Drinking

Drinking, specifically the consumption of alcoholic beverages, is the intake of drinks containing ethanol, a central nervous system depressant. These beverages are typically divided into three classes: beers, wines, and spirits, with alcohol content generally ranging from 3% to 50%. The practice is primarily pursued for the psychoactive effects produced by alcohol, which in low doses causes euphoria, reduces anxiety, and increases sociability. In higher doses, it leads to drunkenness, stupor, unconsciousness, or death. Humans are the only species known to intentionally produce alcoholic drinks, though other animals will consume it if given the opportunity. The global alcoholic drink industry exceeded 1.5 trillion dollars in 2017, and about 33% of all humans currently drink alcohol.

The iconography of drinking carries dual meanings of communal celebration and moral dissipation. In many societies, drinking is integrated into parties and social rituals, symbolizing happiness, social cohesion, and religious devotion. In Sumerian culture, alcohol served as sacrificial offerings to the gods and a means for happiness, epitomized by the ceremonial reenactment of the drunken union between the king of Uruk and the high priestess of Ishtar. Conversely, the psychoactive effects of alcohol also lend drinking an iconography of vice and excess. The temperance movement advocates against consumption, and by the 18th century, alcohol was first understood as a cause of societal problems. The World Health Organization classifies alcohol as a group 1 carcinogen, noting that health risks start from the first drop.

The treatment of drinking in visual culture has shifted alongside evolving social and religious attitudes. In ancient Sumerian and Egyptian societies, drinking was depicted as a sacred and elite activity, with beer and wine linked to deities like Ninkasi and used as grave goods. In classical antiquity, Greek and Roman cultures elevated wine through the gods Dionysus and Bacchus, associating consumption with symposia and power. During the Middle Ages, monastic traditions centered on oat beer, which was consumed throughout the day, even during fasting, as it was not considered a violation of fasts. By the 18th century, the Gin Crisis in England shifted the artistic and cultural view of drinking toward social critique, highlighting addiction and poverty. Modern regulatory frameworks, such as age limits and warning labels, reflect contemporary public health perspectives that view consumption as a toxic risk.

Historical and literary texts provide notable depictions of drinking that have resonated through art history. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the wild man Enkidu drinks seven jugs of beer, becoming elated and singing with joy, marking his transition from wilderness to civilization. Ancient Egyptian texts describe the intoxicating behavior of young men. In the Roman necropolis of Carmona, Spain, a first century glass urn was discovered in 2019 containing the oldest surviving wine in the world, surpassing the Speyer wine bottle by three centuries. Neolithic pottery from Georgia, dated to approximately 6000 BCE, was decorated with depictions of celebrating human figures, providing some of the earliest visual records of drinking culture.