''The Banquet of a Rich Glutton'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

painter Mattia Preti, executed ''c.'' 1665. It is housed in the Pinacoteca of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica ( Palazzo Barberini), in Rome.

Description

The painting was likely commissioned by Antonio Caputo, a Neapolitan merchant from Preti during his stay in Naples. It was likely a companion piece to the ''Banquet of Absalom'' now hanging in the Museo di Capodimonte. The subject of this painting derives from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus found in the gospel of Luke 16: 19–31. The name ''Epulone'' has been attached in Italy to the rich man, but also generically refers to a ''feaster'' (with pejorative gluttonous suggestion). The etymology of the word comes from a banquet sometime prepared in honor of the gods. The painting depicts a rich man after completion of his meal, with empty plates, surrounded by servants, while in the background, is the beggar Lazarus. The painting was purchased in 1895 from a

Monte di Pietà A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation ...

, where such a painting would have resonated as both a ''

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'Entry at Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica
The painting would have been thematically antithetical to the still life works depicting a cornucopia of a contemporary rich man's kitchen.

References

1665 paintings Paintings by Mattia Preti Collections of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica Food and drink paintings {{17C-painting-stub