''The Lunch'' is a very early painting by Spanish artist

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...

, finished c. 1617. The work, an oil painting on canvas, is in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The painting portrays a table covered by a creased cloth, on which lie two

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have o ...

s and a piece of bread. People attending the lunch include an aged man on the left and a young man on the right, while, in the background, an apparently carefree boy pours wine into a jug. The smiling man on the right appears to be ordering something, using Continental

finger-counting Finger-counting, also known as dactylonomy, is the act of counting using one's fingers. There are multiple different systems used across time and between cultures, though many of these have seen a decline in use because of the spread of Arabic nu ...

. On the wall in the background hang a white neck-band, a leather bag and, on the right, a sword. ''The Lunch'' is nearly identical to another painting by Velázquez, '' The Farmers' Lunch'' (1618). The painting was on public display as 'The Breakfast' from February 2 to August 25, 2019 at the

H'ART Museum H'ART Museum is an art museum located on the banks of the Amstel river in Amsterdam. Formerly a satellite of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia, the museum cut ties with the Hermitage after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. H ...

in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as part of the 'De Schatkamer!' exhibition.

References

* Seville-period paintings by Diego Velázquez 1617 paintings Paintings by Diego Velázquez in the Hermitage Museum Paintings by Diego Velázquez Food and drink paintings Genre paintings {{1610s-painting-stub

See also

References