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Description
Taking its cue from Veronese’s lavish Wedding at Cana (1563), this article explores the meanings of fine and ordinary glassware, focusing on the performative value of Renaissance goblets. Drinking vessels are analyzed here as tools for the gradual transformation of human behavior, or the ‘Civilizing Process’ that sociologist Norbert Elias expounded. In the mid-sixteenth century, new designs for fine glasses supported and shaped the proper conduct expected of guests and servants in banquets. Iconographic sources such as the exquisite wine cups depicted by Veronese, didactic literature and the objects themselves document the kind of challenges and expectations that handling glass in public induced. By the end of the sixteenth century, the affordability of simple but elegant goblets allowed common people to adopt the drinking manners of the elite, thus furthering the association between glassware and the concept of civility.
ISBN
ISSN 0952-4649
Publication Date
5-2013
Department
Theory & History of Art & Design
Publisher
Oxford Academic
City
Oxford, UK
Keywords
design history, material culture, ritual, glass, Renaissance, table manners, THAD, Theory & History of Art & Design
Disciplines
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture | Art and Design
Recommended Citation
Rihouet, Pascale and Department, Theory & History of Art & Design, "Veronese’s Goblets: Glass Design and the Civilizing Process" (2013). Faculty & Librarian Work. 1.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/faculty_work/1
Included in
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Art and Design Commons