DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44747#0037
we care only about playing joyfully.
In this case too there is no possibility of reading the images as a
mirror of adult folly. It has been claimed that De Vos traveled to Italy
and spent time with Bruegel there. The two probably had a similar
concept of the meaning of children’s games.
With the above considerations in mind, it becomes important for
an understanding of Bruegel’s painting to know what ideas on the
significance of children’s games prevailed from antiquity to the
Middle Ages and how these ideas may have influenced the humanists
of the sixteenth century. The ancient Greek philosophers Plato40)
and Aristotle insisted that play is necessary in forming the character of
a child. In the Politics, Aristotle states, that children up to the age of
five should not be directed
to any study nor to compulsory labours, in order that they may
not hinder the growth, but should nevertheless be allowed
enough movement to avoid bodily inactivity; and this exercise
should be obtained by means of various pursuits, particularly
play.41)
In the Middle Ages, Konrad von Megenberg, a canon of Regens-
burg, included a section on “Play and Exercise in the Fresh Air” in
his book Yconomica (the book of household management), saying,
With such games the infant souls become delighted, their
blood is set in motion, and their minds become sharpened;
whereby, through running around, the limbs are moved appro-
priately, and at the same time the whole body is being invigorated
and also strengthened as desired.42)
With these precedents, there were Renaissance Italians like
Cardinal Sadroleto who recommended the traditional physical exer-
cises of ancient Rome (playing ball, running, throwing the javelin,
and horseback riding) to cultivate vitality and initiative in the
young.43) The French humanist Rabelais showed great interest in
games, making a list of 218 games in which his protagonist par-
ticipated in Gargantua (15 3 4).44) The Spanish humanist Joan Luis
Vives, who taught philosophy at Leuven, saw games as recreational
activities for the body and spirit, a means for rejuvenation and pre-
paration of the mind for study.45) In the first half of the sixteenth
century, a variety of children’s games began to appear in Flemish
breviaries and books of hours, especially in the marginal illumina-
tions of the liturgical calendar, sometimes connected with the sea-
sons. Some good examples are found in The Book of Golf in the
British Museum in London, a breviary (cod.lat.28346) in the col-
lection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, a breviary
(cod.no. 946) in the Meyer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp, and
the Spignola Book of Hours in the J. Paul Getty Museum. These
books were illuminated by Simon Bening and his workshop, Gerard
Horenbout, the Master of Holtulus Animae, and others.
A Clothing Diary, a manuscript written by Konrad Schwarz in
Augsburg, Germany after 1560, about the same time as Bruegel’s
Children's Games, describes the author’s life as a child. The section
entitled “Eight and a Half Years” contains the following passage, in
which Konrad describes the games he played after recovering from
sickness.
In the years 1548 and 1549 I had not gone much to school or
out of the house because of the terrible sickness I had, according
to a childhood notebook on the 10th day. But in 1550 I returned
again to my teacher, who by this time had his school at St. Martin.
It was in May. My normal clothing is shown below. It was also my
delight, when I came home from school or stayed in the yard
behind the school, to play with birds, to play with a hammer, to
play marbles, to spin a top, to play with a stick and hoop, and to
enjoy other such games as are shown partially below (fig. 8).
Under “Ten Years and Two Months,” Schwarz mentions such
winter pastimes as sleigh riding, sliding on the snow, throwing snow
balls, and children pulling on each other.46)
The 91 different games brought together in Bruegel’s Children’s
Games should be considered in terms of this historical background.
No previous painter put together such a large number of children’s
games in a painting. Bruegel depicts each game and its equipment
with great precision, vividly expressing the children’s absorption in
their play. In observing the playing children, he shows their capacity
for inventing their own games and rules and for making whatever
equipment they need by themselves, for example, using broken
household items. He also shows how they discover ways to play in all
sorts of places and how they think of games appropriate to the place.
They can create a place to play anywhere, in front of the house, in the
inner court, at the entrance or on the terrace of a public building, on
the walls of buildings, along roads and rivers, and up trees.
