Isabella’s advice for the holiday table

As was the custom in nineteenth century society, great wealth brought civic responsibility. Mrs. Gardner fulfilled her duties with unusual flair. Fenway Court (the turn-of-the-century moniker for today’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) was the setting for events to benefit local charities as well as support for artistic creation. These events included an annual garden competition, plays performed in the Gothic Room, and modern dance performances. Concerts and lavish dinner parties also took place.

A Musical Feast

Many people think of the Renaissance as a flowering in the visual arts, but in fact all of the arts went through vital changes during this period of European cultural rebirth. Even food changed during the Renaissance—surviving recipes from the period indicate a shift away from the boiled grains and blancmange of the Middle Ages to more refined wines (viticulture took a huge leap forward in the Renaissance), meats with complicated sauces, and even exotic New World imports such as potatoes. In short, it was the kind of European food that we’re used to in the 21^st century. Wealthy noble families such as the Medicis and Gonzagas in Italy, the Burgundian dynasty in France, and the Tudors in England, competed to hire the best cooks, along with the best painters, best sculptors, and of course…the best musicians.

Unlike painting or sculpture, cooking and music are ephemeral arts that have to be recreated for each occasion. In a world where we can listen to music on demand from a dozen different sources, we often don’t appreciate how special music could be in an era when live performance was the only way music was ever heard, and no performance could ever be captured or replayed. Music was often present at great feasts and celebrations, and no feast characterized this “seize the moment” idea better than the annual festival of Martinmas, celebrated in early November.