Stilleven met Muziekinstrumeneten

Roestraeten, Pieter Gerritsz. van (1629 or 1630-1700)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1645–1699

Height:

118.0 cm  (46 7/16 in.)

Width:

108.0 cm  (42 1/2 in.)

signed: P Roestrate

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Additional titles

Description

Several instruments are on display in this still life: "a bass viol (viola da gamba) with six strings, a violin, an alto and a bass recorder (Baroque type), an eleven course lute (with only a single string for the upper course) and a keyboard instrument. It is difficult to say exactly what the latter represents, a virginal or a harpsichord: curiously, the box appears to run on both the right and to the back. In the painting it primarly serves as table on which the remaining instruments are spread". (F. Meijer, 1994)
On the keyboard instrument there are also a clock and a laurel wreath to be connected to the vanitas theme. It is also interesting to note that there is a shiny ball hanging from the ceiling reflecting both part of the still life but also the space around it. The same painter is visible seated at his easel, in profile with the window on his back illuminating the room and the instruments that he is actually portraying.

Iconclass

11R6
'Vanitas' still life

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Harpsichord [2251] (or Virginal)
Alto recorder [6625]
Lute [3394]
Violin [3573]
Bass recorder [3898]
Viola da gamba [3604]
Bow [2207]

Musical works

legible music notation
Four lines of music (perhaps alto part) is readable from the sheet of paper under the recorder.

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Buijsen, Edwin and Louis Peter Grijp. The Hoogsteder exhibition of music and painting in the Golden Age (The Hague: Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Zwolle: Waanders, 1994) cat.nr. 36. ISBN: 9066304685.

RIdIM record id

2893