The Lute Player
c. 1596 · Oil on canvas · State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
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About this work
- Artist
- Caravaggio (1571–1610)
- Year
- c. 1596
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 94 × 119 cm
- Collection
- State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
- Movement
- Baroque
A young musician with soft features and a white shirt plays a lute and sings from an open part-book in which the madrigals of Jacques Arcadelt are legible, with a violin and a recorder lying on the table and a carafe of flowers and a bowl of fruit beside him. Caravaggio painted the subject three times in the late 1590s; this version, from about 1596, was made for the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and was bought for the Hermitage from the Giustiniani collection in 1808. The sitter is probably the Spanish castrato Pedro Montoya, who sang in the Sistine choir and belonged to the circle of Cardinal del Monte, and the picture was long taken for a girl. The flowers, with their drops of water, are among the finest still-life passages in the painter's early work.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A singer with a lute beside a glass of flowers and a bowl of fruit in warm ochre light, for a music room, living room or bedroom at 32×24 in natural wood. Olive, cream or deep red walls suit it; pair it with The Musicians.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Baroque painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1596)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 32×24. Prints at 16×12, 24×18, 32×24 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard; 32×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; natural wood lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Lute Player in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Lute Player painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
