https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/snowball-fights/ * Home * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * Support PDR * About * Blog Search Search The Public Domain Review [ ][View All Results] The Public Domain Review The Public Domain Review PDRSupport PDR * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * About * Blog * * * * PostcardsJust 5 days left of our FundraiserWe need your help to keep the project alive!Donate TodayPerks include receiving twice-a-year our very special postcard packs! Next theme ... "Ink"Postcards Collections / Images Snowball Fights in Art (1400-1946) [Sneeuwball] Detail from a color woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada (I), ca. 1825. -- Source. Few seasonal activities are as universal -- across time, place, or culture -- as the snowball fight. As many of us head into the cold, winter months, hoping for a holiday season with frosted trees or icicles dripping like stalactites from the eaves of homes, we might also long for that slightly slushy grade of powder that makes for perfect packing. Snowmen and angels can be created later. And perhaps there will be sledding: on toboggans (for connoisseurs) or cafeteria trays (for the crafty). Yet nothing signals the year's first snowfall quite like an apple-sized projectile cutting a parabolic path -- through crisp evening air, the haloed light of streetlamps, and exhalations of foggy, illuminated breath -- to make direct contact with an unsuspecting hat or coat. And yet, like snowballs themselves, which vanish upon impact into a mist of flakes, or melt on a hesitant mitten, which has missed its opportunity for ambush, snowball fights rarely last more than a few volleys (before dispersing toward cocoa) and are rarely preserved beyond the fleeting memories of individuals, friends, or families. But certain significant battles make it into the annals of history. If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, as the saying goes, the Battle of Austerlitz may have been planned on the snow banks of La Brienne. According to what might be more fable than history, the teenage Napoleon Bonaparte famously organized a ten day snowball fight at this military school, complete with trenches, regimens, and rules of engagement (although, according to his classmate Bourrienne's memoirs, the combatants eventually worked their way down to gravel and stones beneath the snow, until "besiegers as well as besieged, were seriously wounded") . Lithograph of a Napoleonic snowball fightScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. A color lithograph by Horace Vernet after Charles-Etienne-Pierre Motte, titled Enfance de Napoleon (Childhood of Napoleon), 1822 -- Source. University magazines tend to preserve storied skirmishes on quadrangles. A particularly pyrrhic 1891 battle at Smith College in Massachusetts was still being debated in the women's college's monthly magazine half a decade later. When University of Edinburgh students engaged local residents in a salvo of hard-packed lobs, a battle broke out that lasted two days, now known as the 1838 snowball riots, which led to violent suppression by armed police (brandishing weapons heavier than frozen water) and dozens of arrests. In protest, students quickly published an extensive (and, in parts, extremely insensitive) piece of campus humor titled The University Snowdrop. "The noblest theme of the noblest poets, in all ages, has been WAR", begins the preface, before advancing the thesis that Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were "the evident result of a snow-ball fight at the village of Troy in Asia Minor". Snowball fight paintingScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from Samuel Bough, Snowballing Outside Edinburgh University, 1853 -- Source. While narratives and poetry might recreate the arc of engagement, the visual arts can freeze the scene of a snowball fight for all time. Some of the earliest, preserved images of snowball fights come from medieval books of hours -- illuminated, devotional manuscripts with calendrical elements -- and almost always feature on pages dedicated to the month of December. Later, we find snowballs as details in larger landscapes. In Lucas van Valckenborch's majestic Winterlandschaft (1586), airborne orbs mix with heavy snowfall represented by palette-knife impasto across a village scene. What's wondrous about browsing the images gathered below is how little changes across centuries and continents -- like landscapes blanketed with powder, difference fades in the snow fight. A fifteenth-century fresco from Trento, Italy, reveals combatants with arms cocked back (and one unfortunate recipient of a headshot), wearing expressions of minorly-sadistic pleasure or intentions for revenge -- postures nearly identical to Utagawa Kunisada (I)'s woodcut snowball scenes (ca. 1825) or to those of the schoolchildren in mass combat depicted by Fritz Freund's nineteenth-century The Snowball Fight. Subthemes emerge in the snow-fight genre: the ball about to be launched at an unaware target, such as in Anthonij van der Haer's mid-eighteenth century engraving, and the angry aftermath of ambush, as seen in a 1904 print from Springfield, Massachusetts captioned "Whose afraid". There are often invocations of the viewer, either as teammate -- such as the jolly, beckoning baller in Cornelis Dusart's Maart (ca. 1690) -- or as opponent, as in a heavily-colored photograph from 1920s Norway of a girl in Sami dress playfully threatening whomever meets her gaze. And, like in all sport, there are politics and wargames. A photograph from 1923 captures a snow battle between Democrat and Republican page boys in front of the US Capitol building, while a 1946 photograph, shot from an overhead angle, records members of the Women's Army Corps entrenched against some unseen rivals. If there is a chance of snowfall in your part of the world, we wish you good aim and fast reflexes this holiday season. Text by Hunter Dukes Published December 8, 2021 Medium * Images Theme * Customs & Culture * Sport Style * Photographs * Printmaking & Line * Paintings * Manuscripts * Illustrations Epoch * Pre-16th Century * 16th Century * 17th Century * 18th Century * 19th Century * 20th Century Tags snow6fighting2winter3winter sports2 Source Source Various * Wikimedia Commons logo More Wikimedia Commons content on PDR (89) * Rijksmuseum logo More Rijksmuseum content on PDR (23) * Library of Congress logo More Library of Congress content on PDR (110) Rights Underlying Work Various Rights Digital Copy Various Rights Download Download Right click on image or see source for higher-res version Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Snowball fight from Tacuinum sanitatis, an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise authored by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. This image comes from a Latin