Buben beim Würfelspiel,

um 1675/80

Material / Technology / Carrier

Leinwand

Dimensions of the object

146 x 108,5 cm

Displayed

Not on display

Department

Spanische Malerei

Genre

Malerei

Inventory number

597

Acquisition

1698 durch Kurfürst Max Emanuel von Gisbert van Colen erworben

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München

Citation

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Buben beim Würfelspiel, um 1675/80, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/A0GOllK4dp (Last updated on 12.12.2023)

Two boys are sitting outside on the ground, absorbed in their game of dice. The boy on the right of the picture is perhaps hiding another die in his closed hand. A young boy is standing next to them and chewing a piece of bread, lost in thought. The motif of games of chance—and deceit in gambling—can be found just as much in the works of the Caravaggisti as in the small-format pictures of the Bamboccianti in Rome. Through Murillo’s choice of children as protagonists, however, the subject loses its moralising poignancy.