Lute player

Bartolomeo Veneto: Lute Player (1520), 65 cm × 50 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

In the first half of the 16th century several oil paintings were created on wood that show a lute player and are attributed to the Italian painter Bartolomeo Veneto , also Bartolomeo da Venezia , and his workshop. The oldest known versions of the depiction are in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

description

The mostly rectangular paintings each show the half-length of an elaborately dressed woman, whose dress is decorated with precious stones and embroidery. It is located behind a parapet , also called a parapetto . This creates a distance to the viewer, an image border that is broken up by the music book lying open on the parapet. On the paintings in the Pinacoteca di Brera and in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , a cartellino can also be seen on the parapet, on which the year of creation of the painting (1520) is noted. The sitter wears the so-called zibellino or flea fur over her arm, which was supposed to ward off fleas and is not uncommon as an accessory in the representation of high-ranking women in the 16th century. An almost transparent veil is laid over her loose, curly hair. She is holding a lute in her hands, she seems to be in the middle of the game. The lute player's gaze is directed directly at the viewer. The relationship between light and shadow suggests an intimate scene.

Identity of the sitter

The identity of the lute player is not clearly established, but her clothing suggests the status of a noblewoman . In the Pinacoteca di Brera it is assumed that Bartolomeo Veneto depicted Saint Cecilia of Rome , who is sometimes represented with the lute as an attribute . Her veil is interpreted in this thesis as an implied halo . In the research literature, the sitter is identified in part as Cecilia Gallerani. Accordingly, the flea skin is a reminiscence of the ermine on Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, who is also known as the lady with the ermine .

Versions

There are several versions of the painting, the authorship of which is partly unclear. The numerous contemporary imitations suggest that the work was already well known or at least sold well.

Version in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

A version of the painting dated 1520 is in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. It measures 65 × 50 cm and was acquired from the collection of Count Cesare del Majno in Milan in 1936.

Version in the Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston also has a version of the painting of a lute player, dated 1520. The oil painting painted on walnut measures 66.8 × 50.5 cm. From the collection of the Donado family, the work was transferred to the collection of Count Pio Reese in Rome in the late 18th century. The museum bought the painting in 1900.

More versions of the painting

A more recent version in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is much smaller in size at 55.9 × 41.3 cm. This depiction is dated to around 1530. No Cartellino can be seen in this painting, but otherwise the appearance of the lute player is similar to that of the earlier versions. From the Certosa di Pavia monastery complex , the painting came into the possession of J. Paul Getty via several private collections and the Galleria Luigi Bellini . After his death in 1978, the painting became part of the museum's collection.

The Berlin Gemäldegalerie also has a copy of the work. The version there can have other dimensions with 62.5 × 46.5 cm and can only be dated to an indefinite period after 1520. In terms of execution, this version is described as "weak" and is not considered to be the original work of Bartolomeo Veneto. In fact, the face of the sitter differs greatly from the paintings in Milan and Boston. The seal of Napoleon Bonaparte is on the back of the painting . Until 1889 the picture was owned by Alexander of Minutolis. In 1899 it was sold in the art auction in the Berlin Salon Rudolph Lepke and came in 1916 as a gift from Dr. GA Freund in the collection of the Berlin Museum.

Further versions can be found in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana di Milano , in the Castello Sforzesco di Milano , in the Pinacoteca del Seminario di Rovigo and other Italian private collections. Copies of the painting were also offered on the art market. In a work auctioned in London in 2005, the representation was supplemented by two angels, which are to the left and right of the lute player. The format of the almost square painting also differs from the other versions of the representation.

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  Bartolomeo Veneto: Lute Player (around 1530), 55.9 cm × 41.3 cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

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  Studio Of Bartolomeo Veneto: Lute Player, 62.7 cm × 61 cm, sold by Bonhams London, 2005.

literature

• Henning Bock et al. (Ed.): Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Complete directory. State museums in Berlin - Prussian cultural heritage. Berlin 1996.
• Deborah Howard, Laura Moretti (eds.): Bartolomeo Veneto, Woman Playing a Lute, 1520. In: The Music Room in Early Modern France and Italy: Sound, Space and Object. OUP / British Academy, 2012, pp. 33–34.
• Laura Pagnotta, et al. (Ed.): The Portraits of Bartolomeo Veneto. Exhibition catalog of the Timken Museum of Art, Seattle. University of Washington Press, 2003.
• Rudolph Lepke's Berlin Auctions catalog: Catalog of the Minutoli Gallery from Friedersdorf Castle in Silesia. Old master paintings. Volume 706. Berlin 1899.
• H. Colin Slim: Multiple Images of Bartolommeo Veneto's Lute-Playing Woman, 1520. In: Owens, Cummings (Ed.): Music in Renaissance Cities and Courts: Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood. Michigan, 1997, pp. 405-406.

Web links

Commons : Woman Playing a Lute (Veneto)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• A lute player in the online database of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
• Lady Playing a Lute at the J. Paul Getty Museum
• A Girl with a Lute at the Isabella Garnder Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lady Playing a Lute (Getty Museum). Retrieved June 22, 2020 (English). 
2. ↑ Hildegard Kretschmer: Lexicon of symbols and attributes in art . Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, p. 258 .
3. ↑ La suonatrice di liuto (Santa Cecilia?), Bartolomeo, Veneto (maniera) - Opere e oggetti d'arte - Lombardia Beni Culturali. Retrieved June 22, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Lady Playing a Lute (Getty Museum). Retrieved June 22, 2020 (English). 
5. ^ Lute Player - Bartolomeo Veneto. Retrieved June 22, 2020 (American English). 
6. ↑ A Girl with a Lute | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Retrieved June 22, 2020 (English). 
7. ↑ SMB digital | A lute player. Retrieved June 22, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Rudolph Lepke's Berlin Auctions catalog (ed.): Catalog of the Minutoli Gallery from Friedersdorf Castle in Silesia. Old master paintings . tape 706 . Berlin 1899.
9. ↑ Henning Bock et al. (Ed.): Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Complete directory, National Museums in Berlin - Prussian cultural heritage . Berlin 1996, p. 14 .
10. ↑ La suonatrice di liuto (Santa Cecilia?), Bartolomeo, Veneto (maniera) - Opere e oggetti d'arte - Lombardia Beni Culturali. Retrieved June 22, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Young woman playing a lute by BartolomeoVeneto. Retrieved June 22, 2020 .