Israhel van Meckenem the Younger
German, c. 1440/45-1503
The Children's Bath
INV-3789
Israhel van Meckenem the Younger
German, c. 1440/45-15031480/90
The Children's Bath
Israhel van Meckenem the Younger German, c. 1440/45-1503 →engravingprint
Date
1480/90
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet: 10.9 × 13.7 cm (4 5/16 × 5 7/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
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.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
