Can Games Teach Art History?
by Kim Vandenbroucke, The Game Aisle
We all know that kids love to learn things they find interesting, and I’m pretty sure that most kids do not find art history all that stimulating. They often look like tortured souls as they are paraded around galleries during art museum field trips. Sure, they may perk up when they find out the immense value of a particular piece of art or when the art has nudity or a theme normally deemed inappropriate, but for the majority of the time they’re not really getting into the masterpieces that surround them.
So what if games could to teach art history? (If your school is even teaching any art history!) Chess, backgammon, Go, mahjong, playing cards, dominoes and many others have been around for centuries and provide students a link to the past. Each game has iconography that hasn’t changed much over the years, but who, where and how the games have been enjoyed definitely have.
Let’s take backgammon as an example; you can see nobility playing a gentlemanly game of backgammon in the illuminated manuscript from Zurich called the "Codex Manesse" (c. 1304).
Later, backgammon makes an appearance in Hieronymus Bosch’s most famous triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (c. 1503). But this time instead of being a game played by well-dressed noblemen, an evil demon-like critter is carrying it around in the panel dedicated to Hell and what happens if you give in to temptation.
Shortly thereafter, "The Triumph of Death" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 1560) has the game's participants attacked by an army of corpses. And then in the late 1640s the mood changes again when David Teniers II paints lively backgammon games being played in gloomy inns by peasants. Not only can backgammon provide a segue to discuss a variety of famous artists and periods but it also offers up an interesting discussion on how the attitude toward games has changed over the years.
Looking beyond backgammon you can find plenty of other works from a variety of styles and periods. From Ancient Egypt, there is a tomb wall depicting Queen Nefertari (wife of Rameses II) playing an ancient board game called senet. Another piece of grave art circa 744 found in Xinjiang, China shows a woman playing go.
Much later in the Italian Baroque style, Caravaggio paints boys playing – and cheating – at cards in "The Cardsharps" circa 1594 (and is that backgammon in the foreground?!).
Moving over to France, ~1630 Georges de La Tour painted "The Cardsharp with the Ace of Clubs" which shows women playing cards and gambling and about a century later, French still life master Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin painted "The House of Cards" depicting a young boy building a house out of playing cards which is far more G-rated than the gambling and devils of earlier game paintings.
But why stop there? Let’s jump ahead to modern art, where you can see a game of chess being played in "The Family of the Painter" by Fauvist/Modernist painter Henri Matisse.
And of course, everyone knows the "Dogs Playing Poker" series by C. M. Coolidge. Then you can look at the very recent public sculptures of Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen, which include an oversized pool balls and bowling pins (below).
All together, these game-themed works, combined many others, can create a timeline of art history that shows items that we can all relate to – and in fact purchase at our local Target any day of the week. That’s sure easier to teach than symbolism and hidden meanings!
If you're looking for an expert in the game industry, you're probably looking for Kim Vandenbroucke. Not only does she review games at The Game Aisle, but she also designs them and is one of those people that companies call when they need to have a game designed.
