painting

[ta0]

The book I'm reading about tops in the classical world mentions Bruegel's painting (although it's from a different era). It mentions three instances of tops in it: the whip tops, the throw tops, and "a girl spinning a big disc top". I had looked at that one and had discarded it as not a top, but let's see what others think:



The fact that she is holding what looks like a ball on the other hand seems suspicious to me.

[Jeremy McCreary]

Nice painting, nice top. But why suspicious? I thought you're supposed to hold a ball and have a drummer/recorder player accompany you while twirling.

On the other hand, she could be poking a cow patty with a stick.

PS: I'm willing to go along with finger top. Despite the fact that they don't seem to be portrayed often in old art pieces.

[ta0]

My guess is that the ball on her hand is mud/clay (medieval play dough) and she is pushing a stamp on another piece.
Or using a stick to swirl the mud to create something.

[Jeremy McCreary]

My guess is that the ball on her hand is mud/clay (medieval play dough) and she is pushing a stamp on another piece.
Or using a stick to swirl the mud to create something.

That's the most plausible narrative yet -- especially since playing with clay is also best done to rousing fife and drum music.

[paulstewart]

Love the painting of play on ice.  This a modern take of Tops on Ice:  YouTube, Snow Angels & Ink on Ice

[ta0]

Somehow I wasn't familiar with this other painting from Pieter Bruegel the elder: The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559):



The painting is in the Museum of Art History in Viena.

Here is the section showing people playing with whip tops and throw tops:



It's interesting that a girl is playing with a whip top but of different shape than the ones played by the boys.
I first thought the girl clasping her hands was only watching the throw players, but then I noticed the string hanging from her arm: the top on the grown must be hers!

EDIT: Perhaps those are boys not girls, as boys sometimes used "dresses" at that time. Comparing them to others in this and the other painting from Bruegel, I still think they are girls, but I may be wrong.

[ta0]

The Longthorpe Tower House in the city of Peterborough (100 km north of London) was built circa 1263. The tower is best known for its English medieval wall paintings, carried out around 1330. The paintings were painted over around the time of the Reformation and remained hidden until their rediscovery in the 1940s.



The arc above the window shows the seven ages of man, from baby represented by the cradle to decrepitud shown by the old man with the cane.
The second stage, boyhood, is shown by a kid whipping a top.



Bruegel painting from 200 years later still remains the oldest depiction of a throw top that I know. Didn't throw tops exist before 1500 or were they just less "photogenic" than whip tops?

Thanks Cuper for making me aware of this painting.

[jim in paris]

good find, and worth a visit in London

about the date, it confirms Lourens documents
about the early and late middle ages






good day
jim