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| Children Blowing BubblesItalian School Eighteenth Century The Victoria & Albert Museum |
When first given to the V&A, this attractive genre painting was originally thought to be French, however it has subsequently been reattributed to the Italian School largely based on the fact that it features a poplar wooden support.
The
subject is neither Italian nor French, and is actually derived from the Dutch
17th century Genre and Vanitas traditions such as Caspar Netscher's Two Boys
Blowing Bubbles ca. 1670 (London, National Gallery).
Scenes
of children blowing bubbles were often used as a symbol of the transience of
human life according to the ancient motto 'homo bulla' (man is a bubble). Bubbles are fragile and have a brief moment of
beauty before they burst—rather like people.
Well, people don’t burst.
Mostly. But, you get it. The brevity of youth, beauty and life, etc.
This
painting is in the same spirit. Here, we
see children play in an Arcadian landscape ofwith flowers, ribbons, little dogs
and sunshine. Ah, but mortality lurks…yes. The crumbling ruin in the background reminds
us of the passage of time.
I
can see why this painting was hard to place.
It had no documentation and is a Dutch subject in a French style using
Italian materials and a pale color palette which was rather out of place in the
time period in which it was painted—sometime in the 18th Century.
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