri for the table which were subsequently sent as special gifts to important guests. For the wedding celebrations of Maria de’ Medici and Henry IV of France in Florence in 1600, the groom was not present but his image arose from the table as an impressive equestrian pièce montée

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created out of sugar by Pietro Tacca, chief apprentice to Giambologna. Subsequently he also sculpted a bronze equestrian statue of the king that was sent to Paris but destroyed in 1703. (See Figure 1.)

After the death of Giambologna, his successor became grand ducal sculptor and was commissioned to create forty fantastic trionfi di zucchero for the 1608 marriage celebration of Cosimo de Medici to Maria Maddalena, archduchess of Austria.16 He became an outstanding artist of his times, and among his numerous achievements were several works on Hercules which appealed immensely to Ercole d’Este.

While serving the Estense court, Cristoforo da Messisbugo wrote an early masterpiece of gastronomic literature which abounds with references to sugar sculpture. such as the twentyfive labours of Hercules or twelve naked moors created out dark mostaccioli biscuits with their private parts covered with foliage.17 Messisbugo’s account ledgers were richly illustrated with the labours of Hercules, which must have closely resembled the versions in sugar which graced his patron’s table.18

Figure 2: Drawing from the Estense court.

Interesting information can be gleaned from a collection of drawings of the Estense court for various table sculptures in sugar and gelatine.19 (See Figure 2.) These depict several subjects such as Neptune slaying a marine monster, an ornamental fountain, and a vineyard scene. Attentive reading of the documents concerning the dinners reveals that

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these showpieces were not created for hundreds of guests, but for ten and even six, showing that even for small occasions in everyday life these exceptional ornaments were present.

Of all Renaissance artists, Arcimboldo is the most famous for his kaleidoscopic compositions characterized by the element of the extraordinary, which provoked reactions of admiration and astonishment similar to those created by sugar sculpture. I managed to find a unique drawing by Arcimboldo of cupid driving a sea monster mounted on wheels.

Figure 3: Illustration of the wedding feast of Johann Wilhelm in 1585.

The study of sugar sculpture involves both documentary and iconographic sources. The relationi of numerous historical banquets eloquently portray these exquisite masterpieces and offer much information. Authors of gastronomic literature such as Messisbugo, Scappi, and Rossetti also provide innumerable examples of trionfi da tavola. Antonio Latini excels in Lo scalco alla moderna (1692), dedicating a complete chapter to the enormous range of subjects for table sculpture. In just twentysix pages Varii Trionfi da mettersi sopra le Tavole describes 167 ornate showpieces, including, to name just a very few:

Imperial eagles highlighted in gold, a triumphal chariot on a gold pedestal with figures adorned with coral and pearls, four shepherds in marzipan tending sugar lambs and garlanded nymphs, Alexander the great on horseback, two giants in combat, a silver whale with gilded sea horses, a snowy white peacock with a gold crown and tail

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outspread, a chariot full of sweetmeats such as cialdoncini, ciambeletti, quince jelly and pasta reale drawn by two turkeys, Abundance with a cornucopia and a sheaf of wheat, America as a beautiful naked maiden with mermaids.

Insight on the sublime character of trionfi di zucchero can be gained from an exceptional illustration of the wedding feast of Johann Wilhelm, duke of Jülich and Jacoba of Baden in Düsseldorf in 1585, which depicts the table as a grandiose landscape of castles, towers, elephants while guests admiring this marvellous display provide a sense of scale. (See Figure 3.)

The drawings for sugar sculpture illustrate their extreme complexity, indicating the enormous difficultly involved in creating these fragile works that required not only specific knowledge and dexterity but considerable good fortune. White crystals were magically transformed into a flexible artistic medium for a myriad of inventive figures. The oldest method of manufacturing these ornaments was to pour molten concentrated sugar syrup into moulds generally made of plaster, terracotta, or wood. It was essential to move the mould around gently to distribute the syrup into all the curves and angles and to tightly bind the parts together for the complete solidification of a successful showpiece.

Antonio Latini in Lo Scalco alla Moderna (1692) gives a recipe for moulding figures in sugar:

According to the size and shape of the figures that you intend to make, take approximately three pounds of sugar, clarify it, sieve it, then boil it to the point of cassé, taking care the temperature is correct. Prepare a well cleaned and oiled mould and check that there are no openings whatever except on top. Check the mould closes properly and have string ready to bind it efficiently. Hold the mould with the left hand covered with a protective cloth, and with the right pour in the molten sugar taking care to move it around gently. The sculptures must be transparent and hollow inside, hence the mould must be turned continuously to perfectly distribute the sugar. Leave the mould until the sugar is perfectly dry and take great care on opening the mould.

