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                                    ITALIAN, FRENCH, & SPANISH WALL

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                                    ITALIAN, FRENCH, & SPANISH WALL

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                                                           DUTCH WALL

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                                                           DUTCH WALL

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                                                                                                                                                           INTRODUCTORY PANEL

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                                                                                                                                                           INTRODUCTORY PANEL

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Expression through music is one common bond humanity has shared and connected to through all eras of human history. Portraits of musicians or genre scenes capturing concerts became a common theme during the 17th century period of art. The two most prevalent musical instruments depicted in 17th century art were the lute and violin. Though Dutch art contrasted greatly with Italian and Spanish art in subject matter, favoring a more "Protestant outlook" to classic or Catholic narratives, both string instruments connect the differing perspectives of 17th century art to the collective admiration and enjoyment of music (Finlay, p. 52).

The division of this exhibit will highlight the stark differences between Golden Age Dutch and Italian Baroque and Spanish music portraiture. Jacob Ochtervelt's Street Musicians at the Door can be compared to Caravaggio's The Musicians in regard to how the figures are portrayed and interact with their environment, along with the color scheme of the painting; both paintings separately embody the artistic qualities from their country of origin. The musical genre paintings of the Dutch Golden Age embodied "an ideal set of conditions" for Dutch society, with scenes of music taking place in the home and great enjoyment, which gave artistic "freedom from the influences of vocal and church music," of which can be seen and emphasized particularly by Diego Velazquez's The Three Musicians, to contradict this notion (Finlay, p. 52-53). There is an overall energy of enthusiasm and lighthearted play with the Dutch portrayal of concerts and musicians, compared to the darker and serious tones of Italian, Spanish, and French art from this exhibit.

Concert paintings had been around before their arrival in multitudes during the 17th century. The Middle Ages included secular portrayals of concert scenes, illustrating festivals and celebrations with musical instruments; the Italian Renaissance included artists experimenting with "proportion" and the accurate depiction of musical instruments, particularly in a religious concert setting, or a portrait (Egan, p. 184-185).

The lute and violin both have histories long before 17th century artists elegantly portrayed their usage. The lute has gone through many different transformations in time, with "continuous modifications to keep up with developments in music" (Santa and Bouquet, 2000). The lute is not just one instrument, with "specific varieties" into archlutes, country-categorized lutes, and can be in a pear-shape or rounded (Mariagrazia, and Beier, p. 75-76). The origins of the lute remain a mystery, due to its continued transformations through time, whereas the model for the modern violin can be traced back to Northern Italy in the 1550s, with credit given to Andrea Amati for "[adding] the fourth string" and therefore creating the violin family of cello, viola, viol, etc (Powers,  2003). Originally, the violin was "primarily played by professionals" and its purpose was "particularly suited to dance accompaniment," with concerts favoring the violin and cello together (Powers, 2003).

Part of why string instruments and concerts using lutes and violins were painted in abundance was possibly due to the striking nature of how the music sounded. String instruments in the Baroque were known for their "transparency" and "cutting edge" crisp tune, along with the "moderate vibrato" of their musical attack (Donington, 389-393). These portrayals of music scenes could evoke an auditory memory for the viewer, reminding them of the sound that emits from the instrument they are seeing.

Carlone, Mariagrazia, and Paul Beier. "Lutes, Archlutes, Theorboes in Iconography." Music in Art 30, no. 1/2 (2005): 75-87. Accessed April 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41818775.

Finlay, Ian F. "Musical Instruments in 17th-Century Dutch Paintings." The Galpin Society Journal 6 (1953): 52-69. Accessed April 12, 2021. doi:10.2307/841717.

Donington, Robert. "String Playing in Baroque Music 1." Early Music 5, no. 3 (1977): 389-93. Accessed April 13, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3126094.

Smith, David R. "Irony and Civility: Notes on the Convergence of Genre and Portraiture in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting." The Art Bulletin 69, no. 3 (1987): 407-30. Accessed April 15, 2021. doi:10.2307/3051063.

Egan, Patricia. "" Concert" Scenes in Musical Paintings of the Italian Renaissance." Journal of the American Musicological Society 14, no. 2 (1961): 184-195.

Powers, Wendy. “Violin Makers: Nicolò Amati (1596–1684) and Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/strd/hd_strd.htm (October 2003)

Santa Maria Bouquet, Jonathan. “The Lute.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lute/hd_lute.htm (April 2010)

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The Concert, Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656), Dutch

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The Concert, Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656), Dutch

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Date: 1623
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 123.5 × 205 cm (48 5/8 × 80 11/16 in.)

Location: National Gallery of Art

Object number: 2013.38.1

This is another Dutch Golden Age painting that captures a candid scene of entertainment, with its musicians in bright colored clothing and mid-song. Each figure in this painting wears brightly colored clothing; the only dark-toned article of clothing belongs to the man in the foreground with his back turned to the viewer, but he wears red along with his black cloak. Van Honthorst captures the musicians and singers in the middle of looking off song notes. There is a couple in the upper right corner who do not belong to the musicians, but they emulate the same sense of joy and participation in the music scene depicted.

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Lute Player, Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632), French

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Lute Player, Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632), French

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Date: c. 1625-1626
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50 1/2 x 39 in. (128.3 x 99.1 cm)

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Object number: 2008.459

This portrait continues the theme of the lute being the most prominent music symbol painted in 17th century art. De Boulogne was a follower of Caravaggio's, so his portrayal of the lute player possesses a similar tenebrism, with an overwhelmingly dark background and shadows and some source of "divine light" shining onto the figure. This vast tenebrism continues the dramatic tone that is seen in works of the Italian Baroque and the followers of that art period. This portrait also seems to capture the lute player mid-song, with his mouth open and looking directly at the viewer.

