Children’s Games by Bruegel

Spread the love

Children's Games. Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Oil on wood, 1560 Vienna, Austria. Museum of Fine Arts

A kind of illustrated encyclopaedia of children’s games of the time – “Children’s Games”, Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Oil on wood, 1560 Vienna, Austria. Museum of Fine Arts

Children’s Games by Bruegel
Fantastic city appears before the audience in the picture. On the streets we do not see a single adult. Only children live in the world of game. Left without strict supervision of parents and educators, boys and girls are enthusiastically about their business. Children jump, ride on sticks, roll hoops, play leap-frog, run tops, blow bubbles, walk on stilts, play with toys, ride on each other, climb fences, Handstand, swim. Copying adults, they represent a joust, trade shop, and wedding. The artist tried to give the fullest possible understanding of all known to him children’s games.

Details of painting by Bruegel. Children’s Games

It is believed that this work was to be the first in a planned series of master of the “age of man.” Apparently, therefore, there are no adults – they should appear in the following pictures. Some art historians believe Pieter Bruegel the Elder has created a kind of illustrated encyclopaedia of children’s games of the time.

Faces of the children are remarkably serious. Bruegel almost never portrayed smiling faces. In addition, the characters of the painting have not yet been able to perceive the game as fun. This is their life, and it is also complex, as well as the adult world.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder lived at a time when all Europe was gripped by religious wars. Not accidentally – no smiling faces in the pictures of the Dutch master. That is why he so often portrayed cripples and beggars. And that’s why the artist painted the gallows on a background of peaceful landscapes.