The game of chess
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| The game of chess |
|---|
| Lucas Hugensz. van Leyden , around 1508 |
| Oil on an oak panel |
| 27 × 35 cm |
| Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
The game of chess is the title of a painting by the Dutch painter Lucas Hugensz. van Leyden from the Renaissance period around 1508. It has been part of today's Berlin Gemäldegalerie since 1874 and is exhibited in the rooms of the Gemäldegalerie in the Berlin Kulturforum .
Image content and interpretation
The picture measures 27 × 35 cm in landscape format and was executed by the artist with oil paint on an oak wood panel. The painting shows a young woman and a man playing a game of chess. The game board has eight by twelve fields and therefore points to the chess game variant Kurierspiel , which was popular since the 13th century. The scene is watched by seven spectators, including a striking woman with a bright white hood. At the time, this special form of chess was seen as a metaphor for love-making and love. The picture is considered to be one of the first examples of Flemish genre painting .
The young woman seated on the right plays black and is advised by a man, probably her father. Across from her, her potential future husband is playing with the white figures, but shows an averted expression with narrowed eyes. Some of the chess pieces shown on and next to the game board are no longer identifiable today, as the pieces have changed significantly over the centuries, but a modern analysis of the piece position in this game comes to the conclusion that Black could win this game, especially since the woman is about to offer her opponent check with a rook .
Provenance
Van Leyden chess game came by purchase in 1874 with the collection Suermondt in the stock of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie and bears the inventory number 574 A.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rainald Grosshans: The game of chess. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
- ^ Rainald Grosshans in: Gemäldegalerie Berlin , Prestel-Verlag Munich, 1998, ISBN 3-7913-1911-6 , p. 62 f.
- ↑ Courier Chess website (accessed March 13, 2015)