The other method involved the moulding of sugar paste pieces which were often assembled together to form more complex creations. Rosselli, a noted apothecary from Florence, left a series of family documents on confectionery and recipes such as one for making small missals, caskets, cups, and vases and similar things such as lutes, shoes, and slippers out of sugar:

Beginning with the paste take white traganth, cleaned of all impurities, in the amount required then add a good amount of rose and orange flower water and leave to soak. Sieve carefully and place in a clean bronze mortar and while gradually adding fine white powdered sugar so that the paste increases in size. Then add 4 g of

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musk for each lb of sugar with the same amount of starch and continue adding fine sugar until the paste is ready. The paste should not be too stiff to avoid cracking and as pliable as dough for maccheroni. To make a missal, a small wooden book mould is required with single sheets of paper, buckles and binding. Once finished, trim well with a knife, leave to dry. Finish all pieces with a fine line of gold, small leaves and arabesques to make it beautiful.

Of primary importance for this method was the use of gum tragacanth a viscous, odourless, watersoluble mixture of polysaccharides drained from the sap of Astragalus genus. When steeped in water, gum tragacanth formed a thick mucilage able to absorb any powdered material such as sugar, transforming it into a pliable, plasticinelike material. This paste lent itself perfectly to creating figures and objects, as it could be sculpted, rolled out thin, finely pleated, fashioned into delicate petals, or pressed into carved moulds to form a cherub’s wings, scrolls for columns, or limbs for statues. The diverse pieces were carefully assembled to form statues similar to Cupid, Fortune with a cornucopia, Roma sedente created by the artist Rolf Stalberg for the recent exhibition Magnificenza a tavola. Le arti del Banchetto Rinascimentale.20

Once dry, sugar paste became a fine, whitish material, often decorated with gold leaf or coloured, that was highly appreciated for its ornamental potential. Complex inventions were made by using wire or wooden framework underneath to create threedimensional or multilevel showpieces. In my forthcoming book on the arte dolciaria, there are numerous rare recipes for creating superb trionfi from an unpublished manuscript. There is also one for making sugar paste written by the credenziere to Alexander VII. Painstaking research shows however he copied word for word, an earlier recipe for gumpaste in De’ secreti del reverendo donno Alessio Piemontese compiled by Girolamo Ruscelli, in Venice in 1557.21

The drawings for sugar ornaments underline their extreme fragility and the finesse of their detail. For Il Convito (1693) offered by Francesco Ratta at Bologna, we have superb woodcuts of the single decorative elements and a spectacular circular table of sugar arabesques that surrounded a monumental creation of the continents. Below, large trays of delectable sweetmeats adorn the base. This is perhaps the most breathtaking illustration of a truly aweinspiring art.

Sugar sculpture was considered the epitome of grand hospitality and highly valued as a refined form of communication at official banquets. Together with the drawings they were appreciated as highly prized possessions. (See Figure 4.)

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Figure 4: Sugar sculpture illustration.

In 1574 Venice received Henry III of France with regal splendour, and during la festa del Bucintoro church bells rang, cannons resounded and a procession of forty gondolas bedecked in blue and gold damask followed the majestic barge. For the exceptional reception at the Arsenale, ‘ogni cosa maravigliosa et extraordinaria era di zuccaro’: every piece of cutlery, glass, and dish on the table was wrought out of sugar to stupefy the king. Francesco Sansovino describes this memorable event in his work Venetia città nobilissima et singolare (1581).22 However an even grander banquet was offered to the king at the Palazzo Ducale. The speziale della pigna, Nicolò della Cavaliera was commissioned to create over

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three hundred statues in sugar that had been designed by the famous Jacopo Sansovino.23 These represented both sacred and secular themes with a glorious parade of popes, saints, and Saint Mark, patron of the city, accompanied by king David, the doges, and the princes. Then the gods of Mount Olympus – Pallas, Hercules, Jove, Mars, Mercury, Pegasus, and Diana – appeared, followed by dancing nymphs – Fame, Justice, Prudence, and Peace – and the Seven Virtues. The triumphant moment was the most incredible creation of a crowned queen, regally seated between two tigers holding two crowns with the coats of arms of France and Poland in eloquent praise of the guest of honour. The imposing statue was surrounded by many lions, gryphons, eagles, small figures holding bouquets, and cornucopias of fruits.

