Man playing a zampogna

Couture, Thomas (1815-1879)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1877

Height:

146.0 cm  (57 1/2 in.)

Width:

114.0 cm  (44 7/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

A seated man plays a zampogna, a form of bagpipe native to southern Italy and Sicily but often played by itinerant musicians who traveled through Europe. The most characteristic feature of the zampogna is its two long chanters with expanded bells, fingered by each hand.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Zampogna [3783]

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Boydell, Barra. Music and paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin: The National Gallery of Ireland, 1985) 26. ISBN 0903162229. RILM 1985-00222.

Notes

The record on the NGI website lists the title of this work as Pifferaro. This may be a reference to the combination of bagpipe and woodwind instrument, often played by a team. The man in the picture is clearly playing a zampogna, or bagpipe. From Oxford Online: " 17th-century documents imply that the term piffaro could also be used for a flute, and this ambiguity has been the source of some confusion. In present-day Italy the name is still applied to the small shawms that peasants from the Abruzzi (pifferari) play at the Christmas season in the streets of Italian cities, accompanied by zampogne (bagpipes), but it is also used as a generic name for woodwind instruments."

RIdIM record id

2563