Musicerend gezelschap
Bijlert, Jan van (born ca. 1597, died 1671)
Additional titles
The concert
- Private collectionRahr Collection, Utrecht (1894)
Item location
Description
"The almost lifesize figures of two scantily clad musicians each occupy half of the picture surface. The folds of their garments are rendered with great care and an even light is used to model the forms of the upper parts of their bodies. On the second plan, further into the dark, are situated the smaller figure of a man with a recorder and a female singer. A few strong diagonals determine the structure of the composition. A line can be drawn along the strings and the neck of the lute, for instance, which continues in the shadow on to the wall. The same diagonal is echoed by the raised hand of the singer and the viol (viola da gamba) of the woman on the right. The powerful movement from lower left to upper right is conuterbalanced by an imaginary line running along the bow of the viol player in the opposite direction.The woman on the left plucks a ten-course lute, consisting of nine double strings and a single one. On the highest sounding string, which is also the most tautly tightened, is a special peg, known as the rider, which prevents the string at that point from bending too sharply - and thereby breaking. The second musician plays a viol, of which the scroll is decorated with a beautifully sculpted head." --E. Buijsen (1994)
Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)
Lute [3394] (10 courses)Viola da gamba [3604]
Recorder [4039]
RIdIM images
Image URLs
image link 1Wikimedia commons image
image link 2Web Gallery of Art image
image link 3RKD images
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) 150-152, n. 6. ISBN: 9066304685. RILM 1994-8665.Huys Janssen, Paul. Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671): schilder in Utrecht (Utrecht: University of Utrecht, 1994) 194, n. 30.