How times don't change

We are about to have lunch with my niece and her partner. And what I shall be putting on the table, besides the quiche that I am making will be much like what you see here. Well a variation thereof.

The painting is by Floris van Dyck, who was a Dutch painter of their Golden Age. It is dated 161 and it's my painting of the day.. In the 17th century painting was highly regulated in the Low Countries. You got channelled into painting a particular kind of painting, and this guy did still lifes. I'm not an art expert, so I wouldn't really tell you why when you look at this painting you know that it is from that time. The knife, the tablecloth, the colouring? Tantalising isn't it? But somehow you know it's from then. Maybe it's because artists paint in quite a different style these days.

But look at that roll. They have rolls just like that in my local supermarket. And the cheese - an aged gouda perhaps. The one on top looks pretty aged, but really you can find cheeses like that nowadays. Here are some from France that look much the same.

It's not Dutch but it's similar - maybe not quite as aged. But I have certainly seen aged Gouda in our Queen Vic market that looks pretty old and dry.

My point is that the basics are pretty much the same from time immemorial and all around the world. Bread, cheese, fruit and nuts. The actual fruit, cheese, bread and nuts may change - witness the Persian breakfast I talked about the other day, but really things haven't changed much over time have they? Gourmet lunches tend to be a variation on this theme. Just go to the Yarra Valley and order a platter to share.

And neither have people. Sometimes this is good - we ought to have a good handle on what makes people tick by now and in the west anyway, we do treat the poor, women and minorities - but then again some things that ought to have changed because they have been shown not to work time and time again - wars, violence, greed, etc. still seem to be unchanged. It's still the same old, same old and occasionally we even seem to regress - Donald Trump anyone!

But back to food. I have spoken about the basics before and no doubt I shall do it again - but here we are - I turn over my page in my desk diary and there they are again - bread, cheese, fruit, nuts and wine. Let's not forget the wine.

And a little postscript. The quote that went with today's painting was as follows:

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

G. K. Chesterton.

Now there's food for thought.

POSTSCRIPT

Today - 27th September my painting for today is this by Caravaggio.

Which is stunningly beautiful - why is it that he is so much better an artist - well I think so. And here are the apples and grapes and quinces again. But if you look closely most of the fruit and vegetation is being attacked by insects or is going off. The decay of beauty. And to my mind it looks sort of Roman too.