Figure 5: Four sugar sculptures.

The king was so enraptured by this astounding exhibition that he immediately commissioned a certain Pietro Vicentino to create thirtynine superlative works of art in sugar to take back to France indicating how highly trionfi were treasured. (See Figure 5.)

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The drawings by Pierre Paul Sévin, a French artist who recorded trionfi da tavola from 166668, provide us with exceptional evidence. One illustrates a celebration for Maundy Thursday offered by Clement IX with the papal coat of arms in the centre of the table surrounded by a religious scenario depicting the stations of the cross and the last supper. Two years later the same feast table was dominated by an architectural model of Bramante’s Tempietto, surrounded by trionfi of the cardinal virtues. In the most outstanding banquet scene we can admire pope Clement IX and queen Christina surrounded by the stunning display of about twenty arabesqued sugar sculptures on the table. I also found an unknown madrigal which extols the virtues of Luigi Fedele, celebrated creator of trionfi di zucchero for the queen.

What Christina really loved was the pomp and pageantry, the theatre. The master organizer of the lavish decorations for Alexander VII’s banquet to welcome Christina was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The table drawings of Mercury and Pegasus have been attributed to him and Johann Paul Schor together with that of the Sun, associated with the phoenix, an alchemical emblem favoured by the queen, who had a medal struck with her profile and a humanfaced Sun.

During this period, allimportant receptions for foreign monarchs or ambassadors featured a dazzling array of trionfi da tavola, usually with of a specific allegorical or political communication. For the banquet offered by Alexander VII to the Venetian Ambassadors in 1660, the table was adorned with a most exquisite sugar sculpture, created by the artist Anthoine Fournier, which emanated a precise diplomatic statement. On one side there was the personification of Roma Sedente on the other, Venezia Sedente.24 In the centre was a large statue of Victory with three lions and three wolves (symbols of Venice and Rome) on both sides. Two cherubs bridling a whale, three cherubs holding stars, and a tree surrounded by cherubs completed the splendid scenario.

The spectacular banquet offered by Roger Palmer, Earl of Castlemaine and ambassador to Pope Innocent XI in 1686, presents both exceptional visual evidence of sugar sculpture created by the engraver, Arnold Westerhout, and the artist, Giovan Battista Lenardi. In written testimony recorded by John Michael Wright, it is said that the superb display was on view for several days for the Roman nobility to admire the eighty superb sugar sculptures, halflifesized and ‘modelled to the utmost skill of statuary’ representing the elements and mythological allegories in praise of James II.

In Lo Scalco alla Moderna (1692), which heralds the end of a celebrated epoch, a foldout illustration shows the acme of magnificence at the table. Six superb sugar sculptures frame a glorious Sun Chariot driven by La Chiarezza, with Clarity holding the bridle of four rampant lions. The guests were ecstatic to see the golden light emanating from Apollo’s shining chariot, which was described as an impressive aura of almost divine beauty.

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The table is always a mirror of society. The Italian humanist movement that characterized this era revived classical antiquity liking philosophical and moral issues in ways that permeated all the arts. Humanism emerged along with a profound enthusiasm for classical studies in an attempt to imitate a world centred on Protagoras’ concept ‘Man is the measure of all things’. The return to classical mythology is perfectly reflected at the banquet table where sugar sculptures of the gods Apollo, Bacchus, Venus, and Diana paraded around in the golden candlelight creating a highly evocative atmosphere in which the guests perceived a numinous presence:

Tell me of the highly praised banquet of the gods; where, though the divinities did not dine, there were to be found: the generosity of Jove , the knowledge of Athena, the sagacity of Mercury, the mastery of Vulcan, the richness of Juno in luxury, and everywhere were flowers, perfumes, beauties, delights. A Diana served pheasants, gray partridges, and game birds of every kind, Neptune with oysters and seafood, and finally Saturn brought in the Age of Gold.25

Ultimately, we recognize an archetypal image of the Banquet of the Gods, the Land of Cockaigne, in the scintillating cosmos of the convivial ceremony.

