They said: Many people are turning to vegetarianism and veganism as a political choice as much as a dietary one, as we rethink our relationship with animals and their treatment in an industrialised world.

Food choices are not only determined by political concerns about what we eat but also compounded by the moral anxieties which resonate around diet, self-image, over-consumption and our bodies.

As Feast & Fast demonstrates, many of these contemporary concerns about our relationship with food are not new.

The show, which opens on Tuesday, will feature tableau including the recreation of a wedding sugar banquet, which consisted entirely of glittering displays made out of sugar, and an 18th century confectioners shop window.

There will also be a recreation of a 17th century Baroque feasting table complete with swan and peacock. While perhaps incredible - and indeed, offensive - to modern eyes, all of these birds and beasts were available for consumption by wealthy diners across early modern Europe, as made evident in Frans Snyders gigantic workshop copy of The Fowl Market, the Fitzwilliam said.

The Hughes Hall canvas was a mid-17th century copy by an unknown artist in the Antwerp workshop of Snyders (1579-1657), who is renowned for his still-life and animal subjects. The original is in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

See original here:
Cambridge University students cry fowl over 17th century painting that upsets vegetarians - The Telegraph