Artists–T

Giovanni Alberto Tameravi (18th century), ? Italian

  • The Bird Fancier’s Delight ] (ca 1730), engraving, Giovanni Alberto Tameravi (18th century). Location unknown. Ref. Walter Bergmann (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2003). A gentleman reclining cross-legged in a high-backed chair plays a turned ? baroque sopranino recorder. Above him hang two bird cages. Before him (in the bottom right of the picture) is a table on which lies a very slender pipe, possibly another recorder or a bird flageolet of some kind. The posture and clothing of the player, details of the patio on which he sits, and the general construction of the image bear a marked resemblance to an engraving in Martin Engelbrecht’s Woodwind Instruments (ca 1720-1730). It seems likely that one is modelled on the other.

Franz Werner von Tamm

German painter, active in Italy and Austria; initially leaned towards historical painting, but later painted only still-lifes; born Hamburg (1658), died Vienna (1724); the figures in his still-lifes were painted by Carlo Maratti.

  • Still-life with Musical Instruments, oil on panel, 107 × 146 cm, Franz Werner von Tamm (1658-1724). Passau: Oberhausmuseum, Inv. 5898 (4632). Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Mstag 643). A table is piled high with food and drink. On the right is a metal pot next to a woven basket with grapes and other fruit, from which hangs a draped white cloth. In front of the basket is a cut and peeled lemon or orange. To the left of the basket oysters are seen behind an ornate goblet. Further left on the table are more tropical fruits as well as a lobster. Behind a glass stands a soprano one-piece recorder with six holes visible. On the far left in the foreground a lute stands on a chair, with a book and an open score of keyboard music entitled ‘Menuetto’.

Alfred Henry Taylor

British painter in watercolour and pastels, active in London; known largely for his portraits and genre scenes; born Winchester (1810), died Sydney (1868).

  • A Young Boy and Dog by a Stile, watercolour, 41.5 × 35.0 cm, Alfred H. Taylor (1810-1868) Chester: Bonhams, Sale 18909 – Art & Antiques, 23 August 2011, Lot 885 (withdrawn). A young lad leaning against a stile gazes down at his dog, a black & white Collie. In his hands he holds a well-depicted soprano, baroque-style recorder.

Abraham (Lambertsz.) van den Tempel (1622/3-1672), Dutch

Dutch painter; known chiefly for his portraits but also executed biblical and allegorical paintings; his portraits are characterized by the combination of static poses and elegant execution of details, particularly in the rendering of textiles; born Leeuwarden (1622/3), died Amsterdam (1672); the son of the Frisian painter and Mennonite minister Lambert (Jacobsz.) van den Tempel (ca 1598-1636).

  • Shepherd and Shepherdess / Granida and Daifilo as Shepherds in an Italianate Landscape (1654), oil on canvas, 104 × 154 cm, Abraham van den Tempel (1622/3-1672). East Lothian: Tyninghame House; auctioned Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 9 May 1995, Lot 56. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriches Documentatie, illustration 7541 (2014-col.) A shepherd gazes fondly at his shepherdess who holds a rose. In his left hand the shepherd holds a duct flute (possibly a recorder), only the head of which is visible. Formerly the property of George Baillie-Hamilton, 12th Earl of Tyninghame.

Temperelli = Cristoforo Caselli

Antonio Tempesta

Italian painter, draughtsman and printmaker; his subjects include biblical themes, hunting and fishing scenes with sweeping landscapes and urban backdrops; born Florence (1555), died Rome (1630).

  • Months of the Year: March, Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). Ref. Bartsch (1854-1870, 17: 179/1336). A shepherd sits playing a slender cylindrical tenor-sized duct flute with a slight flare at the foot. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Carpoforo Tencala [Tencalla]

Swiss painter known from his religious, mythological, allegorical and decorative fresoes in Vienna, Moravia, West Hungary and Styria; born Bissone (1623), died Passau (1685).

