9.700 €
Gustus, an Allegory of Taste
Oil on panel : 47,7 X 38,2 cm
Unsigned
Frame : 72,5 X 63,1 cm
I am currently documenting this painting





About our painting
The man in our painting is proposing a small stick of sweet rock candy to a lady. Such a sticks were made of cane sugar, a new commodity that appeared in the Low Countries at the end of the 16th century. It replaced honey as a sweetening agent, first in medicine, but also rapidly in culinary use.
These batons of large semi-transparent crystals were grown slowly over a period of days on sticks or strings suspended in a warm sugar solution. They were flavoured with flower essences such as rose or violet. They would be either sucked or crunched.
Comparative paintings
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