The Game of Bowls
1800
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1800
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a rowdy game of bocce on a sunlit lawn—men in tricorn hats bowl while little masked figures in pointed hats scramble around them. Those masked figures are Punchinellos, stock characters from Italian comedy. The artist’s father invented them, and here they’re playing against real people. Behind the game looms a huge prison fortress, a quiet reminder that Venice had just lost its independence when this was drawn. If you like the mix of play and shadow, look up *chiaroscuro*.