  • Ceiling painting (1674), Carpoforo Tencala (1623-1685). Oslavou: Hall of the Château of Námešt nad Oslavou. Detail. Ref. Programme flyer: Passacaglia presents Musique Champêtre, Wigmore Hall (London), Friday 8 May 1998; Recorder Magazine 19 (2): front cover, detail – col. (1999). Depicts putti playing various instruments including bagpipe and a one-piece, flared recorder, part of a group on the story of Cupid and Psyche and an allegory of the human qualities.
  • Trompe l’oeil, fresco, Carpoforo Tencala (1623-1685). Detail. Passau: Dom Sankt Stephan, choir ceiling. Ref. Melbourne: Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, Exhibition: Light Sensitive Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, 7 September 2006 to 18 February 2007: Dom Series (1993-2000), photographic prints by David Stephenson (USA/Australia); Website: Anges Musiciens (2010-col.) The previous Gothic cathedral was damaged in devastating fires of 1662 and 1680 and only the exterior of the choir reminds of the former High Gothic church. The interior dates from 1688-1693 and is overwhelming Baroque with interior decoration by Giovanni Battista Carlone, and frescoes by Carpoforo Tencalla. Further restoration took place from 1972-1980. Among the ceiling decorations is a magnificent trompe l’oeil dome with many musical angels who sing and play instruments of all kinds including organ, harp, lute, guitar, hurdy-gurdy, tambourine (with jingle rings), shawm, bassoon, trombone, folded trumpet, kettle drums, fiddle, cello, double-bass, viol, and a small pipe which could be a duct flute or cornetto. Several seem to be conducting with rolled sheets of paper.
  • Musical Angels, fresco, Carpoforo Tencala (1623-1685). Passau: Dom Sankt Stephan, ceiling. Ref. Website: Anges Musiciens (2010-col.) Angels play a ?tambourine, violin, lute, bassoon, and a duct flute, probably a recorder. The window/labium and several finger holes of the recorder are clearly depicted.
  • Musical Angels, fresco, Carpoforo Tencala (1623-1685). Passau: Dom Sankt Stephan, ceiling. Ref. Website: Anges Musiciens (2010-col.) Angels play lute, violin and a slender with no details. A putto plays a pipe with a stouter profile and turnings suggestive of a recorder.

Pietro Tenerani

Prolific Italian sculptor working in a neoclassical style well into the mid-nineteenth century, specialising in pious subjects, portraits, and mythological subjects; born Torano (1789) died Rome (1869).

  • Faun playing the Flute (1859), statue, Carrara marble, Pietro Tenerani (1789-1869). Palermo: Palazzo Villa Tasca, Piano Nobile. A young man, completely naked, plays a clearly-depicted renaissance-style flared-bell recorder with details of the window/labium clearly visible. The instrument is very well observed, unusually so for 1859. After the Classical Roman Satyr Playing the Flute (Paris, Louvre, Inv. MR 187). Note that the original represents a plagiaulos (single reed pipe) rather than a duct flute.

Abraham Teniers

Flemish painter who specialized in genre scenes; born (1629, died (1670); son of David I Teniers (1583-1649), brother of David II Teniers (1610-1690).

  • The Senses: Touch, Hearing, Sight, Smell, oil on copper, 9.5 × 7.5 cm, attributed to Abraham Teniers (1629-1670). Paris: Étude Tajan, Sale 4516, 13 December 2004, Lot 87. Ref. Website: artnet (2014-col.) One of four panels depicting boers drinking, eating, pointing to a sore on one hand, and playing a small flared-bell pipe.

David I Teniers

Flemish painter known for a few religious and history paintings, landscapes and portraits; born Antwerp (1583), died Antwerp (1649); father of David II Teniers.

  • The Holy Family and the Infant St John the Baptist with Angel Musicians, canvas, 67 × 55 cm, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Liège: Abbaye de la Paix-Notre-Dame de Liège. Ref. Leppert (1977: 137). Set in the countryside where angels sing and play violin, cello and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder).
  • Mercury, Argus and Io, oil on copper, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2000 – col.) Sitting on a rocky ledge beneath a spreading tree, watched by Io (as a heifer) and a flock of bleating sheep, Mercury lulls Argus asleep playing on a small cylindrical pipe, possibly a duct flute.
  • Peasants Dancing, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Reims: Musée des Beaux Arts. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). Peasants dance to music played by bagpipes and on a very small pipe played by an older man who can only just squeeze his fingers onto it. The detail is very small but it appears to cylindrical. The main interest is that the pipe is painted in white, possibly bone rather than ivory in this milieu.
  • The Boors’ Concert, oil on panel, 38.1 × 59.7 cm, David I Teniers (1583-1649). New York: Sotheby’s, Sale N08282, Important Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art, 15 January 2007, Lot 5. A group of Boors sit round a table making music together. Two sing from music on a lectern, an old crone looking over their shoulders; one plays bagpipe; one plays the hurdy-gurdy. Another looks in a the door, and two young lads look in through a hatch high up on the wall. Beneath the hatch hangs a small flared pipe which appears to have the beak of a recorder. The beak is of a different material to the rest of the instrument.
  • Landcape with the Flight into Egypt (1620), oil on panel, 139.4 × 152.0 cm, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, NM 6870. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Website: Lute Iconography, Image 3272 (2023, col.) Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus are fleeing from King Herod. Here, they are resting, surrounded by angels making music. Behind them is a pastoral landscape of ancient ruins, wooded slopes and rocky precipices. The music-making angels sing and play harp, lute, viola, bass, timpani and a pipe, all of which are perfectly painted. The pipe is of large soprano size, but there is no beak or window/labium. The hands are close together and the fingers overlap. One finger hole shows above the left hand, and two below the lower fingers of the right hand and one further hole, all in line. There is a very slight bell-flare and bore expansion. The lowermost finger hole is quite close to the bell end. This is probably a recorder. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
  • The Temptation of St Anthony (1640-1650), oil on wood, 63 × 87 cm, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Lille: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Inv. P95. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). The temptations or trials of St Anthony, who was tormented by spectres, witches and devils while living as a hermit among the barren cliffs, had often been depicted in Netherlandish painting. The basic type of mountain cliffs and fantastic figures in human and animal forms shows a clear relationship to Bosch and Bruegel. As well as peasant scenes, landscapes and mythology, Teniers had an interest in depicting ghosts, witches and alchemists. This version shows a handsome woman arriving outside the saint’s grotto and proffering a glass of wine. A witch-like grotesque behind her holds up her skirt and points to St Anthony; she has bird feet, like the even more grotesque creature, clearly from Bosh, who sits close to St Anthony, serenading him with what looks like an alto/soprano recorder, while a servant-woman, with short horns like a faun, urges St Anthony to cease praying before his crucifix and book. Two demons crouch close to him and strange creatures fly above. The recorder, held below the grotesque’s long beak, has a mouthpiece-shaped head and slightly flared bell.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony, painting, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Ref. Website: AllPosters.com (2007). Location: Unknown. In this version Anthony is tormented by a monster behind him, whilst others sit before him, one playing a flared-bell pipe which might be taken for a recorder.

