Seven Children at Play, ca. 1480

About the Work

Children’s games were among the entertaining motifs by the Master of the Housebook, but this depiction has come down to us only from Israhel van Meckenem. The anatomical distortions are an indication that Israhel himself—who was technically adept but had never trained as a draughtsman—composed this engraving himself. He created it as a companion piece to a print of the same size showing children bathing and probably copied from the Housebook Master.