Allegory of music

La Hyre, Laurent de (1606-1656)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1649

Height:

105.7 cm  (41 5/8 in.)

Width:

144.1 cm  (56 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Place of creation:

Paris (France)

Description

The allegorical figure tunes a theorbo. At her shoulder is a songbird, symbol of natural music, whereas by contrast she may be a representation of modern music theory and practice. To the right are various contemporary instruments and scores: a lute, a violin, two recorders, a vocal exercise, and a song in two parts. This canvas, originally flanked by two music-making putti (Musée Magnin, Dijon), belonged to a series of the seven Liberal Arts commissioned by Gédéon Tallemant (1613–1668) for his house in the Marais quarter in Paris.
Also in the (right background), pipes of an organ.

Iconclass

48C70
'Musica', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ music; 'Musica'(Ripa)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Theorbo [3473]
Lute [3394]
Recorder [4039]
Violin [3573]
Bass recorder [3898]
Organ [2266] (only pipes are visible)

Musical works

legible music notation

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

3823