Children's Games (Bruegel)

This painting, mentioned for the first time by Karel van Mander in 1604, was acquired in 1594 by Archduke Ernest of Austria. It has been suggested that it was the first in a projected series of paintings representing the Ages of Man, in which Children's Games would have stood for Youth. If that was Bruegel's intention, it is unlikely that the series progressed beyond this painting, for there are no contemporary or subsequent mentions of related pictures.[2]

The children, who range in age from toddlers to adolescents, roll hoops, walk on stilts, spin hoops, ride hobby-horses, stage mock tournaments, play leap-frog and blind man's bluff, perform handstands, inflate pigs' bladders and play with dolls and other toys.^{See details below} They have also taken over the large building that dominates the square: it may be a town hall or some other important civic building, in this way emphasizing the moral that the adults who direct civic affairs are as children in the sight of God. This crowded scene is to some extent relieved by the landscape in the top left-hand corner; but even here children are bathing in the river and playing on its banks.

The artist's intention for this work is more serious than simply to compile an illustrated encyclopaedia of children's games, though some eighty particular games have been identified.^{See details below} Bruegel shows the children absorbed in their games with the seriousness displayed by adults in their apparently more important pursuits. His moral is that in the mind of God children's games possess as much significance as the activities of their parents. This idea was a familiar one in contemporary literature: in an anonymous Flemish poem published in Antwerp in 1530 by Jan van Doesborch, mankind is compared to children who are entirely absorbed in their foolish games and concerns.[3]

Starting from bottom left, the games may be identified as follows:

Number Image Game Notes 01 Playing with dolls 02 Playing 'Holy Mass' Small liturgical objects used at Mass and Liturgies 03 Water gun and owl on support Shooting water at a bird 04 Wearing masks Wearing disguises for fun 05 Swing The classic hanging seat 06 Climbing a fence A popular pastime with neighbour's fences 07 Handstand There are many variations of handstands, but all that matters is balance 08 Play the "knot" Bending the body to contorted positions 09 Somersault Flipping and rolling forwards, backwards, or sideways 10 Fence riding Again, a fence game 11 Mock wedding It is exactly at the diagonal centre of the panel. Perhaps an irony of the holy sacrament, or a reference to the main event that allows conception of children. Mock child weddings have been common folk tradition many places in Europe, and were often celebrated at Midsummer. 12 Passing through kicking legs - running the gauntlet Painful but dynamic 13 Blind Man's Bluff Blind fortune 14 Playing with birds Ever popular 14b Making hats with twigs Basket weaving 15 Soap bubbles Still a popular pastime, Bruegel shows children blowing bubbles with clay pipes and verifies soap bubbles being used as entertainment for at least 400 years 16 Shell bobbin A flying spinneret made of nut shells 17 The "Toton" Forerunner of the roulette and dice games 17b Toy animal with leash A stone dog of sorts 18 Knucklebones Game of very ancient origin, played with five small objects, originally the "knucklebones" (actually the astragalus: a bone in the ankle, or hock) of a sheep, which are thrown up and caught in various ways 19 Mock baptismal Re-enacting the procession of adults carrying home a baby just baptized. The blue hood symbolises deception ("hooding the husband" meant to cuckold him, as shown in Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs). 20 Morra A hand game - similar to rock, paper, scissors - that dates back thousands of years to ancient Roman and Greek times 21 Piñata A papier-mâché or other type of container that is decorated, filled with toys and or candy and then broken, usually as part of a ceremony or celebration 22 Walk on stilts Walking poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, they can be short (like here) or long (see number 62) 23 Play leapfrog Vaulting over each other's stooped backs 24 Mock tournaments Competitions of various kind 25 The "Pope's seat" Holding the child by gripping hands 26 Hobby-horse Riding a wooden hobby horse made of a straight stick with a small horse's head 27 Stirring excrements with a stick The best game for children to play. 28 Playing the flute and the drum Playing simple music with basic instruments, always popular with kids 29 The simple roll hoop Children and adults around the world have played with hoops, twirling, rolling and throwing them throughout history 30 Shouting into a barrel from a hole The many uses of a barrel 31 The hoop with bells A variation of rolling the hoop 32 Riding the barrel With barrel vaulting, another popular play 33 Hat throwing Throw them through a child's open legs, or see who throws farthest 34 Raisinbread man A man-shaped loaf of bread, most likely some sort of Dutch duivekater, offered during wakes or at Christmas 35 The penalty of "bumbouncing" Bouncing someone's buttocks on planks

