Vier kinderen in de banken van de St. Laurentiuskerk in Neurenberg kijken uit de ramen 1867

Constant Aimé Marie Cap made this pencil drawing of children in a church in Nuremberg. Its delicate style shows children looking out of the window. Made sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, it may reflect the place of children in the social and religious life of Europe at the time. The church, a space traditionally associated with solemnity and reverence, is here juxtaposed with the curious gaze of youth turned towards the outside world. Are they bored? Are they dreaming of wider possibilities than the church can offer? Perhaps Cap's choice of subject reflects an interest in the changing social dynamics of his time, as the rise of secularism began to compete with the established norms of religious observance. Further study, cross-referencing records of education, social movements, and religious life, could open out the cultural meanings of the artwork. It reminds us that art's meaning is always contingent on context.