Blowing Bubbles

Detail from the Isabella Breviary, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), late 1480s and before 1497, British Library, Additional 18851, f. 470v


Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Children's Games (detail) 1560


Hendrick Goltzius Quis Evadet? 1594


Karel van Sichem: Homo Bulla, around 1617


Attributed to Jaques de Gheyn II (Antwerp 1565-1629) A vanitas allegory: Homo Bulla Est, a boy blowing bubbles while another watches and a young woman holds a skull by candlelight


Bartolomeus van der Helst Homo Bulla: A Boy Blowing Bubbles, c.1665

Here are more.

Making soap bubbles goes back at least as far as the 14th century: it was one of Froissart's boyhood amusemants