David II Teniers

Flemish painter of the Baroque period who painted religious and mythological subjects, but best known for his landscapes and genre scenes of peasant life; born Antwerp (1610), died Brussels(1690); son of David I Teniers.

  • Concert (1640/50), wood, 26 × 20 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Blessington: Russborough: Beit Collection; Germany: G. Schrade Collection. Ref. Leppert (1977: 141, pl. LXXX – b&w); Wiese (1988: fig. 84 – b&w); Rasmussen (2007, Bagpipe); Archiv Moeck; Website: Russborough House, A Room by Room Guide. A young girl holds a duct flute (possibly a recorder, though only two finger holes are visible) whilst a male companion instructs her, and a second accompanies on an enormous bagpipe. A variant of this was sold at the Dorotheum, Vienna, 7 October 1998, Lot 40 (see below).
  • Two Musicians Playing in a Landscape, oil on panel, 53.0 × 42.5 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Vienna: Dorotheum, 7 October 1998, Lot 40. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 49106 (2010-col.); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A young woman sits beneath a tree playing a pipe with a flared bell, almost certainly a recorder. A man in a red cap has his hand around her shoulders as if to encourage her efforts. At her feet sits a young man with an enormous bagpipe between his legs. Sheep graze in the distance. Things are not as innocent as they seem. There is a variant of this in the Beit Collection (see above).
  • Musicians (ca 1700), oil on wood, 21.0 × 15.5 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Mayen: Dr Reinhard Jansen (dealer). Ref. eBay (Germany), Item 301694204243 (2015-col.) A young girl holds a duct flute (possibly a recorder, though only two finger holes are visible) whilst a male companion instructs her, and a second accompanies on an enormous bagpipe. Appears to be a variant of Teniers’ Concert (see above).
  • The Finding of Paris, (1651 or later), oil on panel, 21.0 × 30.5 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Brussels: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België; formerly in the collection of Signora Ch. Loeser, Florence. Ref. Béguin & Zampetti (1971: 97, fig); Martineau & Hope (1984: 47, fig. 22); Jan Lancaster (pers. comm., 2007); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 47071 (2010-col.) Said to be copied from a now lost painting by Giorgione when it was in the collection of the Archduke of Austria, Leopold Wilhelm (1614-1662), governor of southern (Spanish) Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, whose palace was in Brussels. The infant Paris lies in a basket on a river bank. On the left bank stand a man and a woman. On the right bank sits a woman and an old man playing a tenor-sized near-cylindrical recorder, right hand lowermost. The window and hole for the lowermost little finger are clearly visible. Martineau & Hope (loc. cit.) place this painting at the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, in error. It is interesting to compare this painting to Giorgione’s The Tempest (ca 1508; Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice), thought by some to represent a shepherd finding Paris suckled by a nurse; the town as Troy; the lightening alluding to its destruction, and the broken columns to Paris’ death.
  • The Finding of Paris (ca 1673), 20.6 × 30.4 cm, engraving by Théodorus von Kessel (ca 1620-1693) after Teniers II (1610-1690). Washington DC., Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection 0525/V. Ref. Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A print (and thus reversed) after a painting by David II Teniers said to be copied from a now lost painting by Giorgione (see above). The baby Paris lies in a basket on a river bank. On the left bank stand a man and a woman. On the right bank sits a woman and an old man playing a near-cylindrical, tenor-sized recorder, left hand lowermost. The window and hole for the lowermost little finger are clearly visible.
  • Duet, 32 × 25 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Cat. 726. Ref. Leppert (1977: 141), Zaniol (1985, January: 9, footnote 37), Archiv Moeck. A young woman seated on a chair plays a small slender recorder with a markedly flared bell accompanied by a man on a theorbo supported on the corner of a table. An old woman listens through an open door behind the musicians. The theme is patently erotic. Zaniol (loc. cit) describes the recorder as a ‘Ganassi’ style instrument.
  • A Couple in an Inn Making Music, a Woman listening in the Doorway, oil on panel, 35.9 × 27.4 cm, Pieter Fontijn (1773-1839) after David II Teniers (1610-1690). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings, Sale AM1032, 13 November 2007, Lot 45. Ref. Website: Sotheby’s (2007 – col.) A young woman seated on a chair plays a small slender recorder with a markedly flared bell accompanied by a man on a theorbo supported on the corner of a table. An old woman listens through an open door behind the musicians. This painting is derived from the signed original by David Teniers the Younger, namely his Duet which is in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (inv. no. 726).
  • Duet (1665-1700), engraving, 26.8 × 22.0 cm, by Johannes van Somer (1645-1699) after David II Teniers (1610-1690). The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1909-159. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2001). Engraving from the original painting by David Teniers II (Antwerp: Royal Museum of Fine Art, Cat. 726), see above.
