What is the origin of "one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach"?

Solution 1:

This phrase might be older (I know some similar Danish from 14th c), but have it's full form in Montaigne's essay Of the Cannibals (c. 1580, first translation to English in 1603) and here used metaphorically about other things than food:

"I am afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind."

The meaning is also evident in Lyly's The Anatomy of Wit (from the same year 1578/1580, p. 311 in Arbers 1868-edition):

"But thou art like the Epicure, whose belly is sooner filled than his eye".