Five Youths Playing Blind Man's Buff

Five Youths Playing Blind Man's Buff

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Five Youths Playing Blind Man's BuffFive Youths Playing Blind Man's BuffFive Youths Playing Blind Man's BuffFive Youths Playing Blind Man's BuffFive Youths Playing Blind Man's Buff

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.