Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2011.

The Card Players

Artist Giovanni Battista Boncori (Italian, 1643 - 1699)

Dateca. 1675

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions78 1/4 x 58 3/8 in. (198.8 x 148.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 98 x 77 1/4 in. (248.9 x 196.2 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by exchange

Object number2009.8

Terms

Cards
Gambling

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a large oil on canvas painting in a dramatic High Baroque style. It is an ensemble of five young people playing cards.

Label Textfar left Giovanni Battista Boncori Italian, 1633–1699 The Card Players, ca. 1675 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by exchange 2009.8 Reproduction 18th-century Italian Carved and Gilded Frame Museum purchase with funds donated by the staff of the Chrysler Museum of Art; Annual Fund 2009–2010, in memory of Billy Hooten; and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by exchange F2010.3.2 Giovanni Battista Boncori Italian, 1633–1699 The Musical Group, ca. 1675 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.544 Carved and Gilded Frame, 1700s Italian Museum purchase with funds donated by the staff of the Chrysler Museum of Art; Annual Fund 2009–2010, in memory of Billy Hooten; and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by exchange F2010.3.1 Tricksters have lured the young man on the far left into a game of cards. As he leans forward to play what he thinks is the winning card, the woman behind him quietly steals his moneybag. In contrast to this scene, the musicians in the painting seen here work in harmony, united in their effort to create beautiful music. Baroque artists loved to moralize about proper human behavior. Presenting opposing images of high life and low life, of harmony and discord, the two paintings convey a broader message about the choices we must make between virtue and vice.