The Chess Players
c. 1670
Oil on canvas, 97.5 x 85 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
The genre painting of the later period of the 17th century is well represented by Cornelis de Man.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Fine Chess Painting
The game of chess as a metaphor of love originates from a
courtly culture and originally bore its characteristics. However, in the course of
time this image was to be vulgarized. The painting by De Man, from the second
half of the seventeenth century, is a product with its contents tailored to the more trivial taste of a bourgeois public.’
De Jongh notes a few
cliché-like details which in genre painting are frequently applied in the erotic context (the cat looking up to the woman, the string instrument
hanging from the panelling,
and the bellows in front of
the fireplace). These details, added to the meaningful look of the woman, the embarrassed
man, the informal clothing
and the open box bed,
guarantee that the message
will come across.
Actually, the man is saying “Oh no! I completely overlooked that Rook sacrifice!” 🙂
“But while she’s looking somewhere else, let me help myself with a piece…”
She seems to be looking at us and saying “Hey, come over here, check this move out…” He seems to be saying “Oh, no! Is she going to do what I think she’s going to do?”
Brad H.
Man thinking: She may know her way around the board, but let’s see how she handles a FIREBALL coming right out of my hand.