  • Couple in an Inn Making Music (1660-1700), pen and brush in grey with grey wash on paper, 27.8 × 21.5 cm, after David II Teniers (1610-1690).  Moscow: Pushkin Museum Inv. 7107. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 368844 (2014-col.) Engraving from the original painting by David Teniers II (Antwerp: Royal Museum of Fine Art, Cat. 726), see above.
  • Die Verführerin [The Seductress], print, after a work by David II Teniers (1610-1690). Ref. Fuchs (2012: 191, fig. 159); Archiv Moeck. A woman sits on a chair playing a flared-bell recorder whilst her leering companion sits at a small table beside her drinking beer. Again, the theme is erotic.
  • Musizieren de Bauern [Peasants Making Music], oil on wood panel, 39 × 58 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Schloss Schleissheium, No. 1838 (4668). Ref. Moreck (1924: 61); Archiv Moeck; Munich RIdIM (1999: Mstag 646); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2014-col.) Three rustic companions are seated at a table. One strums a cittern, another scrapes a rebec, a third sits holding a very small flared duct flute (possibly a recorder) with four slightly lifted fingers on the right hand and three finger holes visible. In front is a pitcher; to the right a broom and an old tub. In the background other patrons sit at a table.
  • Musical Peasants in a Tavern (1625-1690), David II Teniers (1610-1690). The Hague: St Lucas (dealer). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 26082 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Another version of the above, possibly a copy.
  • Leinen bleiche [Stretching Material on Cords to Dry in the Sun], David II Teniers (1610-1690). Hamburg: Kunsthalle, No. 337. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) In the centre-left foreground are two shepherds with their sheep. The younger of the two (in a red jerkin and blue hat) plays a recorder (right hand lowermost) with a medium flare at bell, but with simple turned decorations in Virdung manner. The finger position strongly suggests a recorder, with all holes obscured/covered (but first finger of the left hand is lifted). The window/labium is clearly shown.
  • Shepherd (1641), canvas, 58 × 52 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Detail. St Petersburg: Hermitage, Inv. 5594. Ref. Leppert (1977: 145); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2014-col.) A rustic, countryside scene in which a young shepherd boy wearing a leafy wreath holds a small flared-bell duct flute (possibly a recorder) the window/labium and five finger holes clearly visible. There is a pendant to this in the same collection depicting a Shepherdess playing a tambourine.
  • Lute Player, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Brussels: Heuvel Gallery. Ref. Leppert (1977: 142). A domestic scene in which two musicians plays lute and an ambiguous pipe which has the window/labium of a duct flute but also the embouchure hole of a flute.
  • Village Musicians, canvas (transferred from wood), 24.5 × 19.0 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). St Petersburg: Hermitage, Inv. 591. Ref. Leppert (1977: 146). A rustic domestic scene in which a man plays a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) whilst a woman sings.
  • Prudence Triumphant over Vanity (1651-1690), wood, 45.9 × 34.2 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). St Petersburg: Hermitage, Inv. 6551. An allegorical still-life in which Prudence (one of the four Cardinal Virtues), handsomely dressed and bejeweled, sits in a carved chair, her right foot on a glass ball around which coils a snake (an attribute of Prudence, from Matthew 10:16, ‘Be ye wise as serpents’). Her right arm leans against a skull on a draped table on which is a jumble of vanitas objects – hourglass, casket, an inkwell and quill, papers, music, a violin and a recorder, though only the body (with paired holes for the little finger of the lower-most hand) and the flared bell are visible. On the floor beneath her right foot lies a pile of metal goblets, coins and other treasures. Her right hand fingers a pearl ear-ring; her left a pearl necklace as she gazes upwards at a group of three putti, one with a bow and arrow, the others placing a wreath on her head. Behind the table is a geographic globe; beneath, two putti, one blindfolded, gambol.
  • Hearing, 16 × 13 cm; David II Teniers (1610-1690). Location unknown: sold Chevau Légers, Versailles. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). One of five panels of the same dimensions. A young man in a feathered cap plays a slender pipe (probably a recorder) with a markedly flared bell.
  • The Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery of Paintings in Brussels (1641), David II Teniers (1610-1690). Munich: Alte Pinakothek, Reserve Collection at Schloß Schleissheim, Inv. 1839. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999 & 2002); Web Gallery of Art (2007). The walls of the Archduke’s gallery are covered in paintings amongst which is a shepherd holding a small flared-bell recorder (bottom right). Two small dogs gambol in the foreground.
  • The Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery of Paintings in Brussels (ca 1647), 106 × 129 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Reserve Collection at Schloß Schleissheim, Inv. 1840 (4669). Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999 & 2002); Munich RIdIM, Mstag – 645 & 647 (2013-b&w). A man (perhaps the Archduke himself) stands in the doorway of his art gallery in which the walls are covered in paintings. Amongst the latter is Titian’s Nymph and Shepherd now in the Künsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (see below), in the bottom right-hand corner in this version. The angle of the shepherd’s pipe is more vertical than in Titian’s original, presumably because Teniers intended it to be a recorder, though there is no clear window/labium. A little dog runs into the room. The Alte Pinakothek at Munich has several of these Gallery pictures by Teniers in its reserve collection at Schloß Schleissheim; but only in this one does Titian’s Nymph and Shepherd appear.
