Piled High: 17th-Century Dutch Banquet Scenes

Re:Piled High: 17th-Century Dutch Banquet Scenes by yostrovs on Thursday January 30, 2025 @10:26AM (#42878619)

I noticed that strangely many Dutch still life scenes include lemons whose skin has been partially peeled and made to hang from the side of the table. Does this have more meaning than just showing off access to lemons and ability to draw the shape with the peel?

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Re:Piled High: 17th-Century Dutch Banquet Scenes by quuxly on Thursday January 30, 2025 @11:18AM (#42879204)

I had the same question, after seeing one of my great uncle’s paintings with a peeled lemon motif. There’s a good Reddit comment here that goes into a lot of detail:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/nz47rz/still...

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Re:Piled High: 17th-Century Dutch Banquet Scenes by Galatians4_16 on Thursday January 30, 2025 @11:27AM (#42879319)

Could they have been used to degrease hands durning the meal?

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