A Concert – (Cariani) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Cariani

Date: 1520

Size: 129 x 168 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

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.