Illustrations and artwork depicting medieval acrobats, tumblers, contortionists, and similar entertainers.
Last updated: Nov 7, 2021
- An acrobat in an initial, Historia Ecclesiastica (Tanner 10, fol. 93r), first half of the 10th century
- Adoration of the golden idol, Bible of Roda (BNF Latin 6 (3), fol. 64v), mid- to third quarter of the 11th century
- A letter M made up of acrobats, a bible, 11th-12th century
- An acrobat forms the letter M in a martyrologium (BNF NAL 214, fol. 29), c. 1151
- Bas-de-page in a book of hours (BNF Latin 14284, fol. 15), 13th century
- Fols. 21v and 65r, the Rutland Psalter (British Library Additional 62925), c. 1260
- Fols. 74v and 128r, the Maastricht Hours (Brit. Lib. Stowe 17), 1st quarter of the 14th century
- An acrobat doing a handstand, Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis (Universitätsbibliothek Graz cod. 43, fol. 37r), c. 1300-1350
- A female acrobat balances a goblet on her torso, the DuBois Hours (PML M.700, fol. 34v), c. 1325-1330
- Fols. 24v and 68r, the Luttrell Psalter (Brit. Lib. Add. 42130), c. 1325-1340
- A man does a handstand, another does plate-spinning, while yet another plays pipe and tabor (fol. 90r), and two boys hold a pole horizontally from which a third boy hangs upside down from his knees (fol. 108v); Romance of Alexander (Bodley 264), c. 1338-44
- A woman balances on a pair of swords, Smithfield Decretals (British Library Royal 10 E IV, fol. 58), c. 1340
- A misericord of an acrobat from Kerk Sint-Pieter in Leuven, c. 1438-1442
- Alexander and his court, History of Alexander the Great (BNF Fr. 49, fol. 38), second half of the 15th century
- A misericord of an acrobat from Kerk Sint-Catharina in Hoogstraten, 15th century
- An acrobat in the works of Heinrich von Veldeke (ÖNB 2861, fol. 95r), c. 1474-1574
- Luna and Her Children, The Wolfegg Housebook, 1475-1485
- Four drunk acrobats, c. 1530-1562
- Itinerant Entertainers in a Brothel, c. 1555
- Detail from Melancolia in the Garden of Life by Matthias Gerung, 1558
- A tightrope-walker, fourth quarter of the 16th century
- Arcangelo Tuccaro leaps through ten hoops held by ten men, a demonstration of a somersault, Trois dialogues de l’exercice de savter, et voltiger en l’air, auec les figures qui seruent à la parfaicte demonstration & intelligence dudict art, 1599
- Studies of various figures by Peter Paul Rubens after Hans Weiditz
- Two acrobats tumbling, 17th century
- A banquet in the countryside by Sebastiaan Vrancx
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