Musical instruments
Baschenis, Evaristo (1617-1677) (follower or school of)
Bettera, Bartolomeo (1639-ca.1688) (formerly attributed to)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[Museum inv. no.: 49.1789]
Item location
Description
Central to this painting are partial views of three musical instruments--a guitar, a lute, and a table-top keyboard instrument (spinet or clavichord)--two pages with musical notation (illegible) and vanitas elements (hourglass and book).Commentary from museum website:
Baschenis’s still lifes of musical instruments became so famous throughout Italy that, in the 1640s, he founded a workshop to produce copies and variants of his picture. The instruments depicted here are among those played by chamber ensembles that performed for invited guests in private homes. Many of Baschenis’s images are rich in symbolic meanings. The lute, for example, was the instrument of love, and many amorous songs were composed for it. Here, the dusty and abandoned lute and the hourglass also seem to function as vanitas elements, alluding to the passage of time.
Iconclass
11R6'Vanitas' still life
48C74
notation of music
Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)
Spinet [2256] (mechanism not visible)Lute [3394]
Guitar [3237]
Musical works
illegible music notationtwo pages of musical notation
RIdIM images
