Lute Player. The Lute Player is a composition by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio.
It used to exist in two versions, one in the Wildenstein Collection and another in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. However, a third from Badminton House, Gloucestershire, came to light in 2007.
Caravaggio's early biographer Giovanni Baglione gives the following description of a piece done by the artist for his patron Cardinal Francesco Del Monte: E dipinse anche un giovane, che sonava il Lauto, che vivo, e vero il tutto parea con una caraffa di fiori piena d'acqua, che dentro il reflesso d'ua fenestra eccelentemente si scorgeva con altri ripercotimenti di quella camera dentro l'acqua, e sopra quei fiori eravi una viva rugiada con ogni esquisita diligenza finta. E questo che fu il piu bel pezzo, che facesse mai.
The painting exists in three versions. All show a boy with soft facial features and thick brown hair, accompanying himself on the lute as he sings a madrigal about love.
As in the Uffizi Bacchus, the artist places a table-top in front of the figure. In the Hermitage and Badminton House versions it is bare marble, with a violin on one side and a still life of flowers and fruit on the other. In the Wildenstein version the table is covered with a carpet and extended forwards to hold a tenor recorder, while the still life is replaced by a spinetta and a caged songbird. The musical instruments a
It used to exist in two versions, one in the Wildenstein Collection and another in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. However, a third from Badminton House, Gloucestershire, came to light in 2007.
Caravaggio's early biographer Giovanni Baglione gives the following description of a piece done by the artist for his patron Cardinal Francesco Del Monte: E dipinse anche un giovane, che sonava il Lauto, che vivo, e vero il tutto parea con una caraffa di fiori piena d'acqua, che dentro il reflesso d'ua fenestra eccelentemente si scorgeva con altri ripercotimenti di quella camera dentro l'acqua, e sopra quei fiori eravi una viva rugiada con ogni esquisita diligenza finta. E questo che fu il piu bel pezzo, che facesse mai.
The painting exists in three versions. All show a boy with soft facial features and thick brown hair, accompanying himself on the lute as he sings a madrigal about love.
As in the Uffizi Bacchus, the artist places a table-top in front of the figure. In the Hermitage and Badminton House versions it is bare marble, with a violin on one side and a still life of flowers and fruit on the other. In the Wildenstein version the table is covered with a carpet and extended forwards to hold a tenor recorder, while the still life is replaced by a spinetta and a caged songbird. The musical instruments a
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