edition produced in Lombardy, ca. 1400 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from a fresco depicting the month of January at Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento, Italy, ca. 1400 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "December" from the Book of Hours of Adelaide de Savoie, the Duchess of Bourgogne, ca. 1460 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from "December" in a Flemish Book of Hours, ca. 1510 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from "December" in the Book of Hours of Benigne Serre, ca. 1524. The manuscript is also known as Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from a Book of Hours produced in France, ca. 1525-1550 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Woodcut from Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (A Description of the Northern Peoples) by Olaus Magnus (1490-1557), 1555. It depicts "snow castles" of the young -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from Winterlandschaft, 1586, by the Flemish painter Lucas van Valckenborch (ca. 1535-1597) -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from Winterlandschaft, 1586, by the Flemish painter Lucas van Valckenborch (ca. 1535-1597) -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from Winterlandschaft, 1586, by the Flemish painter Lucas van Valckenborch (ca. 1535-1597) -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1589-1662), Manner und Jungen werfen Schneeballe (Men and Boys Throwing Snowballs), 1638 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Engraving by Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704) titled Maart (March), ca. 1690 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Etching by Anthonij van der Haer, after Adriaen van de Velde, ca. 1760 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), "Snowball Fight", 1787, from a series of woodblock prints titled Children at Play in Twelve Months -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Color woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada (I), ca. 1825 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Color woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada (I), ca. 1825 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Color woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), titled Women and Children Playing in Snow, ca. 1830s. - Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. John Leech (1817-1864), Snowballing, no date -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Lithograph by Honore Daumier (1808-1879), titled "Flanerie par le degel" (A stroll in the thaw), from the series Emotions Parisiennes, 1841 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Samuel Bough (1822-1878), Snowballing Outside Edinburgh University, 1853 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Drawing by Alfred R. Waud (1828-1891), 1864. An inscription reads: "The Snowball Battle near Dalton, Georgia, March 22, 1862. A Grand mock Battle between several divisions of Confederate soldiers" -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Christian Schussele (1824-1879), Boy with Snowball, 19th century -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Otto Scholderer (1834-1902), Knabe, einem anderen Knaben an der Strassenecke auflauernd (Boy, ambushing another boy on the street corner), ca. 1873 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Leopold Till (1830-1893), Schneeballschlacht (Snowball fight), 19th century. - Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Triptych by Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), 1882. Possibly from the series of Ukiyo-e prints Shinsen azuma nishiki-e (New selections of Eastern brocade pictures) -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Gerhard Munthe (1849-1929), Sneballkasting (Throwing snowballs), 1885 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. One of fifty "New Years 1890 Cards" issued by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. Color lithograph -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Fritz Freund (1859-1936), Schneeballschlacht (The snowball fight), ca. 1890 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Fritz Freund (1859-1936), Schneeballschlacht (The snowball fight), ca. 1890 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Photograph of Princeton students after a snowball fight between freshman and sophomores, 1893 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Possibly a local Christmas card, sent by the pharmacist D. F. Onnen, likely from Baltimore, Maryland, ca. 1890s -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Christmas greeting card, likely from the early 20th century, depicting two angels having a snowball fight with Santa -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Illustration from Matilda Chaplin Ayrton, Child-life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories (1901). Illustrations by "Japanese artists" that are not named -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Photograph by Fitz W. Guerin (1846-1903), ca. 1902 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Whose afraid", a print from Springfield, Massachusetts, 1904 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. A stereograph of "Travellers lingering for a frolic with July snowballs, on road over the Haukeli mountains, Norway" by Elmer Underwood (1859-1947), ca. 1905 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "La nieve en Madrid", published in a 1907 issue of Nuevo Mundo -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Carl Saltzmann (1847-1923), Friedensversicherungen, 1909 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Photograph of "Girl in Sami costume" by Solveig Lund (1869-1943), ca. 1920 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "A Republican--Democratic snow battle at the Capitol. Page Boys", 1923 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Snow scenes. Australian soldiers & Arabs snowballing", produced by Matson Photo Service, 1942 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Ensign Frances A. Steve from Rome, New York, snowballing at the Marine Rehabilitation Center in Klamath Falls, Oregon, ca. 1940s -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Members of the Women's Army Corps throwing snowballs at Camp Shanks, New York, 1946 -- Source Representation of snowball fight in visual artScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Photograph by Ralph Walker of snowball fight between students at Thorpe Gordon School in Missouri. Date unknown -- Source If You Liked This... Hand holding envelope Get Our Newsletter Our latest content, your inbox, every fortnight Privacy Policy More Info [ ][ ] HP[ ] [Subscribe] Become a Friend of the PDRPostcardsWe rely on our annual donors to keep the project alive. 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