Portrait of a musician
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
- Pinacoteca Ambrosiana (Milano)
Item location
Description
Portrait of an unknown musician holding a sheet of music. According to the information provided by the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana the sitter was initially assumed to depict Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. After restoration in 1905 the musical scroll was uncovered and so the portrait was thought to be a portrait of musician (sometimes identified as Franchino Gaffurio and Josquin des Prez). Most recently it was suggested that the portrait shows Atalante Migliorotti – a Tuscan musician and singer at the Duke’s court in Milan during the period Ludovico il Moro. The paper with musical notation is hardly legible which has arisen a number of hypothesis. The partially erased letters can be made out as “Cant” and “An” and have been interpreted as “Cantum Angelicum” (Fagnart, pp. 75-76) or “Cantor Angelico” (Ottino della Chiesa, p. 100). The notation represents mensural notation and may therefore suggest polyphonic music (Fagnart, p. 73).Musical works
illegible music notationRIdIM images
Bibliographic references
Angela Ottino della Chiesa. The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci (London: Penguin Classics, 1967).David Alan Brown. "Leonardo and the Idealized Portrait in Milan". Arte Lombarda, 64/4 (1983), pp. 102-116.
Martin Kemp. “Leonardo da Vinci”. Grove Art Online (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Pietro C. Marani, Pietro C. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003)
Luke Syson et al. Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan (London: National Gallery, 2011).
Laure Fagnart (2019). "Gaspar Depicted? Leonardo's Portrait of a Musician", in: Gaspar van Weerbeke: New Perspectives on his Life and Music, ed. by Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl and Paul Kolb (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019), pp. 73–77.
Martin Kemp. Leonardo da Vinci: The 100 Milestones (New York Sterling, 2019).
Allison Lee Palmer. Leonardo da Vinci: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
Frank Zöllner. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings (Cologne: Taschen, 2019)
Maria Teresa Fiorio. "Leonardo's Portrait of a Musician and some reflections on his Milanese Workshop". In: Leonardo da Vinci's technical practice: paintings, drawings and influence, ed. by Michel Menu (Paris: Hermann Éditeurs, 2014), pp. 152-161.