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The Musicians, Caravaggio (1571-1610), Italian

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The Musicians, Caravaggio (1571-1610), Italian

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Date: c. 1595
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 36 1/4 x 46 5/8 in. (92.1 x 118.4 cm)

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Object number: 52.81

The lute is seen in the foreground of this painting. Caravaggio paints his four figures as Greek-inspired classical figures, wearing togas and robes, with an angelic quality to them. The furthest left figure has dark wings and is tending to grapes, focused on the work he is doing. A violin is also seen at the foreground, sitting on open books in front of the lute-holding figure who looks directly at the viewer as he sings. Another man sings next to him, but his figure is blocked by the lute holder changing the tune of his instrument and the man reading off lyrics with his back turned to the viewer. This painting's restricted color scheme of dark red, browns, blacks, and use of tenebrism embodies the serious tone seen in Italian Baroque art.

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Musical Company, Rembrandt (1606-1669), Dutch

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Musical Company, Rembrandt (1606-1669), Dutch

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Date: 1626
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: height 63.5 cm × width 48 cm
Location: Rijksmuseum
Object number: SK-A-4674

Rembrandt's portrait provides a similar sense of joy that is shared among the other Golden Age paintings exhibited, even if it is more chaotic and cluttered. Although this painting does not include a lute or violin, a member of the violin family, the cello is present, along with the harp, another string instrument. To reiterate from the introductory panel, the cello was popular with concerts in Italy when paired with the violin. Rembrandt's oeuvre tends to have darker or neutral color tones, and is significantly darker than the other Dutch works exhibited here. However, this painting still shows the secular celebration of music that is portrayed in Dutch art.

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The Lute Player, Frans Hals (1582-1666), Dutch

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The Lute Player, Frans Hals (1582-1666), Dutch

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Date: 1623
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 70 cm × 62 cm (28 in × 24 in)
Location: Louvre Museum
Object number: RF 1984 32

Hals' portrait of the lute player expresses a similar jovial nature as Leyster, Van Honthorst, and Ochtervelt. This is the only portrait included from the Dutch wall, as the rest are genre paintings. This portrait of the lute player combines neutral and bright color tones, with a grey, bland background contrasted by the reds and golds of the lute player's clothing and the look of happiness on his face as he shows off his favorite musical instrument. The use of tenebrism on the man's face and the shadows on his hands further exhibits the seriousness yet joy the lute player expresses as he stands to get his portrait painted.

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Merry Trio, Judith Leyster (1609-1660), Dutch

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Merry Trio, Judith Leyster (1609-1660), Dutch

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Date: c. 1629
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 88 cm × 73.5 cm (35 in × 28.9 in)
Location: Private collection

The commonality of using bright color scenes and depicting a jovial scene continues with Leyster's portrait of the titular merry trio. The two most prominent members of the trio seem to have a flipped color wardrobe, with the left man all in red with blue ribbons on his waist and shoes; respectively, the right man holding a violin wears red ribbons on his shoes. Every single figure in this painting, including the left-hand figures peeping through the window, all have a smile on their faces. This painting continues the theme of happiness and secular celebration of music in Dutch Golden Age portraiture.

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The Three Musicians, Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), Spanish

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The Three Musicians, Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), Spanish

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Date: c. 1616
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 111.0 x 88.0 cm

Location: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Velazquez captures a candid snapshot in time, with the guitarist and fiddle player mid-song, and the smaller guitarist looking at the painting's viewer. Similar to Strozzi's painting, gold appears here, but it is the main color throughout the painting, seen in the flesh tones of the figures, their clothing, and the frame in the background. This painting is reminiscent of Caravaggio's portrait of The Musicians, for its similar candid shot of the musicians in the middle of a concert, with only one figure looking directly at the viewer as the other two musicians remain focused on performing for an audience, which only seems to be the monkey behind the young boy.

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The Concert, Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644), Italian

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The Concert, Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644), Italian

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Date: c. 1635
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: w111.0 x h88.0 cm

Location: Royal Collection Trust
Object number: RCIN 404978

This painting of two musicians shows both the violin and lute. The way these instruments are positioned makes them similar to a still life, frozen in time. The figures also have a frozen quality to them. The color scheme is mainly dark and neutral, except for the splash of gold from the old man's cloak and feather on his hat. The background has a similar dark grey blandness as the other paintings in the Italian section, but there seems to be a source of light from above, and the tenebrism is not as strong as Caravaggio's or de Boulogne's art. The colors are a bit warmer.

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Street Musicians at the Door, Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682), Dutch

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Street Musicians at the Door, Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682), Dutch

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Date: 1665
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 27 x 22 1/2 in. (68.6 x 57.2 cm)
framed: 38 5/8 x 34 1/4 x 2 3/8 in. (98.1 x 87 x 6 cm)
Location: Saint Louis Art Museum
Object number: 162:1928

This genre painting uses color scheme to expose a difference in class: the aristocratic family enjoying the street musicians are painted with light shining on them and in colorful clothes, wearing reds, blues, and white. The visiting musicians' color tones match the neutral, dirty scheme of the outside village, painted with browns. The scene depicted shows the musicians entertaining the young child, her maid, and mother with a small violin and singing. This painting contributes greatly to the exhibit for this inclusion of the violin (importance of string instruments) and how music has always centered around happiness.