The Children's Bath

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Albrecht Dürer and Sebald Beham likely knew Israhel van Meckenem’s earlier genre scene of seven children bathing, misbehaving, and playing around a large wooden tub, supervised by a bathmaid. Those artists’ related prints (Dürer's The Men’s Bath , 2009.133 and Beham's The Women’s Bath , 2010.518) take place in outdoor male and indoor female baths, respectively. All three celebrate different aspects of bathing culture, a relatively infrequent activity during the Renaissance. Though it has not been annotated in this impression, the empty, winding banner above Meckenem’s Children’s Bath offers the viewer a space to interact with the image as playfully as the splashing and roughhousing boys themselves.

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