Het concert

Bijlert, Jan van (born ca. 1597, died 1671)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1635-1645

Height:

68.0 cm  (26 3/4 in.)

Width:

95.0 cm  (37 3/8 in.)

Signed lower left: Jvbij..., J and v monogrammed

Technique / Medium:

oil on panel

Place of creation:

Utrecht

School:

Utrecht Caravaggism

Additional titles

Description

"On the right a seated man bows at his viol (viola da gamba), while the woman beside him plucks a harp. Behind them a youth plays a wind instrument, which given its conical shape and the position of the player's hands must be a mute cornett. At the center of the composition a young woman playing a cittern turns her head to the viewer. At the other side of the table stands a violinist with a feathered cap and further to the left sits a bare-breasted young woman apparently beating time with her raised hand, a gesture always associated with the singer. Before her on the table lie several music books. The man seated opposite her appears to take no part in the concert; having removed his sword he shows his empty glass demonstratively to the cittern player. On the far left a servant pours out wine in a long, even stream, into a rummer. A bare wall serves as backdrop for this musical scene and near the bottom of the composition the floor ends abruptly, as if the figures are situated on a sort of stage. Smoker's attributes are displayed in the left foreground while in the lower right a lute and several songbooks protrude over the ledge of the raised floor." --E. Buijsen (1994)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Violin [3573]
Lute [3394] (in the foreground)
Viola da gamba [3604]
Cittern [3106]
Cornett [3868]
Harp [3285]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2
image link 3

Bibliographic references

Buijsen, Edwin and Louis Peter Grijp. The Hoogsteder exhibition of music & painting in the Golden Age (The Hague: Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Zwolle: Waanders, 1994) 146-149, n. 5. ISBN: 9066304685. RILM 1994-8665.

Huys Janssen, Paul. Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671): schilder in Utrecht (Utrecht: University of Utrecht, 1994) 203-204, n. 139.

Hoogewerf, G.J. "Jan van Bijlert", Oud Holland 130 (1965) 29, n. 83.

De Jongh, E. Muziek aan de muur: Muzikale voorstellingen in de Nederlanden 1500-1700 (Zwolle: Waanders Uitgeverij; 's-Hertogenbosch: Noordbrabants Museum, 2008) 65. ISBN: 904008470X.

RIdIM record id

2889