Hieronymus Bosch Follower, Concert in an egg, ca. 1550
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts
From the catalogue of Waanders Publishers
In the numerous pictures depicting music made in the 16th and 17th century in the Netherlands, certain categories with a symbolical tendency may be distinguished. By means of musical instruments or the showing of music being practised, the ideal of harmony in human relationships could be expressed, especially, for instance, in wedding and family portraits or in depicting marital allegories.
Instruments and their players could also lend expression to the power of music to banish depression, as well as alluding to the sense of hearing, eroticism and sexuality and ephemerality. In Muziek aan de muur (Music on the wall) Eddy de Jongh provides a fascinating history of the significance of music in Dutch painting and printmaking, roughly between 1500 and 1700.
Publication
Muziek aan de muur: muzikale voorstellingen in de Nederlanden (1500-1700)
Eddy de Jongh
Catalogue of an exhibition held in 2008 in Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum)
80 pp., 24 x 17 cm., 100 illustrations in color
Zwolle (Waanders) 2008
ISBN 978-90-400-8470-6 (paperbound)