Anonymous Flemish school, 17th-18th century - Games in the farmyard

The painting can be defined as a genre scene, that is, the depiction of an episode of everyday life that, apparently, lacks any significant element. These types of domestic subjects were long considered minor and only began to spread in Western art starting in the 17th century. Only with the development of 19th-century realism did everyday subjects become considered as important as historical or religious ones. The work in question, which, based on its style, can be assumed to be of Flemish origin, depicts a genre scene, realistic and popular in nature, typical of that cultural and artistic context. Indeed, it was Flemish painters, as early as the 15th and 16th centuries, who were the first to introduce popular subjects even in high-brow art, in a representational style inspired by candid everyday life. The chosen subject depicts the narration of a phase in the game of skittles.

The painting displays a typically popular taste for genre scenes; the fragment of real life is depicted without any filter of idealization or interpretation. A realism that meticulously depicts every detail, drawing attention to the everyday nature of the scene, and unafraid to depict features with a strongly popular character, even unpleasant and caricatural. To help heighten the subject's spontaneity and immediacy, the painter uses a very cursive style, demonstrating a rather modern conception of pictorial technique. What emerges, therefore, is a tendentially miniaturist character, precisely because of the desire to depict the genre scene with a wealth of detail. The light does nothing to impede this operation and is expertly managed, leaving the scene on our right in dim light and gradually increasing in intensity towards the left. The figures are arranged spontaneously, yet respecting the principles of balance in the work's composition, and appear with free and natural gestures. The space surrounding the scene adheres to the rules of naturalistic representation, with the landscape gently sloping down through a variety of color tones. The canvas's surface is unified by a predominant brown hue, creating a completely coherent atmosphere and lighting.

The work displays such a candid realism in the execution of the genre scene and in the pictorial style that it almost approaches a modern conception of painting. The work, therefore, can be ascribed to a pictorial style between the 17th and 18th centuries precisely because of its aspiration to genuine realism and freshness of execution. Judging by the fascination with authentic, folksy representation and the attention to detail, the work's execution must certainly be attributed to a Flemish artist. Two iconographic elements in particular, the old woman at the window and the figure urinating on the wall, are very recurring figures in the work of David Teniers the Younger, an Antwerp painter who lived between 1610 and 1690. Although Teniers the Younger's authorship cannot be confirmed, the artist should nevertheless be identified as a member of his circle. These suppositions were confirmed by Prof. Bodart, who had viewed the work, as well as by the Luigi Caretto Gallery in Turin, which has long experience with Flemish art.

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