The Children's Bath

<p>Albrecht Dürer and Sebald Beham likely knew Israhel van Meckenem’s earlier genre scene of seven children bathing, misbehaving, and playing around a large wooden tub, supervised by a bathmaid. Those artists’ related prints (Dürer's <em>The Men’s Bath</em>, 2009.133 and Beham's <em>The Women’s Bath</em>, 2010.518) take place in outdoor male and indoor female baths, respectively. All three celebrate different aspects of bathing culture, a relatively infrequent activity during the Renaissance. Though it has not been annotated in this impression, the empty, winding banner above Meckenem’s <em>Children’s Bath</em> offers the viewer a space to interact with the image as playfully as the splashing and roughhousing boys themselves.</p>