Board games from the city of Vijayanagara (Hampi ... - Gioco dell'Oca.

Reflections on the role of baroque games
tables with allegories of war in German
courts* / Mayarí Granados
From medieval times on, games tables for board, card and dice games have developed
as a special type of furniture. Games tables as pieces of furniture have always
followed the predominant furniture style of each epoch. But, instead of being just
another special type of furniture, games tables also have been seen as prestigious possessions,
which in the baroque epoch can be combined with symbols of war. Games and
war at first seem to be a paradox – but if we look a little closer at certain games, it is not.
Especially chess has always been seen as a battle – next to other symbolic meanings like
the game of life, where death fights against life, a vanitas-symbol, a fight of good and bad,
human virtues, or even an allegory of love (Faber 1988). Among all games which can be
found on games tables chess certainly plays a special role, as this game is supposed to document
a claim to power and intellectual superiority. Symbols of war on games tables
seem to be a German speciality in the 17th and 18th centuries, as there are no examples
for games tables with war allegories in other countries or from other periods. Games
tables as a special type of furniture were very important to represent power in German
courts. In the times of absolutism, games and gambling served to express power and
privileges of the nobility. Therefore, precious games tables were needed, especially in
those courts which tried to increase their power. Power itself, but also the claim to power
in the times of absolutism had to be visualised by adequate buildings and furniture, a
powerful sovereign needed a high standard of luxury, but also the reverse was possible:
the luxury of a court was seen as an indication for his power.
From medieval times on, and also in the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a hierarchy
of games, that regularly was repeated. Chess was highest in this hierarchy, as it is
a tactical game, which poses the highest demands on the players’ minds. Unlike other
games like card or dice games, nothing is left to chance. Therefore, chess was interpreted
as a royal game, as the king was to be represented as an intelligent and intellectual person.
This hierarchy can be reconstructed by analysing the paintings in which games of
chess are depicted (Faber, 1988). Kings and nobility presented themselves in paintings
playing chess, and it was thus suggested that the most adequate – and therefore mostly
played – game for noblemen was chess. Nevertheless, it was just an ideal image that the
king and nobility only played chess – in reality, also in court people mostly gambled
with cards or dice. In addition to its representative function, chess was also part of the
education of young noblemen, as it was believed that the game of chess educated young
people to a wise reign. Reasons why sovereigns of the 17th and 18th centuries liked to
be presented playing chess are to be found in the connotation of chess as a model of the
* The article is part of the author’s dissertation “Games tables in England, France and the
German-speaking countries”.