  • The Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery of Paintings in Brussels (ca 1647), oil on copper, 106 × 129 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. 1813. Ref. Sopeña Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 177-178, pl.-col.); Alcolea i Blanch (1991: 382, fig. 231 – col.); Paris RIdIM (1999); Web Gallery of Art (2007). The Archduke and his retainers stand amongst a veritable jumble of paintings, some of them easily recognizable. One, in the top left-hand corner is Titian’s Nymph and Shepherd, now in the Künsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (see below). Teniers II was conservateur en chief of the Archduke’s collection and thus made his copy from the original. Interestingly, it looks as if Teniers saw the pipe held by the shepherd to be a recorder rather than a flute (the original is ambiguous) since a half hole is visible just below the right-hand little finger and the top is slightly beaked.
  • The Gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels, (1640), oil on canvas, 96 × 128 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Munich: Alte Pinakothek, Reserve Collection at Schloß Schleissheim, Inv. 1841. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2007); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The Archduke and his retainers stand amongst a veritable jumble of paintings, some of them easily recognizable, including one of a shepherd in a leafy hat playing a recorder with a widely flared bell – probably Francesco Bassano’s Flute Player in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
  • Flute Player with Singers (late 17th century), oil on panel, 36.3 × 29.7 cm, ? David Teniers II (1610-1690). ?Location: Inv. Nr. 184. Ref. Archiv Moeck. A man with long hair in cloak and cap holds a flared bell soprano recorder, about to play. His companions are singing, several from sheet music.
  • Boy with Recorder, 17.7 × 14.4 cm, etching by Corijn Boel (1620-1668), after David Teniers II (1610-1690). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-1904-280; The Hague: Gemeentemuseum; Antwerp: Museum Plantin-Moretus, Prentenkabinet PK.OP.05892 | II/B.195. Ref. Jonker et al. (1996: 41); Lasocki (1995: cover – b&w); Archiv Moeck. A long-haired youth in a cape and hat holds a small, flared-bell (? hand-fluyt) recorder; an old man stands behind him, singing from sheet music. Clearly modelled on the above painting.
  • Duet (early 1640s), oil on canvas, 24.5 × 19.5 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). St Petersburg: Hermitage, Inv. ГЭ-591. An old woman seated at a table and holding a sheet of music watches a young man seated opposite her who plays a flared bell alto recorder. The beak of the instrument is clearly depicted and the fingering is perfect for recorder-playing. There is a jug of water under the table.
  • The Flageolet Player (1635-1640), oil on wood, 22.3 × 15.8 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Chicago: Art Institute, Mr & Mrs Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1933.1095. Ref. Ford (1987: #90); Paris RIdIM (1999). Watched by an old woman holding a piece of paper above a small table on which stands a water pitcher, a young boy in a cap sits playing a slender flared-bell duct flute (flageolet or recorder). There is an etching of this work by Jacques Philippe Lebas in the University Library, Stockholm (see below).
  • Le Fluteur [The Flute Player] (1746), engraving, 21 × 16 cm, by Jacques Philippe Lebas (1707-1733), after David Teniers II (1610-1690). Uppsala: Universitet Bibliotek, UBG 4841; Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton Miller Flute Collection, 0600/N. Ref. RIdIM, Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). The original painting on which this is based is possibly The Flageolet Player, now in The Art Institute, Chicago (see above). Watched by an old woman holding a piece of paper above a small table on which stands a water pitcher, a young boy in a cap sits playing a slender flared-bell pipe (flageolet or recorder).
  • Young Woman Playing a Flute, wood, 23 × 31 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown: sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 21 June 1974, cat. 26. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). This might almost be be the pendant of the above. Watched by a man in a feathered cap holding a piece of paper above a small table, a young woman plays a slender flared-bell pipe (flageolet or recorder). Above them a face looks in at a window. On a smaller table in the foreground stands a water pitcher. In the background men sit drinking and talking around a table.
  • Musicians in a Tavern, oil on wood, 26.0 × 31.5 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Basle: Kunstmuseum, Inv. 609. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). An old man sits on a box playing the lute. Behind him and to the left a young man sits at a small table holding a slender flared-bell pipe (flageolet or recorder) above a crumpled piece of paper on the table beside which lies what appears to be a smaller duct flute. An old crone standing behind the piper appears to be pouring the contents of a jug over him. In the background a group of men carouse around a table attended by a serving girl.
