Cittern player (Allegory of hearing)

Bega, Cornelis (1631 or 1632-1664)

Item type:

painting

Height:

42.0 cm  (16 9/16 in.)

Width:

35.8 cm  (14 1/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on panel

Description

A young woman supports the body of a cittern and grasps the neck of the plucked instrument with her other hand. On the right a lute rests against a massive tome and from beneath the curtain in the background protrudes a wooden wind instrument (probably a shawm). Some of the music books surrounding the woman contain fictitious notes.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Cittern [3106]
Lute [3394]
Shawm [4258]

Musical works

legible music notation
illegible music notation

Image URLs

image link 1

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) 142, cat. no. 4. RILM 1994-8665.

RIdIM record id

3566