The children, who range in age from toddlers to adolescents, roll hoops, walk on stilts, 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.
While it has been established that there are some 80 specific games in the painting, the artist's intention for this work was more serious than simply compiling an illustrated encyclopedia of children's games. The children are fully absorbed in their games, while Bruguier represents them with the rigor of an adult, apparently for what he considers more important.
? We can read this painting from different perspectives, and each person's role is different and will have a different understanding, some people say that the old Burruguier painted this painting is not just to show children's encyclopedia of play, and as above, each child's "inexplicable" play activities are given a name, and also make relevant notes to explain the meaning of the action. This is probably the boring thing about adults, like me when I write this article, that I have to make sense of everything and give meaning to it.
Art can easily be used to explain other things, in fact, outsiders can not fully speak for the artist himself, it is very difficult to understand a person, which seems to be so valuable to communicate effectively, thinking through paintings or poems, theater, be figurative, the artist wants to be true to something can be as close as possible to the imagination, but it is precisely because of the excellence of the work, it can be like some kind of truth to be removed to another place. displaced to another place.
For example, this painting by Berruguier seems to me to be a group of small children playing, but in the context of the characteristics of Netherlandish painting at that time, we can know that perhaps this painting is a religious subject, showing some kind of criticism of the secular in the local doctrine, for example, by showing the childishness of the children, satirizing the pursuit of desires by the secular people, etc.
In this case, it is the work of the artist that is the most important, but it is also the work of the artist that is the most important, the most important, and the most important.
In terms of detail, they actually occupied one of the buildings that ruled the square, probably a town hall or some other important civic building, in such a way as to emphasize the allegory that the adults who direct civic affairs are like children in the eyes of God. This crowded scene is tempered to some extent by the view in the upper left corner; but even here children bathe in the river and play on its banks.
Bruegel does not seem to have deliberately emphasized the children's features in his paintings, or even deliberately blurred the ages, genders, and appearances of the people involved in the games, each of whom looks a bit like a scaled-down version of an adult, and in some cases even what an adult would look like. Perhaps Bruegel is trying to emphasize that these children's games have actually been influencing the lives of adults? But who cares too much about his motives for painting? Haven't we always reveled in the joy of finding all kinds of games? At the very least, it's safe to assume that the artist retains the eyes and sensibilities of a child observing the world.
The Children's Games, painted in 1560, shows more than 240 children playing 80 different games. The whole village looks like one big playground. No one knows exactly why he painted it, but it gives us an idea of how children played more than 450 years ago. Many of these games we still play today. Not only can you find in Bruegel's paintings "stilt walkers," "stool snatchers," "jumping goats," "playing cards, "cards, blowing bubbles, hide-and-seek, rock-paper-scissors, and other familiar games. familiar games, but also wacky games like "pulling each other's hair" and "twigs stirring up shit". Thankfully, we don't play some of these wacky games anymore.
In detail, they've actually taken over one of the buildings that rule the plaza, probably a town hall or some other important civic building, in a way that emphasizes the moral: that the adults who direct civic affairs are like children in God's eyes. This crowded scene is tempered to some extent by the view in the upper left corner; but even here children bathe in the river and play on its banks.
It's interesting to wonder why a large group of children crammed into a small frame wouldn't bump into each other. Bruegel skillfully placed the intersection of perspective in the upper right corner of the picture - where the street extends away, allowing the children to spread out in groups to find the playing ground in the radiating distribution of the perspective line. This arrangement also leaves room to insert the landscape containing the river into one corner of the picture.
Outside the window, two boys flip the bar; beside them, a boy trembles on stilts, and a girl looks up and cheers.
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To their right, three girls are throwing stones as they try to hit the stone pestle in front of them, which may be a variation on bowling;
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Behind them, a group of boys play a similar game with knuckle-bones; one climbs the wall laboriously, as if he might slip off at any moment; next to them, two men wriggle into a tangle as a woman throws a cold pot at them A woman throws a pot of cold water over their heads, trying to calm them down.
