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Five Youths Playing Blind Man's Buff

ca. 1500–1525
Not on view
In a raucous variation of a familiar game, a blindfolded boy tries to whack a playmate with an old shoe tied to a bat. Made for Nicolas and Guillemette Bouesseau, who married about 1485, this tapestry bears their family motto on the banner wrapped around the tree and their initials entwined in the lower corners. The youthful, outdoor play may reflect their motto, since Selon le temps can mean “According to the season,” or “According to the Weather”; the tapestry may have been part of an ensemble for the Bouesseau home representing the seasons or the ages of Man.
Master of the accounts of the duke of Burgundy and then of King Louis XI of France, Nicolas Bouesseau was wealthy enough to order manuscripts and to endow a private chapel in the church of Notre-Dame at Dijon, all marked with the family motto or blazon.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Five Youths Playing Blind Man's Buff
  • Date: ca. 1500–1525
  • Culture: South Netherlandish
  • Medium: Wool warp, wool and silk wefts
  • Dimensions: 106 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. (270.5 × 309.2 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Adele L. Lehman, in memory of Arthur Lehman, 1965
  • Object Number: 65.181.17
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

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Joshua and David (from the Heroes Tapestries), Wool warp, wool wefts, South Netherlandish
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Courtiers in a Rose Garden: A Lady and Two Gentlemen, Wool warp; wool, silk, metallic weft yarns, South Netherlandish
Courtiers in a Rose Garden: A Lady and Two Gentlemen
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Tapestry with the Annunciation, Wool warp, wool with a few metallic wefts, South Netherlandish
Tapestry with the Annunciation
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ca. 1410–20
Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries), Wool and silk thread, South Netherlandish
Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)
South Netherlandish
ca. 1515–35
Woodcutters Working at a Deer Park (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries), Wool and silk thread, South Netherlandish
Woodcutters Working at a Deer Park (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)
South Netherlandish
ca. 1515–35

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