Laurent de La Hyre: Allegory of Music (1649)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

A painting by the French artist Laurent de La Hyre (1606-1656). This painting was part of a set dedicated to the seven Liberal Arts (Grammar, Dialectic (logic), Rhetoric, Quadrivium, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music) and was commissioned by the French noble Gédéon Tallemant (1613–1668) for his house in the Rue d'Angoumois, Paris. This painting is dedicated to music: a woman is tuning a theorbo (an instrument from the lute family). A songbird, symbol of natural music, is visible near her right shoulder. Also visible are various music instruments and scores: a lute, a violin, two recorders, a vocal exercise, and a song in two parts. Painting from 1649.

A video of how a theorbo sounds (link to youtube): Robert de Visée Prélude et Allemande, Jonas Nordberg, theorbo