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Behind the house, a group of people play a game of Snake; the man in front of them holds up a thin branch, mimicking a religious ceremony;
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A little further away, a group of children take turns jumping off a wooden bench; to the right of the picture, girls sing in unison. There is also a group of children riding broomsticks like magicians; further back, children are happily dancing around a roaring fire as it burns.
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Part 4
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A few children playing "Jumping Goat".
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Two people riding barrels; a man blowing up a pig's bladder as a balloon; and others rolling hoops;
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One child loses the game and is lifted sideways by his partner, while the children next to him play horse-riding.
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A group of children throw a hat from the crotch of a child, competing to see who can throw it far.
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A child lying on a tree trunk catching insects with a net.
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A group of children grabbing a child's hat.
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Bruegel himself favored depictions of fools, and his "Parable of the Blind" features several foolish blind men.
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There is a Netherlandish folk saying that the blind leading the blind are unlucky together.
The owl is also usually a symbol of wisdom, fairness and rationality in Western countries. But here, a child is aiming a gun at the bird of wisdom.
The message is clear: Wisdom cannot exist here.
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Among the children playing the role of the wedding party, the "bride" is dressed in black and has long hair. The rest of the group surround her to protect her from bad luck. In front of her, two "flower girls" scatter flowers all around.
In the first part of the vista, we can see that the river is clear and lush, with a few children swimming in it and another trying to climb a tree.
A little further on, we see three girls spinning, two children playing bocce ball, and a group of children playing a game like "Who do I choose?
On the right, under the beams of a house, a couple of children play gyroscope
Outside the house, two children act out a play while others watch.
On the far left of the picture, a girl can be seen through a window playing on a swing, and another child is lying on the windowsill wearing a mask.
On the lower left, three children are playing a shoving game of "who can get to the top" on a hill.
In the center of the image, a couple of kids are on a fence pretending to be riding a horse, while a couple of kids behind them are playing a tournament of coils.
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Part 2
By the railing, two children try to pass between a row of legs that keep stretching out.
Outside the house, one child goes to catch someone else blindfolded, while the others scatter and run away.
Next to them, two children play a guessing game.
To their right are two groups mimicking a knight's tournament, with two people working in pairs and one acting as a mount.
On a wooden table to the left, a child plays with a bird, a child makes a hat out of twigs, a child blows bubbles, and a child plays with a gyroscope made of nut shells.
In the lower left corner of the picture, two girls are playing catch with rocks.
A group mimics a baptism, with the leader holding a bundle and pretending to be a baby.
There are also three children playing 'sedan chair'.
At the bottom of the picture, a girl plays "horseback riding," a horse with a fine head and a bamboo pole for a body, while two other children stir up feces with sticks.
The painting seems to be full of joy, energy and childishness, but in fact the theme of "Children's Games" is depicted in this way as folly.
Because children's behavior was often childish and ill-considered, the late Middle Ages often portrayed folly by portraying children's behavior.
The child peering out of the window wears a mask to hide his true nature. This is a metaphor for "deception".
"He is as foolish as a gyroscope." (He is as foolish as a whirligig)
Between the house and the fence, the girl with the blue cloth over her head tries to catch the man who will become her husband in the game.
But watch out! Her cloak is blue, and in Flemish proverbs, putting a blue cloak on someone means that his wife is being unfaithful, or "cuckolded" as we call it.
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The team of children playing the christening, walking in single file, led by the "mother" with swaddling clothes wrapped in the "child", in order to let the evil spirits retreat.
Baptism is an important event in life, and Bruegel's juxtaposition of baptism with deceptive games such as mask-wearing makes a clear mockery of the so-called seriousness of life.
Bruegel's juxtaposition of weddings and baptisms, two major life events, with games of metaphorical luck and deception, such as hide-and-seek and mask-wearing, is clearly a mockery of the so-called serious life.