Vanitas still life with musical instruments

Heem, Cornelis de (1631-1695) (formerly attributed to)

Gruber, Johann Friedrich (died 1681)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

after 1661

Height:

153.0 cm  (60 1/4 in.)

Width:

166.5 cm  (65 9/16 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Description

Most prominent among the instruments in this still life is a six-stringed inlaid viola de gamba leaning against a chair, with a lions head for decoration and an "S" shaped sound hole (more characteristic of violins). Also depicted are a lute, a trumpet, a flute, a mandolin, a cittern, a bagpipe, a violin and a kit. Underneath the mandolin are two wind instruments (recorder and shawm).

Iconclass

11R6
'Vanitas' still life

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Viola da gamba [3604]
Lute [3394]
Mandolin [3510]
Trumpet [4446]
Flute [3955]
Cittern [3106]
Violin [3573]
Bagpipe [3746]
Kit [3571]
Recorder [4039]
Shawm [4258]

Musical works

legible music notation

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Ember, Ildikó. Music in painting: Music as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Trans. by Mary and András Boros-Kazai (Budapest: Corvina, 1984) plate 46. ISBN 9631317234. RILM 1984-6813.

RIdIM record id

3538