The Old Curiosity Shop


Fruit Of Corruption
The Gothic Strawberry
The very concept of fruit being Gothic is something of an odd one, let alone the idea of the strawberry being somehow Gothic. Surely if there were a Gothic fruit it should be something like the durian – a favourite with Decadents as it stinks of decay but, at least according to aficionados, tastes divine. Yet there are a number of intriguing links between the humble strawberry and the realms of Gothic art and philosophy. Horace Walpole, author of the first ever Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764, called his quaint Gothic retreat Strawberry Hill, but this was little more than a name with no special significance.

Strange fruit in Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delight. By way of contrast Heironymous Bosch, the sixteenth century Flemish artist famous for his grotesque scenes of Hell, seldom did anything without secret significance. His paintings are puzzles, squirming with little scenes and symbols that hint at proverbs, mottoes and, some say, esoteric wisdom. Huge strawberries feature prominently when he depicts the follies of earth, such as in the central panel of his famous Garden of Earthly Delights. This relates to a Medieval idea that the strawberry is a symbol of earthly pleasure – because, like pleasures of the flesh, while the strawberry looks very sweet, it has little flavour which passes quickly. By way of contrast, is the pious suggestion, that spiritual pleasures are deep and eternal.

The strawberry has had other significance to other artists. The Decadent, nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire was a drunk and a drug-addict, but created some of the most beautiful verse ever written. In ‘The Vampire’ – one of his poetic Flowers of Evil – he describes the sexy subject of the poem as ‘the woman with the strawberry mouth’. This tells us not just the vibrant colour of her lips but the way they make the poet long to taste – perhaps even bite – them. Our strawberry-lipped seductress gets the last laugh, however, when she reveals her true form – a leathery pus-filled sack – and sucks the marrow from his bones. A definite case of look before you lick!...
 
A decadent vampire drains her prey in this painting by Boleslas Biegas.

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