The University of Cambridge removed a 17th-century oil painting from one of its dining rooms after vegan students complained they could not eat in its presence.
The Fowl Market, by Flemish artist Frans Snyders, showed a bearded man surrounded by animal carcasses ready to be sold and prepared for a feast.
Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum donated the print to hang in the Hughes Hall dining room, where formal banquets are held twice a week. The painting made a group of students uncomfortable, so the university removed it, according to the Telegraph.
“Some diners felt unable to eat because it was on the wall. People who don’t eat meat found it slightly repulsive. They asked for it to come down,” a Fitzwilliam Museum representative said.
Vegan students complained about a painting of dead animals in their dining hall. The college took it down. https://t.co/m86xCguBSW
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 22, 2019
The reason for the painting’s removal caused some blowback on social media, but Hughes Hall bursar Victoria Espley dismissed the outrage, noting the university regularly removes and replaces its artwork.
“Any debate over this painting that was on loan to us from the Fitzwilliam Museum is really a poultry affair,” Espley said.
The piece is now slated to be displayed in an exhibit over the history of veganism and vegetarianism.
“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 industrialized world,” said Victoria Avery and Melissa Calaresu, the new exhibit’s curators.
“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,” the pair said.
