# The Rommel-Pot Player

- By: Workshop of Frans Hals (Dutch, 1582–1666)
- Date: c. 1630
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 39.1 × 30.5 cm (15 1/16 × 12 5/16 in.); (Framed): 68 × 61 × 7.7 cm (26 3/4 × 24 × 3 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/59894)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/fb4c5bda60f6a2515719f36541ead925.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Joy alights on the faces of a crowd of children staring spellbound up at a rommel-pot player. A rommel pot is a musical instrument made out of an earthenware jar with a stick inserted through an animal skin covering. The player rotates and rubs the stick to produce a droning noise akin to a duck call. It was often played during Shrovetide, the festive period before the start of Lent, also known as Carnival. This street performer wears a foxtail hat, a traditional attribute of a fool, highlighting the silliness of the occasion. Frans Hals’s workshop produced multiple versions of this scene, which was likely popular for the way the artist captured childhood delight.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0