Number Image Game Notes 36 Ball made with an inflated pig's bladder Inflating a pig's bladder to create a balloon 37 Buck buck[4] A group of children had to create a "pony" and another had to leap on their backs until the weight made it crumble 38 To play shop On the wooden plank below the funnel Bruegel inscribed "BRUEGEL 1560" Red pigment was made from scraping bricks and was most famous from Antwerp. 39 Playing Tiddlywinks Played with small discs called "winks", a pot, and a collection of squidgers. The children use a "squidger" (a disk) to propel a wink into flight by pressing down on a wink, thereby flicking it into the air: the objective of the game is to score points by sending one's own winks into the pot 39b Playing Mumblety-peg An old outdoor game played by children using pocketknives 40 Building (a well) Like sandcastles on a beach, building is ever popular 41 Pulling hair A game or a fight? 42 Catching insects with a net Not only butterflies 43 Playing the scourge Not a safe game 44 Playing marbles Ancient and still going strong nowadays 45 Pitch and toss The players each take a coin and take turns tossing them towards the wall: the coin the closest to the wall wins 45b Twirling a hat on a stick Clowns do it regularly 46 Making a procession Popular among children and adults, in diverse applications 47 Playing the porter or goalkeeper? 48 Who's got the ball? Hiding the ball and guessing who has it 49 Riding piggyback Still going strong, riding on someone's shoulders 50 Singing door-to-door Especially now at Christmas, with carols 51 Bonfire Lighting a fire, a dangerous but ever-practiced activity 52 Riding a broom A variation of hobby-horse, but with many players 53 Pushing a wall good for exercising muscles 54 Hide-and-seek Or "hide and go seek", a game in which a number of players conceal themselves in the environment, to be found by one or more seekers 55 The "devil's tail" or the "snake" Role play as a street game 56 Grappling A basic form of wrestling 57 The "devil chained" Role play as a street game 58 Run, jump on a cellar's door Noisy and unsafe 59 Bowling Players attempt to score points by rolling a ball along a flat surface, either into pins or to get close to a target ball 60 The token Running and handing off the baton to the next runner 61 Throwing walnuts Perhaps a variation of bowling or bocce, hitting an assembled cluster of nuts 62 High stilts Walking on long poles 63 Pole vaulting Exercising on a horizontally fixed bar 64 Balancing a stick on a finger A clownish game of balance 65 Put up a show Enacting a play 66 Spinning tops Using toys that can be spun on an axis, balancing on a point 67 The trolleys Baskets moving on a line 68 Flying a ribbon on a stick Letting a piece of cloth fly in the wind from a stick 69 Whom shall I choose? A girl selects her "baby" from a group of friends under a blanket 70 Urinating Technically, not quite a game but practiced often 71 Bocce In teams, throwing the bocce balls closest to the jack ball 72 Pirouetting skirts Swirling the girls' skirts round and round 73 Climbing a tree 74 Swimming A healthy recreational exercise, enjoying a full-body workout 75 Diving Jumping or falling into water is always lots of fun for children 76 Floating with an inflated pig's bladder A sheep's bladder was also used, to float on top of it or to play water games 77 "Dethroning the King" Role play 78 Playing with sand Building castles and digging holes 79 Coil tournament A fight of knights 80 Rattles Noisy musical game

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Children's Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

• Children's Games at the KHM (German)
• Bosch Bruegel Society
• 99 works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
• Creative Bruegel laid the foundation of the Netherlands School (Russian)