Imagining ChildhoodThe images of children that abound in Western art do not simply mirror reality; they are imaginative constructs, representing childhood as a special stage of human life, or emblematic of the human condition itself. In a compelling book ranging widely across time, national boundaries, and genres from ancient Egyptian amulets to Picasso's Guernica, Erika Langmuir demonstrates that no historic period has a monopoly on the 'discovery of childhood'. Famous pictures by great artists, as well as barely known anonymous artefacts, illustrate not only Western society's perennially ambivalent attitudes to children, but also the many and varied functions that works of art have played throughout its history. |
Contents
17 | 71 |
STAGES OF CHILDHOOD | 91 |
The First Steps and the baby walker | 107 |
Better to keep still playful childhood and adult laughter | 247 |
Bubbles | 255 |
Common terms and phrases
Adoration adult Ages Agostino Agostino Novello altarpiece ancient Anthesteria Anthony Van Dyck artist baby baby-walker Baltasar Carlos Bouguereau Bruegel's bubbles century Chapel Chardin Charity chil childhood Children's Games Chodowiecki Christian cited contemporary daughter dead death decorated depicted Dutch Dyck emblem book emblematic engraving father figure Florence Foundling Hospital Foundling Museum fresco funerary genre girl Goya Greek Hieronymus Bosch hobby-horse human iconography illustrating imagery infant Innocents Italian Jacob Jordaens Jan Steen Jesus Johann King Kunsthistorisches Museum little boy London Madrid Maria Massacre medieval mother motif Museum National Gallery nature Neils and Oakley painter painting Paris Peter Paul Rubens Philip picture play portrait Prado Museum Prince prints pueri pueritia putto Renaissance Roman Rome royal Rubens Saint sarcophagi scene seventeenth-century shows Siena Simone Martini Spanish swaddled Titian toddler tradition transl Velázquez viewers Virgin visual whirligig woman woodcut young Zoffany