  • Interior of a Barn (ca 1640-1645), wood, 73.5 × 104.0 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Vienna: Kunsthistorishes Museum, Inv. GG759, Cat. 1973. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Bridgeman Art Library (2001, Image XAM66732 – col.) In a huge barn full of goats and chickens a young boy in a feathered hat strolls about fingering his flared-bell recorder. A young woman exits through the door holding a container of some kind.
  • The Shepherd, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Private Collection. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). In front of a thatched farmhouse a man tends his sheep as a young shepherd in a feathered hat sits on a rock bank playing his flared-bell pipe. A heifer looks passively on. This is almost certainly meant to depict Mercury, Argus and Io (as a heifer).
  • Pastoral Conversation, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. 1814. Ref. Sopeña Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 177-178). Two shepherds chat. The one seated on the left, holds in his hands a duct flute with three finger holes are visible.
  • The Temptation of St Antonio, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. 1821. Ref. Sopeña Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 179). Amongst the monsters which assault an hermitage, one holds a duct flute.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony, David II Teniers (1610-1690). Anholt: Museum Wasserburg. Ref. Anthony & Christina Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A group on the left includes two men singing, one with a knife in his large hat, and a third grotesque man with a hood and a bovine skull on his head. Out of his right ear he plays an alto-size instrument with an expanding conicity to a well-flared bell. The skull occludes the top end of the instrument. The left hand is lowermost, and between the fingers of both hands three holes are visible, one being the further hole of paired little-finger holes (the left little finger covers the other). The bottom paired holes are too close to the bell for a shawm, and the conicity and no visible window/labium is unrecorder-like – a deliberate composite instrument, perhaps. The singers have a sheet of music. In the centre background a hare plays a violin, with a toad listening at his feet.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony (after 1640), oil on oak, 52.5 × 81.5 cm, David II Teniers(1610-1690). Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz Museum. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2001). St Anthony kneels at a stone desk beside his hermitage, a wooden hut amidst some caves. He is surrounded by beasts. Before him on the ground sit two hooded figures, one of whom plays a flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony, oil on wood, 26.4 × 36.6 cm, David II Teniers(1610-1690). Antwerp: Museum Mayer van den Bergh. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2009). St Anthony sits at a stone desk inside his cave, engaged in conversation with a visitor. He is surrounded by beasts. Before him, a squatting couple appear to be squabbling over a letter. A dwarf pulls at Anthony’s cloak. one of the beasts with a bird-like head plays a flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder, which he blows through his nose.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony (1644-46), oil on copperplate, 36.4 × 47.3 cm, David II Teniers(1610-1690). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2009). St Anthony is trying to pray, kneeling at a stone altar in his cave, but he is beleaguered by a horned devil who points to an elegantly dressed woman who is trying to tempt him. Beasts of all kinds gather around. One with a bird-like head sits behind the altar, playing a flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder which he blows through his nose.
  • The Temptation of St Anthony (1644-46), engraving, 37.1 × 49.0 cm, by Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783), after David II Teniers(1610-1690). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0076/Y. The current location of the original painting by Teniers on which this engraving is based is unknown. St Anthony kneels before a stone altar on which rest a crucifix and a skull. An old woman with devil’s horns pulls at his collar and various creatures resembling reptiles or fish, some with rooster-like legs, crowd around the saint. One of the demonic creatures is seated in the center; he wears a monk’s cowl and plays a slender pipe with a flared bell, possibly a recorder. St Anthony’s hands are folded in prayer as he looks over his left shoulder to the right where a young woman advances toward him with a glass of wine. She is urged forward by a creature that seems half-human and half-fowl. Other bizarre creatures fly through a doorway in the center or hover over the saint’s head. The setting is a landscape in which a roofed structure and low stairs are carved from the rocks of the wilderness to afford a rudimentary home for St. Anthony. In the right distance, there is a farmhouse with a tower. A pitcher and bowls rest in the left foreground beside a trough through which water spills into a stream.
  • Two Shepherds, drawing, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 10645 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm. 2001). The shepherds are sitting; the youngest plays a soprano recorder with a slight bell-flare, right-hand lowermost, all fingers on.
  • Mercury, Argus and Io (1638), oil on copper, 49.8 × 64.2 cm, David I Teniers (1583-1649). Vienna: Kunsthisorisches Museum, Inv. 745, Cat. 1973. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, Image 76529 (2014-b&w). Against a wooded bank beside a clearing in the forest, Argus lies drowsily on the ground clutching his stave as Mercury (Hermes), depicted as a shepherd boy, soothes him to sleep by piping on a slender slightly flared-bell recorder of which the hole for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is clearly visible. Io (as a white heifer) looks on passively.
