A Man Milling Cacao into Chocolate with a Metate and a Mano

Artist Unknown Spanish painter

DateMid-late 17th century

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions41 x 28 in. (104.1 x 71.1 cm)
Frame: 53 x 40 3/4 in. (134.6 x 103.5 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Cone

Object numberG.69.20.1

On View

On view

ProvenanceDuke of Bedford [?]; Victor Behar, London, ca. 1946-51/52; [Mr. and] Mrs. Benjamin Cone, Greensboro, NC (gift from Behar - deceased); given to NCMA, 1969.Published References"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 9, nos. 1 and 2 (December 1969), listed 56, illus. (b-w) 69 (as Moorish Servant by Antonio Puga).

Claire Clifton, The Art of Food: Culinary inspirations from the paintings of the great masters (New Jersey: The Wellfleet Press, 1989), 122, illus. (color) 123.

L. E. [Lisa Eveleigh], "Private Collectors Share Their Art," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Autumn 1992), mentioned and illus. (b-w) 14.

Marianna Haraszti - Takacs, Spanish Genre Painting in the Seventeenth Century (Budapest: Adakemia Kiado, 1983), cat. no. 196.

Edward J. Sullivan, Catalogue of Spanish Paintings (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1986), cat. no. 31, illus. (b-w) 97, also briefly discussed xiv and illus. (color) xv.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 213.

Dennis Weller, entry for A Man Scraping Chocolate, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 157, illus. (color).

Janet M. Torpy, M.D., "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 287, no. 19 (May 15, 2002), discussed 2466, illus. (color) 2457, and cover.

Dennis P. Weller, entry for A Man Scraping Chocolate, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 318, illus. (color) 319.

Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz, On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious AdventureConnecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2013), illus. (b-w) 54.

Pia Baggi Sasini, Bello da Mangiare: Good Enough to Eat (Milan: Nexo, 2012), illus. (color) 273.

Gloria K. Fiero, The Humanistic Tradition, Book 4: Faith, Reason, and Power in the Early Modern World, 7th ed. (Boston, etc.: McGraw Hill Education, 2015), briefly discussed and illus. (color) 185, fig. 26.12.

Lisandra Estevez, “(Re-) presenting Africans in Early Modern Spain and Latin America,” in Notes on Early Modern Art 4, no. 1 (Ramsey, NJ: Zephyrus Scholarly Publications, LLC, 2017), discussed 12–22, illus. (color) 13, fig. 1.

Luke Whisnant, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Man Scraping Chocolate" in “You Are the River: Literature Inspired by the North Carolina Museum of Art,” edited by Helena Feder (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2021), illus (color) 66. (as "A Man Scraping Chocolate").

Peter Brathwaite, Rediscovering Black Portraiture (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2023), illus. (color) 70, as A Man Scraping Chocolate.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Paintings from N.C. Collectors,” October 3-24, 1954, catalogue.

Birmingham, AL, Birmingham Museum of Art, “Art of Spain,” March 19-April 5, 1971, cat. p. 36.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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