47
In this case too there is no possibility of reading the images as a
mirror of adult folly. It has been claimed that De Vos traveled to Italy
and spent time with Bruegel there. The two probably had a similar
concept of the meaning of children’s games.
With the above considerations in mind, it becomes important for
an understanding of Bruegel’s painting to know what ideas on the
significance of children’s games prevailed from antiquity to the
Middle Ages and how these ideas may have influenced the humanists
of the sixteenth century. The ancient Greek philosophers Plato40)
and Aristotle insisted that play is necessary in forming the character of
a child. In the Politics, Aristotle states, that children up to the age of
five should not be directed
to any study nor to compulsory labours, in order that they may
not hinder the growth, but should nevertheless be allowed
enough movement to avoid bodily inactivity; and this exercise
should be obtained by means of various pursuits, particularly
play.41)
In the Middle Ages, Konrad von Megenberg, a canon of Regens-
burg, included a section on “Play and Exercise in the Fresh Air” in
his book Yconomica (the book of household management), saying,
With such games the infant souls become delighted, their
blood is set in motion, and their minds become sharpened;
whereby, through running around, the limbs are moved appro-
priately, and at the same time the whole body is being invigorated
and also strengthened as desired.42)
With these precedents, there were Renaissance Italians like
Cardinal Sadroleto who recommended the traditional physical exer-
cises of ancient Rome (playing ball, running, throwing the javelin,
and horseback riding) to cultivate vitality and initiative in the
young.43) The French humanist Rabelais showed great interest in
games, making a list of 218 games in which his protagonist par-
ticipated in Gargantua (15 3 4).44) The Spanish humanist Joan Luis
Vives, who taught philosophy at Leuven, saw games as recreational
activities for the body and spirit, a means for rejuvenation and pre-
paration of the mind for study.45) In the first half of the sixteenth
century, a variety of children’s games began to appear in Flemish
breviaries and books of hours, especially in the marginal illumina-
tions of the liturgical calendar, sometimes connected with the sea-
sons. Some good examples are found in The Book of Golf in the
British Museum in London, a breviary (cod.lat.28346) in the col-
lection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, a breviary
(cod.no. 946) in the Meyer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp, and
the Spignola Book of Hours in the J. Paul Getty Museum. These
books were illuminated by Simon Bening and his workshop, Gerard
Horenbout, the Master of Holtulus Animae, and others.
A Clothing Diary, a manuscript written by Konrad Schwarz in
Augsburg, Germany after 1560, about the same time as Bruegel’s
Children's Games, describes the author’s life as a child. The section
entitled “Eight and a Half Years” contains the following passage, in
which Konrad describes the games he played after recovering from
sickness.
In the years 1548 and 1549 I had not gone much to school or
out of the house because of the terrible sickness I had, according
to a childhood notebook on the 10th day. But in 1550 I returned
again to my teacher, who by this time had his school at St. Martin.
It was in May. My normal clothing is shown below. It was also my
delight, when I came home from school or stayed in the yard
behind the school, to play with birds, to play with a hammer, to
play marbles, to spin a top, to play with a stick and hoop, and to
enjoy other such games as are shown partially below (fig. 8).
Under “Ten Years and Two Months,” Schwarz mentions such
winter pastimes as sleigh riding, sliding on the snow, throwing snow
balls, and children pulling on each other.46)
The 91 different games brought together in Bruegel’s Children’s
Games should be considered in terms of this historical background.
No previous painter put together such a large number of children’s
games in a painting. Bruegel depicts each game and its equipment
with great precision, vividly expressing the children’s absorption in
their play. In observing the playing children, he shows their capacity
for inventing their own games and rules and for making whatever
equipment they need by themselves, for example, using broken
household items. He also shows how they discover ways to play in all
sorts of places and how they think of games appropriate to the place.
They can create a place to play anywhere, in front of the house, in the
inner court, at the entrance or on the terrace of a public building, on
the walls of buildings, along roads and rivers, and up trees.
47