The Lute Player
Oil on round canvas (Diam. 46 cm - Framed, diam. 61 cm.)
Provenance: Sotheby's London, Old master paintings, 06.07.2000, lot 304 (as follower of Nicolas Tournier), Estimate: (6,350 - 9,500 EUR), Hammer price: (7,600 EUR)
Full details (click HERE)
The compositional choice and style of this interesting portrait of a young lute player, even at first glance, show a strong Caravaggesque inclination, both in the strong chiaroscuro, skillfully dosed here, and in the incidence of light that, coming from an external source, brings out the solid figure of the musician from the monochrome background.
The young man is depicted half-length, turned three-quarters, wearing an elegant feathered hat with fur trim, and a pomegranate-red silk shirt with wide sleeves, over which he wears a waistcoat and a sienna-colored cloak.
He turns his gaze to the viewer, seemingly asking for attention to follow his melody, caught by surprise during an informal concert or a rehearsal session.
The mysterious charm emanating from the painting comes from numerous details that do not go unnoticed: from the fullness of the red of his lips, which stand out against the perfect oval of his face, to his dreamy gaze, magically captured in a direct shot.
The musical instrument, placed diagonally and held with great decisiveness by the musician, stands out in the foreground, extending towards the observer so as to break down the barrier between painted space and real space.
All these elements evoke the numerous figures of young musicians that Caravaggio managed to immortalize during his stay in Rome – among the most celebrated are those in the 'Concert' in New York's Metropolitan Museum – a theme later taken up by numerous Caravaggisti, followers of the master, who reinterpreted its content in the first decades of the 17th century.
The analysis of the work, in particular, allows us to associate its execution with a painter from the close circle of French artists following Caravaggio in Rome, evoking in particular the models created by Nicolas Tournier (Montbéliard, 1590 – Toulouse, circa 1638), an extraordinary artist who, along with Nicolas Régnier, was perhaps the most important of the French Caravaggisti.
Tournier lived in Rome from 1619 to 1626, where he developed a painting style very similar to that of Bartolomeo Manfredi, a contemporary of Caravaggio and his closest follower.
We find this type of subject in numerous compositions by him, thanks to which the artist gained great fame and collecting success, becoming his specialty, in which the strongly realistic definition of the characters is accompanied by an iconography of great character.
Here we cite, for example, the 'Guitar Player' in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/101055/), and again the 'Flute Player' in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia (https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/opere-arte/schede/D0090-00215/).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The images were taken using a professional photographic set.
The painting is sold complete with a pleasant gilded frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
In case of purchase of the artwork by foreign clients, it will be necessary to obtain an export permit which requires approximately 10/20 days; our gallery will handle the entire process until its acquisition. All costs of this procedure are included.
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