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).
Recently we sold a print rarely seen in collections, the “Christ and his disciples on the way to Emmaus”, engraved by Domenico Vito, monaco Vallombrosano (fl. 1574-1578). This composition is a mirrored smaller copy from another engraving made by Philips … Continue reading A recently sold print.
Besides facing the legendary Gioconda in Paris at the Louvre, the Marriage at Cana by Veronese (1528-1588) – way more funny to behold, and definitely much bigger – served as iconographic source for many musical companies from thereafter. The iconic … Continue reading Veronese docet.
Here is a selection of images from the online database of the Morgan Library and Museum . The works on paper date from the 17th century. Enjoy. Continue reading Music Iconography at the Morgan
Frontispieces are prints facing the title-page of books (with exceptions, of course) . As plates, they usually illustrate the content of the book with more or less complex iconographies, but in many occasions the plate shows a portrait. This can … Continue reading Please, DO disturb
Anna Bianco 