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 exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. 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 24×36 in natural wood. Olive, cream or deep red walls suit it; pair it with The Musicians.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Baroque painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1596)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
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
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
