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Home , Bernardo Strozzi, Caravaggio, Mario Minniti, Pietro Paolini

The music is a madrigal by . The visible text, in French, reads: “You know I love you and adore you...I was yours”

The body of the lute is cracked, and the fruit is bruised. The flowers will fade. Like them, love will not endure.

The player may be Pedro Montoya, a castrato who sang in the Sistine Chapel. Or it may be ’s companion, , who appears in many of the artist’s early works.

The Lute Player Merisi da Caravaggio, c 1600 Source: , St Petersburg Susanna and the Elders Artemesia Gentileschi, 1610

The earliest known by Gentileschi, created when she was 17.

The story of Susanna and the Elders was a popular subject in the era. The story, from the Book of Daniel, tells of two men who pursue Susanna into a garden and demand sexual favours. She resists. They threaten to accuse her of promiscuity unless she complies.

Few versions by other artists of the period show the sense of menace and distress of Gentileschi’s Susanna.

Source: Schönborn Collection, Schloss Weißenstein, Pommersfelden Saint Cecilia , 1606

Guido Reni (1575 – 1642), was born in Bologna into a family of musicians. Most of his themes are religious and mythological.

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians, and the subject of many musical tributes, including Purcell’s Hail, Bright Cecilia:

Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail to thee! Great Patroness of Us and Harmony! Who, whilst among the Choir above Thou dost thy former Skill improve, With Rapture of Delight dost see Thy Favourite Art Make up a Part Of infinite Felicity.

Source: Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena Judith Slaying Holofernes Artemesia Gentileschi, 1610

“Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes, who lay sprawled on his bed, for he was drunk with wine. She went to the bedpost near the head of Holofernes, and taking his sword from it, she grasped the hair of his head, and said, “Strengthen me this day, Lord, God of Israel!” Then with all her might she struck his neck twice and cut off his head.” The , chapter 13.

The assassination of Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite heroine Judith was a popular subject in renaissance and baroque art.

The brutality of Gentileschi’s image and the cold resolve in Judith’s face is striking, and unusual for the period.

Source: National Museum of Capodimonte, Portrait of the artist’s mother Guido Reni, c 1610 - 1612

This is recognized as one of the finest of baroque portraits. Guido Reni’s father, Daniele, was an established singer and instrumentalist. His mother Ginevra de’ Pozzi was widowed in 1594 and remarried a year later. By the time this portrait was painted, her second husband had either died or they were no longer living together.

Reni’s biography, published in 1678, describes him as very close to his mother, but having an aversion to other women, especially old women … “complaining that every time he went shopping, he always found one near him”.

Source: Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (1603 – 1681) born in Lucca, was a follower of Caravaggio.

He worked in , and his native Lucca.

This is one of two that are personal responses to Caravaggio’s The Musicians.

The Concert Pietro Paolini, 1620 - 1630 Source: Private Collection (c 1581 – 1644) was born in . He was a versatile, prolific and influential artist of sacred, mythological and secular themes, portraits and , patronized by the wealthy and powerful of Genoa, and later Venice.

Aged 17, he entered a Capuchin monastery, but left ten years later. At around the time of this painting, he came into conflict with the order. His superiors disapproved of his secular work, and he refused to return to the monastery. Arrested on their orders, he was imprisoned for over a year.

Street Musicians Bernardo Strozzi, c. 1630 Source: Detroit Institute of Arts Bernardo Strozzi, c. 1630

Painted about nine years before the artist’s portrait of , Monteverdi was in his mid 50s and at the peak of his fame as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Marco, Venice.

Cantate Domino dates from 10 years before the portrait; Beatus Vir from 10 years after.

Source: Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck Vittoria delle Rovere Mario Balassi, 1637

Vittoria delle Rovere married her cousin, Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Duke of in 1637. This portrait was commissioned by her husband’s uncle, Cardinal Carlo di Medici to mark the marriage.

Vittoria appears as Saint Vittoria holding a martyr’s palm and bloodied sword. Saint Vittoria was martyred with a sword through her heart.

Four years after the marriage, Barbara Strozzi dedicated her Opus 1, including Silentio Nocivo, to Vittoria delle Rovere “so that it may rest secure against the lightning bolts of slander prepared for it”.

Source: Private Collection The Viola da Gamba Player Bernardo Strozzi, c. 1638-39

This is now recognized as a portrait of Barbara Strozzi. She was no more than 20 years old. The artist was not related to Barbara, though they share the same name.

A violin lies on the table, perhaps waiting for its player. The music by Barbara’s arm is a duet.

The image has served to further debate about whether Barbara was a courtesan as well as a musician.

Source: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting Artemesia Gentileschi, c. 1638-39

Artemesia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1653) trained in her father Orazio’s studio in Rome, mixing paints and preparing canvasses from the age of five. The whole family were artists.

Gentileschi worked in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and London. In Florence she became a close friend of the celebrated singer and composer Francesca Caccini, the most highly paid musician of the Medici court.

In 1638 Gentileschi was invited to London by Charles I. The King acquired this portrait, which was probably produced while the artist was in London.

Source: Hampton Court , Trust Semiramis Called to Arms Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il , 1645

Guercino (1591 – 1666) was a leading Bolognese painter.

Semiramis, the legendary Assyrian queen, is told of a revolt by the Babylonians. According to a Roman account, with her hair in disarray, the war-like Semiramis rushed to take arms to quell the revolt.

Source: Private Collection Elisabetta Sirani (1683-1665) was an influential and prolific artist in Bologna. She produced over 200 paintings, and taught many younger male and female artists before her sudden death aged 27.

According to Plutarch, Portia, the wife of Brutus, stabbed herself to show him she was strong enough to share his burdens.

Portia Wounding Her Thigh Elisabetta Sirani, 1664 Source: Fondazione Carisbo, Bologna Gabbiani (1652 – 1726) was patronized by Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, and produced a number of images of his court musicians and servants.

Ferdinando, a fine musician in his own right, commissioned Bartolomeo Cristofori to build the first ever piano.

Three musicians of the Medici court with servant Anton Domenico Gabbiano, c 1687 Source: Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence Women Working Giacomo Ceruti, 1720 - 1725

Ceruti (1698 – 1767), born in , worked mainly in Brescia. He is best known for his genre paintings, many of which depict the poor with dignity and individuality.

The bare room and chairs may indicate a charitable institution. The dress of the woman in the foreground hints at wealth now long past.

Ceruti’s patrons often held positions of responsibility in the orphanages and charities of Brescia.

Source: Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto (1697 – 1768) was Venetian by birth.

This is Venice as Vivaldi would have known it.

Piazza San Marco Canaletto, late 1720s Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York