  • Peasants and a Serving Maid in a Tavern, oil on panel, 35.2 × 28.0 cm, circle of David Teniers II (1610-1690). New York: Christies, Sale 1529, Old Master Paintings, 25 May 2005, Lot 16. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunstihistoriche Documentatie Image 0000170881 (2010, col.) In a small room two peasants watch a woman lighting a clay pipe with a taper. On a wall to the right hangs a small duct-flute, details of the window/labium, a makers mark, and 5 finger holes are clearly depicted, including paired holes for the lowermost finger.
  • Peasants Dancing to a Piper on a Path in a Landscape, with a View of Antwerp Beyond, oil on copper, 14.5 × 18.5 cm, circle of David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.) With initials “D.T.” In front of a building, a peasant couple dance to music played by a piping youth leaning against a tree. In the background is a landscape with Antwerp on the horizon. The pipe (possibly a duct flute) is cylindrical with an abruptly flared bell.
  • The Good Husband, engraving, 23 × 19 cm, by Jacques Philippe Lebas (1707-1733), after David Teniers II (1610-1690). Uppsala: Universitet Bibliotek, UBG 4842. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A family stand before the hearth around a makeshift table on which stands a tureen of soup. Mother holds her baby; father leans admiringly over her shoulder holding his smoking pipe away from the infant; children look on as a man (seated) and a young boy (standing) play ambiguous pipes (possibly meant to represent recorders). Both are very narrow with flared bells.
  • Peasants Making Music in a Tavern, oil on panel David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown: Auctioned by Christie’s, 6 May 1998 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.) Three men make music around a table. Two sit, one strumming a cittern reading from a music book, the other singing from a sheet of paper. A third stands, holding a flared-bell recorder of soprano/alto size. An old woman peeks around a door.
  • Landscape with a Family Gathering at the Doorstep of an Inn (1644), oil on panel, 54 × 79 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Ref. European Fine Arts Fair (1997: 99 & fig.); Liesbeth van der Sluijs (pers. comm., 2008). Private Collection. A painting clearly divided into two parts, left and right. It represents 9 persons (3 women, 3 men, 2 children) and 3 dogs. At left is an inn, with open door, a woman going inside. A closed high wooden fence extends from the inn to the middle of the painting. Behind the fence is a tree. In front of this fence is a small table, behind which sits a man with a guitar and stands a boy with a small recorder with flare. In front, left, of the table sits a man with a bagpipe and enormous boots with spurs. Behind him to the left, before the inn, stand 2 women, one a mother and one a grown-up daughter. In the middle of the painting, in front, right, of the table is a small boy who dances, with one knee lifted, his right hand at his side, and his left hand stretched out, pointing. In the right half of the painting a man stands before a landscape with a castle-like mansion and some people with dogs. He wears a hat and a hunting bag, and has a long stick in his hand and a whippet on a leash. He must be the father. To the right of them stand two Rotweilers or such dogs. There are clouds in the sky, and overall colour is brown and beige, with the red stockings of the bagpiper standing out. The family is dressed in grey, white and brown.They are not peasants. All look solemn and a bit stiff into the camera, so to speak. Nobody plays music, but only hold the instruments. It all looks very posed!
  • Landscape with Farm Activities, oil on canvas, 95 × 131 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). The Hague: Venduehuis der Notarissen, 4-6 November 1986, Lot 129. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 53034 (2010-b&w). Before a barn of some kind is a gathering of farm workers. Some manage their beasts, others load barrels onto a cart; leading a flock of sheep, a shepherd plays a pipe with a flared bell, probably a duct flute.
  • Hilly Landscape with a Shepherd Playing the Flute, with his Cattle Near a River, oil on canvas, 43.2 × 62.2 cm, Teniers II (1610-1690). London: Christies, Old Master Pictures, 24 April 2008, Lot 85. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 170922 (2014-col.)  In the shade of a rocky cliff a young shepherd sits playing a slender flared bell pipe held with one hand. A dog sleeps beside him. His beasts and sheep graze in front of him. Ducks swim in a pond. Atop a cliff stands a derelict church.
  • The Contented Shepherd, painting, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown. Ref. Russell (2010). This seems to be a compressed version of the larger painting above. In the shade of a rocky cliff a young shepherd sits playing a slender flared bell pipe held with one hand. Atop the cliff stands a derelict church. An etching of this (in reverse) is held by the Library of Congress, Washington (see below).
  • The Contented Shepherd (18th century), etching, 43.5 × 29.2 cm, probably by John Ingram (1721- ?), after a painting by David Teniers II (1610-1690). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection 0086/Y. Ref. Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007). In the shade of a rocky cliff a young shepherd sits playing a slender flared bell pipe held with one hand. Atop the cliff stands a derelict church. Beneath a motto (by Moraine de Laubinière) reads:

