Its incomparable taste and effects meant that wine became a symbol of both earthly and heavenly pleasures. At the ‘gods’ banqueting table’, good food goes hand in hand with voluptuous pleasure. Wine resembles blood, that vital fluid symbolizing heredity and allegiance. As such, it is the privilege of gods as well as kings. To drink, to share the ‘blood of the Earth’, allows the drinker a taste of immortality. From Osiris to Christ, via Dionysus, wine is the emblem of divine rebirth. Wine and the vine are cited 443 times in the Bible. In the Titian's "Supper at Emmaus" , the pilgrims relive the Last Supper. Despite no mention of a wine blessing in Bible, Titian does not hesitate to introduce it, alluding to the Last Supper, itself harking back to the Jewish liturgy.

This gallery contains over 250 paintings, of which many are the work of great masters!