A humorous or satirical painting or print depicting scenes of everyday low-life or vulgar amusement, popular in 17th-century Dutch art.
From Italian 'bamboccio' (from 'bambo' meaning soft or silly) plus the suffix '-ade'. The term originated in Rome during the 1600s to describe the genre popularized by Pieter van Laer (nicknamed 'Bamboccio'), who painted tavern scenes and street vendors with comedic exaggeration.
Bambocciade paintings were basically the memes of the 1600s—artists deliberately painted goofy, embarrassing everyday moments to make people laugh, just like how we share funny videos online today. They were considered 'low art' at the time, but now museums treasure them for showing us exactly what regular people actually did centuries ago.
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