24k sandwich

hard to understand this lovely sandwich painting i found in a uffizi temporary exhibit, much to my delight. it was one of several painted on wooden forms that take their shapes from grain shovels, but are purely decorative antiques dating from the renaissance, each with the nickname of a member of a club & their respective symbols meant to be hung together.

this one was my favorite.

it shows a warm, fresh-from-the-oven bun-- can you smell that just-baked yeasty bread smell? but wait! don't bite into it, yet, because.... what kind of meat is that inside? i asked, and when the museum staff explained, it got even better.

it's actually stuffed full of a type of woven ribbon, so it's not an actual sandwich. the reason is that to get the fragile, delicate pure gold leaf that has been applied to adhere to the fabric of the ribbon, just the right amount of heat and pressure are needed: enter the fresh-baked bun.

in the case of this shovel, the person's nickname was "rifiorito", which means "bloomed". the phrase written in the banner across the top says something like, "because his goodness disclosed itself".

who knows how that became a 24k gold sandwich, but i'm biting into its delicious, funny, unexpected, so-real-i-can-taste-it, wonderful imagery.