Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 6

Sixth plate of a group of 9 plates with small domestic scenes, engraved by Jan van Haelbeeck, which were either were made for, or reused by Jean Leclerc around 1615 in the sonnet series ‘Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits’, in which they were each published with a sonnet that hinted at the double meaning of the activities. In this plate, two women, dressed in 17th-century court dress, and a man, also wearing aristocratic clothes, play a game on top of a clothed table, inside a room with clean tiles and open windows. The game they play requires a wooden (?) set, held by one of the women on top of the table, with holes through which small balls, thrown by the man from the other side of the table, enter. The plate accompanies one of the sonnets of the Enigmes, which describes the nature of the game, while also hinting to another, slightly more erotic activity. This double meaning of the images and sonnets of the Enigmes helps explain why most copies of the series, although very popular and influential in their day, have been lost.