This survey of the patriotic caseiculture of France, whose selective, reductive tolerance of local flavour was only developed after the Industrial Revolution—and could be said of any country with a cheesemaking tradition—is an interesting exercise in categorisation of what once had infinite variation. Artisanal and naturally resistant to classification, we’ve lost a lot in the struggle to maintain standard in cuisine and technique.
We take one image used in the essay,
The Ricotta Eaters from sixteenth century northern Italian mannerism painter, among the first to import the genre of Flemish realism, Vincenzo Campi—as one of the few foreign cheeses embraced by France (adopted as its own in recuite), its considered lineage dating back to the Bronze Age, verifiable and not needing an origin-fable, like
Roquefort or
Brie. Vincenzo entitled the work il Buffonaria, not for ricotta di bufala, from buffalo milk, but rather for four
stock characters of Commedia dell’arte depicted (the artist included himself off-centre with the golden robe and white kerchief as Pantalone) that each presents a gesture marking various stages of cheese consumption, from right to left, the woman (perhaps the figure of Colombina) holding a wooden spoon but not appearing about to serve herself. The round hallowed out by scoops of the spoon resembles a skull as a memento mori, both exalting and mocking the pleasures of the table and associated refinements, and also is a bit despoiled by the addition of a tiny
fly.
