Here is a wonderful sculpture at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. BK-16083): it represents a walking man with a raised left arm and the right protrunding outwards. The description of the item in the museum’s website reads: De man staat … Continue reading A “walking man” that has lost his cello.
This fascinating painting is known to be a piece of a harpsichord lid, notably the flap covering the keyboard. Salvator Rosa, other than an extremely talented draughtsman and painter, was also a poet and a musician. I had the fortune of holding in my hands a manuscript of vocal music (Paris, Bibliotheque National, Music Department) that most likely belonged to him, as some of the textual compositions may have been written by the artist. This is all well known. Here is some literature and a recent video on the music behind the skull. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/Y2XxPhYEY-I Margaret Murata, Dr Burney Bought … Continue reading Rosa’s lid
It’s been a while, but life has its interesting ways in preventing me to write posts. This nice drawing just came under my eyes and thought I could share. It will be sold tomorrow, 14th April 2021 as lot 33 at Pandolfini (Central Italy school of the end of the XVI century). It’s very cute! Continue reading Angels making music
I haven’t been posting for a very long time as I have been (and still am) very busy working on my papers. Today while browsing through the latest sale catalogue of BASSENGE (Nov. 2019) I found this very eloquent drawing … Continue reading Let’s play
Among the Niemeijer pictures there was this stunning drawing by a non specified Bolognese artist from the 17th century. Striking are the details of the hands, especially the one striking the strings, in the middle. Pure visual delight. It is … Continue reading The theorbist
Besides collecting pictures of musical instruments and performances, Dr. J.W. Niemeijer amassed a reasonable amount of portraits of composers, musicians and more in general people related to music. A striking one is the supposed-to-be portrait of Johannes Couchet (1610-1655)* Flemish … Continue reading Cucù Couchet! / (Peekaboo Couchet!)
Among the images collected by J.W. Niemeijer there is a stunning portrait of an unknown man stringing a lute. According to the inscription the artist’s name is also obscure, however, he might have been active in Northern Italy in the … Continue reading “Zen and the Art of Lute Maintenance”
While browsing through the digital collection of the Rijksmuseum, I ran into two reproductions of a painting I was supposed to see in real life last year, namely the Genius of the Arts by Carlo Bononi (1569-1632) that was exposed … Continue reading A print and a drawing after Bononi at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
“This punchbowl, which was produced for export to England, is decorated with four scenes of musicians playing their instruments. The larger scenes depict European musicians while the smaller ones on the sides show Chinese musicians in concert. A print by … Continue reading Give me a print, I will turn it into a bowl
The detail in the picture is taken from a small impression included in an illustrated Bible from 1642. The signature reads: “MHem.In. / CVS” and something. These inscription indicates that Maarten van Heemskerck (1498 – 1574) invented the composition … Continue reading Printer’s tool(s).
