Children's Games

Children's Games has no clear precedent in the history of Western painting — no earlier work assembles such a comprehensive, encyclopedic inventory of human activity within a single canvas. Scholars have debated for centuries whether it is a moral allegory on human folly (children's play as a metaphor for the futility of all adult endeavors), a humanist 'lexicon' of games catalogued without moralizing intent, or a commentary on gender and social roles. No consensus has been reached. The painting is signed and dated on a lower beam ('BRVEGEL 1560') and was first mentioned in writing by the artist-biographer Karel van Mander in 1604. It entered the Habsburg collections when Archduke Ernest of Austria acquired it in 1594 and has been in Vienna ever since.