Shown from the waist up behind a forest-green ledge or tabletop, a bearded man with a ruddy complexion strums a six-stringed lute between two, light-skinned people in this horizontal painting. The green ledge runs close to the bottom edge of the canvas, and the people nearly fill the composition. The musician’s body faces us but he looks up and off to our left with gray eyes under arched brows, with lips parted. His long brown hair is covered with a red hat wrapped with a pale, pink band. The ribbon meets in a bow-like form near the front center, and tassels hang to each side. His voluminous coat has wide, burnt-orange fur lapels and is lined with fur where it splits open over his shoulders. The garment below has dark sleeves. He lifts his right shoulder high over the lute as the instrument rests on the tabletop, with the neck to our right. The soundhole at the center is covered with rosette-like tracery. The man to our left has long, straight, dark brown hair and a cleft in his chin, which is darkened with a five o’clock shadow. He looks down and toward the musician with brown eyes over a long nose, and his lips are closed. He wears a black cloak with a fur collar over a white shirt, and holds a red book. To our right, a young person, possibly a man with delicate features, stands with his body angled toward the musician but he turns his face to look at us with gray eyes. He has flushed cheeks, a long, straight nose, and a rounded chin. He has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair parted down the middle, and he wears a red cloak also with a fur lapel, over a cream-white undershirt. A crumpled white cloth and a small, oval-shaped box with its lid askew sits on the green surface near the lute. The background behind the trio is elephant gray.
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Shown from the waist up behind a forest-green ledge or tabletop, a bearded man with a ruddy complexion strums a six-stringed lute between two, light-skinned people in this horizontal painting. The green ledge runs close to the bottom edge of the canvas, and the people nearly fill the composition. The musician’s body faces us but he looks up and off to our left with gray eyes under arched brows, with lips parted. His long brown hair is covered with a red hat wrapped with a pale, pink band. The ribbon meets in a bow-like form near the front center, and tassels hang to each side. His voluminous coat has wide, burnt-orange fur lapels and is lined with fur where it splits open over his shoulders. The garment below has dark sleeves. He lifts his right shoulder high over the lute as the instrument rests on the tabletop, with the neck to our right. The soundhole at the center is covered with rosette-like tracery. The man to our left has long, straight, dark brown hair and a cleft in his chin, which is darkened with a five o’clock shadow. He looks down and toward the musician with brown eyes over a long nose, and his lips are closed. He wears a black cloak with a fur collar over a white shirt, and holds a red book. To our right, a young person, possibly a man with delicate features, stands with his body angled toward the musician but he turns his face to look at us with gray eyes. He has flushed cheeks, a long, straight nose, and a rounded chin. He has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair parted down the middle, and he wears a red cloak also with a fur lapel, over a cream-white undershirt. A crumpled white cloth and a small, oval-shaped box with its lid askew sits on the green surface near the lute. The background behind the trio is elephant gray.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Concert

Cariani

Date
c. 1518-1520
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 92 x 130 cm (36 1/4 x 51 3/16 in.) framed: 128.8 x 168.1 x 6.4 cm (50 11/16 x 66 3/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1997.57.2
Credit line
Bequest of Lore Heinemann in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann
Time span
1501 to 1550
Department
CIS-R

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • amusement
  • genre
  • Venetian
  • Renaissance
  • Music
  • Musicians
  • Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century
  • Lute
  • Concert
Provenance

Sir Charles Reed Peers [1868-1952], Chiselhampton House, Stadhampton, Oxfordshire.[1] Dr. and Mrs. Rudolf J. Heinemann, New York, by 1962;[2] by inheritance 1975 to Lore [Mrs. Rudolf J.] Heinemann [d. 1996], New York; her estate; bequest 1997 to NGA. [1] According to information in the donor's collection records (copies in NGA curatorial files). [2] Ferruccia Cappi Bentivegna, _Abbigliamento e costume nella pittura italiana_, 2 vols., Rome, 1962-1964: 1(1962):202, fig. 274. According to the donor's records, Rodolfo Pallucchini examined the painting in New York on 5 May 1965, and wrote an expertise about it. The painting was discussed and illustrated (as being in a New York private collection) in a 1966 article by Pallucchini.

NGA object ID 90793. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.