A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens
Title
A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens
Alt Text Description
Grayscale illustration of a group of men enjoying supper and discussing politics. They sit at a table in a garden, servants attending their dishes.
Description
At a lavish supper in the Rucellai Gardens, Tito dines with powerful men as servants present an ornate peacock dish amid easy political talk. When Baldassarre accuses him of betrayal, the guests dismiss the charge, leaving Tito publicly vindicated yet privately troubled.
“The light talk and the solid eatables were not soon at an end, for after the roast and boiled meats came the indispensable capon and game, and, crowning glory of a well-spread table, a peacock cooked according to the receipt of Apicius for cooking partridges, namely, with the feathers on, but not plucked afterwards, as that great authority ordered concerning his partridges; on the contrary, so disposed on the dish that it might look as much as possible like a live peacock taking its unboiled repose" ("A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens", Chapter 39).
“The light talk and the solid eatables were not soon at an end, for after the roast and boiled meats came the indispensable capon and game, and, crowning glory of a well-spread table, a peacock cooked according to the receipt of Apicius for cooking partridges, namely, with the feathers on, but not plucked afterwards, as that great authority ordered concerning his partridges; on the contrary, so disposed on the dish that it might look as much as possible like a live peacock taking its unboiled repose" ("A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens", Chapter 39).
Illustrator
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896)
Contributor
Swain, Joseph (1820-1909), engraver
Publisher
George Eliot Archive , edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org
Date
1863, 1880
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Work Illustrated
Romola
Citation
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896), A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens, George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive , edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83587
Illustration
