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(Image: Casa Buonarroiti)
HAVE YOU EVER wondered what famous Italian artist Michelangelo ate? It might be hard to imagine him abandoning one of his masterpieces to go out and to the weekly shop but this shopping list from a collection of his papers in 1518 show fish, bread and wine were favourites with him.
The shopping list, which comes from the collection of the Florence museum Casa Buonarroti, is accompanied by illustrations that were most likely drawn to help guide Michelangelo’s illiterate assistant while browsing the market.
It’s separated into three days by horizontal lines, and one clever Redditer has translated it to show bread, herring, anchovies, salami and fennel soup were all purchased by the artists. He also intended to buy a good bit of wine.
The 1518 list with ideograms is a part of a collection of Michelangelo’s drawings and loose papers that have toured around America in recent years, from Seattle to Boston. The papers, which range from letters and poems to sketches of his most famous work, offer a glimpse into the daily life of one of the greatest masters in all of art history.
- Megan Willett with additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
Lots of wine, because Michelangelo was, as we all know, a party dude
No pop tarts in there then…
Not much has changed fish bread wine, staple diet of most people.
Not much has changed? I would have thought that a Big Change in the enviroment today with all the chemicals being used in agriculture would mean our diet is very much different and for the worse.i bet the food back then ( and the soil it came from ) was the purest one could find.
And if it were to be replicated now it would cost 100% more than what we usually pay
I wouldn’t say so you forgot how bad sanitation was them they probably piss*d and shite everywhere.
I agree!
Sanitation was very good 2,000 years ago. The Romans brought water in by aquaduct, and back out by sewers. They also had public baths and they went a long way toward a level of hygiene.
@ Stephen,
all today’s technological progress and improvements in access to food means a massive increase in the standard of living over the last 150years, (never mind 500 yrs) . The environmental cost has indeed been huge, and sooner or later the world has to face up to it, but let’s not kid ourselves that the quality of food for the average citizen in 1520 was better and more accessible than what you can get in Aldi today.
Ok apart from the sanitation and the roads and law and order what did the Romans ever do for us?
@Gary nothing actually wish to God the Romans had got to Ireland our roads might have had a better base to start with!!!!
Democracy
@Gary.
Law – the US constitution is firmly based on the Roman, as our many of ours indirectly. Religious tolerance. The width of a train track near you is the same width of a Roman chariot. Everything the Greeks did the Romans took, assimilated, and did better very often. Medicine, architecture, art, military, technology – everything Gary.
Not only would it need a book – it would need a library of books to account for what the Romans gave to us.
Jesus relax folks it was a Qoute from the life of Brian just having a laugh :)
Whoops Gary, I missed that :)
Greeks were democracy Leslie.
Btw, apologies for calling you a cranky fecker a few nights ago. It was a quip that went badly wrong, but wasn’t meant as an insult.
Well with my immense artistic ability all my shopping lists are done in the form of hand drawn pictures. And not crappy small ones like that amateur Da Vinci did either. I use a an A4 size page for each item and they’re all drawn with exceptional breathtaking detail. Once, my water color painting of aubergines was so beautiful I broke down and cried in the fruit and veg section.
As a youth I used to weep in butcher’s shops
Sounds like the start of a great poem Clodagh…
It’s a quote from one of my favourite films of all time: “Withnail & I” – well worth a watch. Well worth several watches actually – it gets better every time I see it. This trailer doesn’t do it justice but it will give you an inkling of the splendour that is this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT5qhPoRS9g
@ Clodagh.
Richard E. Grant has a superb book out worth reading if you haven’t already. Can’t remember the name of it, but he’s a superb writer.
I’ll keep my eye out for that – thanks for the recommendation Mr R! :)
A true genius. Even he even draws his shopping list better than I can paint draw or sketch on my best day.
If he was alive today he’d be drawing a couple of litres of coke, crisps and chocolate, a white sliced pan, waffles, oven chips, mince, and a lotto ticket.
List makes me feel hungry and thirsty.
@Gary o Barry. The Life of Brian quote went over a lot of heads here. The timing was excellent and the execution was clinical! Alas on the Journal, humour has no place.
Andrew Nolan, you are NOT the messiah. You are a very naughty boy!!!
What about a fish and chips
I wonder what the other turtles ate
Life expectancy then was 30-35 years, a bit more if you were wealthy. We have only seen a big and rapid improvement in the last 200 years with clean water perhaps being the major factor.
Actually, life expectancy was considerable in ancient Rome too. The collapse happened after the fall of Rome, and all the way through the dark ages. Nothing much happened in art of science – learning, until the renaissance. Over a thousand years of nothingness more or less in between ancient Rome and the Renaissance.
A common, and completely ludicrous, misconception.
Red Rooster; The Romans came to Britain, stayed for a while, and then f**ked off again. The people continued to live and survive as they had done before the interference. You have fallen for the “neo” classical bulls*it taught in English public schools. There is a clue in “neo”. Dark ages my ar*se!!!!
“A common, and completely ludicrous, misconception.:
A loaded statement if ever I saw one.
Was that to me or Aunty?
@Tafhash.
“. The people continued to live and survive as they had done before the interference.”
`That’s called the dark or middle ages. And I”m sure you are aware of that, though I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt as I do sense a historian in you. But not an historian that keeps up to date………
And, no, they continue life as normal – without roman – influence.
Red Rooster, I grant you your minor correction but utterly reject the “dark” aspect of the age. It is only dark to those blinded to the very clear evidence from the time. By the way; isn’t it ironic how Ireland was conquered by the Romans in their post military empire (christianity) and the Roman Empire and its various sects continue to dominate the island? :-)
Did he shop at Lidl?
Eggsellent
The old ones are the best??!! Maybe not!
Actually this is what his shopping list looked like, not his weekly shop. The Journal should hire me as an editor on €200 an hour. Anything less than that I’ll stay in the dole because I’ll make more money.
(I’m not in the dole)
Or, you could simply stay as a commentator.
(I’m not a Journal employee)
This is his shopping list, not his ‘shop’..
have your say