Abstract:
Invoking two conceptions of spel, as play-acting and as leisure, this paper will consider how the schilderkamer or artist's studio was represented as a site of play in the seventeenth century. Both visual representations and textual documentations of the artist's studio demonstrate this. Visual representations of the artist's studio are often shown littered with props and demarcated by theatrical curtains or niches. The artist who inhabits this space is not always depicted in conventional artist's attire and in the act of painting. Many images depict the artist in theatrical or antiquated dress within this space, performing ‘roles’ which involve ‘play’ in the sense of leisure: making music, drinking wine, and smoking tobacco. Others show the artist in the act of ‘representing’ a model/group before him.
