Feasts and Flowers: Two Books from the Louvre

Flammarion’s Musée du Louvre Editions series is focused on specific themes within the Louvre’s vast collections. Last year’s offering was the small and delightful Love in the Louvre. This year’s is a charming pair of picture books dedicated to flowers and food.

Flowers in the Louvre is a joint effort by Michel Lis, editor-in-chief of the popular magazine L’Ami des Jardins, and a regular guest on French television and radio gardening shows; and art historian Béatrice Vingtrinier, a 15-year veteran at the Louvre. They know their business, and they make a swell team. In his introduction, “Let the Flowers Speak!”, Lis discusses the meaning of flowers, and Vingtrinier follows up with more about the presence of flowers in eachof the artworks chosen for the book. As Lis explains, flowers are both objects of great beauty and symbols of everything from the glories of life and love to the depths of sorrow and hatred. A daisy is not always just a daisy, as we discover in the breathtaking images here, from the 18th-Dynasty Egyptian Woman Smelling a Lotus Flower to Arcimboldo’s luminous Spring, a male profile composed of lilies of the valley, peonies and daisies.

Aimed at both art lovers and gastronomes, Food in the Louvre is a wonderful reminder of the evocative drama and sheer beauty of food. Paul Bocuse and Yves Pinard, the renowned French chefs who worked together on this little tome, present readers with a glutton’s nirvana. They include classic still lifes, such as The Brioche by Chardin and Bowl of Strawberries and Basket of Cherries by François Garnier, and glorious banquet scenes, like Belshazzar’s Feast by Frans Francken the Younger. Perhaps best of all, they throw in recipes to accompany almost every masterpiece. Next to The Brioche is a recipe for it, along with instructions on how to prepare a stellar coulis. If your mouth waters staring at Abraham Brueghel’s Woman Taking Some Fruit, you’re in luck: There’s a recipe for figs with pain doré. If you’re one of the few who find Chardin’s grotesque The Ray Fish appetizing, there’s even a recipe for Monsieur Chardin’s Ray, which calls for cloves, saffron and 18 fresh oysters.

Whether you’re a gardener, a gourmand, an art lover or all three, these latest little volumes from Flammarion’s Louvre series are sure to capture your attention and make you want to return to the museum as soon as possible. But if you can’t book a flight right away, they might also inspire you to do a little watering in your backyard, arrange a fresh-cut bouquet on your table, or prepare a feast of roast pheasant and green cabbage. Art is in the details, after all.

Flowers in the Louvre, Food in the Louvre (Flammarion, 2010, each $19.95)