ACHTUNG: Sie befinden sich im Museum-Online-Archiv 2000. Die Inhalte dieser Seite sind unter Umständen nicht mehr aktuell.

Art Project of Class 2F

An Image of the World

Peter Brueghel, Children's Games, 1560

Oil painting on oakwood, 118 × 161 cm, Vienna Art Museum

94 KB
 

General Analysis of the Picture

The central topic of Brueghel's painting is the Flemish people with its language, customs and games. Brueghel works on the "pictures as tales" in three areas:

• proverbs
• carnival and Lenten customs
• children's games.

In the picture more than 230 children are playing about 90 different games. Adults are excluded, with two necessary exceptions. The children seem to have taken over the entire town: the main square with the town hall, the wide road and - for more rural games - the surroundings with grassland, trees and river. In the busy bustle not one element is duplicated.

Some games are easier to recognise, with others this is more difficult. Depending on the different areas, eras and languages, the names for some of these games change. Some we still know today, others have been forgotten. The painter sets us the task to recognise the name, the rules and the purpose of each game. The point of the picture, as so often in Brueghel's paintings, is to "complete" the picture by describing it.

The 16th century above all others uses pictures in book illustrations, pamphlets and emblems. The earlier art of painting had not produced anything to represent the interrelation of word and picture. That is why Brueghel had to create now ways of "telling" by painting. In his pictures we first find the idea of teaching through painting. Using popular adages as a basis, he shows nature and people in their world. This painting is like a highly specific dictionary with lots of detail that shows his view of the word - the picture to illustrate the text and the text to explain the picture.