The main mystery of Caravaggio's favorite painting: The lute player or the lute player?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Caravaggio's painting "The Lute Player" is the artist's favorite work and a real gem of the Hermitage. Masterfully painted still life, inventive technique with innovations and the mystery of the main character of the picture. Who is depicted on the canvas - a lute player or a lute player?

The Lute Player is an early work by Caravaggio, through which the master strove to convey the reality of the world around him. The painting was intended for the private collection of paintings by Vincenzo Giustiniani (one of the richest collectors in Western Europe), who bought it in 1628. It was subsequently resold to Baron Denon for collection at the Hermitage in 1808. Today this painting is considered one of the gems of the Hermitage collection and is the only work of the famous Italian master in Russia.

Master's biography

Caravaggio's art has absorbed the traditions of the North Italian Renaissance, imbued with deep humanism. It largely determined the course of the development of art in subsequent years. The results of the artistic craft of Caravaggio had a strong influence on artists in all regions of Italy and in Western Europe, which ultimately identified him as the founding father of the realistic style of the Italian Baroque. Emotional, full of dramatic effect, his art reflected the passionate, unbridled character of the artist himself.

The plot of the picture

The Lute Player was written in 1595–96 by order of one of the most sophisticated connoisseurs of this period, the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. Her main idea is a symbol of love and harmony, but a number of art critics classify the painting as a vanitas genre, symbolizing the transience of human life. Others have found in it a religiously edifying content or representation of the five human senses. The painting depicts the figure of a young boy (or a girl - this is the main mystery of the painting) playing the lute. The musical composition played by the hero is the four madrigals of Jacques Arcadelt in 1539. The open mouth of a young person may indicate that the hero is singing along with his music. He is wearing a white linen shirt with an open neck. The shirt hangs from the shoulders with wide sleeves. Thick brown hair is held in place with a ribbon. Especially mysteriously pensive expression of the hero's face under sharply defined wide eyebrows.

Lute player or lute player?

The biographer of 17th century Italian artists, Giovanni Bellori, mistook the hero for a girl. A ribbon woven into the hero's hair, very soft and even delicate facial features, peach velvet skin, refined thin fingers emphasize feminine features rather than masculine ones. That is why Bellory saw a lute player in the picture. Only at the beginning of the twentieth century, art critics agreed that the canvas still depicts a young man (posed for the artist, presumably, his friend and colleague Mario Minniti). This version is proved by the notes of a male composer, created under a male voice. In addition, the painting depicts musical instruments (lute and violin), which were considered masculine in the era of Caravaggio. Caravaggio conveyed the uniqueness and beauty of the surrounding world through the face of the hero and the objects that make up the still life.

Still life

Flowers in a bouquet, placed in a transparent glass vessel, form an exquisite range of colors. There are irises, damask rose, carnation, jasmine, daisies, thyme flowers (the bouquet indicates the seasons from late spring to early summer). Peach, orange and grapes, pears, figs, plums and cucumber form an exquisite fruit and vegetable still life. Pieces of fruit lie on a marble slab, extremely bright and brilliantly colored. In a crystal vase, the viewer sees a bouquet of flowers that will make even Jan Davids de Heem jealous. In Caravaggio's still life, the symbolism of the picture slips.

Symbolism

Love as the theme of this work is indicated by the main instrument, lute, and other elements complementing the theme. Rose is a flower of Venus, a symbol of love. Peaches symbolize good health, as well as truth and salvation and are used as a substitute for the sinful apple. Rotten fruits are a symbol of aging. … Ripe fruits symbolize fertility and abundance (complement the vanitas theme). Iris is an attribute of courage, valor, dignity (another plus to the version of the hero's male sex). Fig, the fruit of which has a lot of seeds, is a symbol of abundance. Still lifes of the XVI-XVIII centuries were so popular with private customers precisely because of the demonstration of the abundance and luxury of the owner. Displaying your status and your position in society is a very popular trend in these years. The lute is an archaic instrument, glorified at the beginning of the 16th century. The Cracked Lute was a metaphor for love that fails (a reference to Tennyson's Royal Idylls: “That little crack in the lute will soon stop the music”). The Cremona violin plays two important roles in the painting: firstly, it helps to keep the musical notes open and comfortable for the lute player to play. Secondly, the location of the violin invites the viewer to take part in the music scene and enjoy the talent of the hero. Compositional and semantic role.

Composition of the painting

The harsh light falling from the left illuminates the young man, making his figure three-dimensional and three-dimensional, the other elements of the picture are in deliberate partial shade. The foreshortened lute with a curved keyboard demonstrates Caravaggio's masterly mastery of perspective. And the clear contrast of light and shadow already outlines the artist's initial interest in the chiaroscuro technique.

Caravaggio managed to create a real masterpiece in the early years. The distinctive features of the painting - a turn to reality, monumentality, a technique that produced amazing effects of light and color, the alla prima painting method (excluding preliminary sketches) - caused a great stir in the artistic world. All these features are reflected in the favorite work of Caravaggio himself - "The Lute Player".