The banquet feast is the symbolic form of these two centuries reflected in the dynamic of techniques, the sociopolitical alibi, the theory of elements, the magic of metamorphosis, of the marvellous. Here water is changed into wine, artifice becomes nature, and sugar is transformed into sculpture. Sugar sculpture expresses the most eclectic and ephemeral art form of the banquet.

Notes1. Di Schino J., Luccichenti F., Il cuoco segreto dei papi. Bartolomeo Scappi e la confraternita dei cuochi e

pasticceri a Roma, Rome 2003. 2. Giegher M. M., Li tre trattati. Padova, Paolo Frambotto, 1639. Cfr. Garbero Zorzi, E., Cerimoniale e

spettacolarità: il tovagliolo sulla tavola del principe, Milano Bompiani 1985. 3. Sforza Pallavicini C., Descrizione del primo viaggio di Christina di Svezia, Rome 1838.4. Sforza Pallavicini C., op cit.5. Speziale alla grassa a sort of apothecary sold spices herbs and sugar.6. Scappi B., Opera, Tramezzini, Venice 1570.7. Up to a dozen coats of syrup were needed before the nuts and seeds were satisfactorily encrusted.8. Di Schino J. Tre banchetti per Cristina di Svezia, Roma 2000.9. Diarii di Marino Sanuto, Stabilimento Visentini Federico Editore, 18791902.10. Taza d’argento con dentro cose fatte di zucharo, alcuni un Cupidine, altri una Venere, molti Neptuno et un

Mercurio, et altri altre diverse figure, così de Dei come de homini et de diversi animali (Most delightful to be seen).

11. Prima comparse sopra d’uno asse lo papa, el principe et lo duca di Milano cum le arme loro et quelle de la signoria vostra, poi santo Marco, altre representazioni de diverse cose…

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12. Di Schino J., op cit.13. 528 scudi and 81 baiocchi.14. Di Schino J. Luccichnti F., Il viaggio di Innocenzo XII da Roma a Nettuno, Viviani, Rome 1998.15. La cucina: hot dishes, la credenza: cold foods.16. Descrizione delle feste fatte nelle reali nozze dei… Cosimo de Medici e Maria Maddalena Arciduchessa

d’Austria, Firenze, Giunti 1608.17. Messisbugo C., Banchetti vivande e imbandigione…, was published postumously in Ferrara, 1540.18. Archivio di Stato di Modena.19. Biblioteca Universitaria Estense Fondo Campori.20. Di Schino J., Cogotti M., Magnificenza a tavola. Le arti del Banchetto Rinascimentale, De Luca editore,

Roma 2012.21. Alexius Piedemontanus was a pseudonym used by the writer and cartographer; Ruscelli’s work has been

translated into German, French and English.22. Apparecchiata una bellissima colatione di confettini et di frutti di zuccari, co i cortelli, con le tovaglie, co i

piatti et con le forcine fatte di zuccaro.23. Speziale alla grassa was sort of apothacary who sold spices herbs and sugar; John Varriano points out

that Sansovino was dead at this time in Tastes and Temptations University of California Press 2009. Perhaps the drawings came from his school, as was often the case.

24. Rome artfully seated.25. Manuscript N 2098 Miscellanea Varia Casanatense. Di Schino J., Tre Banchetti per Christina di Svezia..

Accademia Italiana della Cucina, Rome, 2000.

BibliographyAlbala K., The banquet …of Renaissance Europe University Illinois press, 2007.Buonarroti M. il giovane, Descrizione delle felicissima nozze di… Maria de Medici, Florence 1600.Day I., Royal sugar sculpture, Bowes Museum, 2002.Coutts H., Day I,. Sugar Sculpture, Porcelain and Table Layout 1530-1830. di Schino J., Cogotti M., Magnificenza...del Banchetto Rinascimentale, De Luca, Rome 2012.di Schino J., I fasti del banchetto barocco, DIOMEDA Centro studi, Rome 2002.Latini A., Lo scalco alla moderna, Parrini, Naples 1692.Messisbugo C., Libro novo…, Alberti, Venice 1585.Molmenti P., Venezia, Venezia, NP 2002.Scappi B., Opera, Tramezzini, Venice, 1570.Venturini D., Zucchero e golosessi, Centro Internazionale, Venice ND. Varriano J., Tastes and Temptation,s University of California Press, 2009.Watson K.J., Sugar sculpture for grand ducal weddings, The connoisseur, 1978.

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