    Quelque mon bien consiste en mon seul flageolet,
    Aux acces du chagrin je ne suis point sujet;
    Et si par amour sincere
    Je pouvais posseder le coeur de ma Bergére,
    Je ne penserois pas que le plus puissant Roy
    Fait plus de richesse que moy.

    My only property is my flageolet,
    I am not given to sorrow;
    And if by means of sincere love
    I could possess the heart of my Bergére,
    I would not think the most powerful king
    More wealthy than myself.

  • Amorous Peasant Couple with their Flock in a Landscape, oil on panel, 31.0 × 39.8 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings, 20 November 2010, Lot 84. A shepherd couple sit in the shade of a rocky bank, their dog curled up beside them, a cow and some sheep before them. She places a leafy wreath in his hair; he holds a clearly depicted hand-fluyt with a sharply flared bell.
  • Flute Player, painting, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A young man in a cap and jerkin plays a slender duct flute (probably a recorder) with an abruptly flared bell, right hand uppermost. The beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, but the fingering is haphazard. In the background, an toothless old man sings from a sheet of music. The young man is similar but not identical to the recorder player depicted in the work below.
  • Flute Player, painting, after or by David Teniers II (1610-1690). Location unknown. Ref. Website: Wikigallery.org (2014-col.) Against a plain brown background, A young man in a red cap and jerkin plays a slender duct flute (probably a recorder) with an abruptly flared bell, left-hand uppermost. The beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, but the fingering is haphazard. The young man is similar but not identical to the recorder player depicted in the work above.
  • Peasant Couple in a Tavern (c. 1667-1725), mezzotint, 27.6 × 22.4 cm, John Smith (1652-1743) after David Teniers II (1610-1690). London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.103. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012-b&w). A boer seated at a table helps himself to more wine whilst his female companion plays an ambiguous pipe with a flared bell. Despite the lack of detail, the instrument probably represents a recorder. In the background three men drink and talk around a barrel in front of the hearth, seemingly oblivious to the music.
  • Hearing (1626), print (etching), 6.5 × 5.2 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-19.828. From a series depicting the Five Senses. An old shepherd with a full beard and very short, sparse hair leans against a tree and plays a slender duct flute with a very slightly flared bell. This probably represents a recorder as all fingers of his lowermost (right) hand are covering their holes, that for the little finger offset.
  • Flute Player (1764), ink on parchment, 9.6 × 7.9 cm, J.F.A. Bonn (1741-1766) after David Teniers II (1610-1690). Antwerp: Museum Plantin-Moretus, Prentenkabinet PK.OT.00748 | D.2.21. This is identical to Teniers Hearing (1626) and bears the same monogram DT (with the T inside the D) although it is in a different place. An elderly shepherd with a full beard and very short, sparse hair leans against a tree and plays a slender duct flute with a very slightly flared bell. This probably represents a recorder as all fingers of his lowermost (right) hand are covering their holes, that for the little finger offset.
  • Peasants Making Music, oil on oak panel, 26.2 × 31.0 cm, David Teniers II (1610-1690). Munich: Hampel Fine Art Auctions, ‘Old Master Paintings’, Lot 345, 5 December 2019 (col.) In the corner of a room two boers seated at a small table play lute and recorder. There is a large clay jug on the table and the two musicians look more than a little worse for wear. The recorder is in one piece, narrowly conical with a slightly flared foot; the top of the window/labium can just be seen beneath the beak, and the hands and fingers are disposed as if for recorder-playing. A third boer is making a hasty departure through the door, doubtless having heard these two before. There is a cittern hanging on the wall opposite the musicians, and there is a lute case propped up against a stool.
  • A Flute Player in Profile, painting, David Teniers II (1610-1690). London: Sotheby’s Old Masters Day Sale, 4 July 2019, Lot 115.  A young man in a grey hat holds a recorder left hand uppermost. Behind him another man in a red cap sings from a broadsheet.

David II Teniers (1610-1690) & Jean Van Kessel I (1620-1679)

Jean Van Kessel I was a Flemish artist famous today for his tiny, meticulously rendered pictures of insects; born Antwerp (1626), died Antwerp (1679); father of artist Jean  Van Kessel II (1654-1708).

  • The Submission of the Sicilian Rebels to Antonio de Moncada in 1411 (1663), oil on copper, 54.0 × 68.2 cm, David II Teniers (1610-1690) & Jean Van Kessel (1620-1679). Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. 388. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2660 (2023, col.) One of a series of 20 panels recording the deeds of two Sicilian noble brothers of Spanish origin, Guillermo Ramón Moncada and Antonio Moncada. Six of the panels provided the bases for tapestries woven in Flanders. David Teniers II painted the figures and Jan van Kessel I, an artist who specialised in still lifes with flowers insects and animals), executed the decorative border. “This picture has a very large border, as if it were the design for a tapestry, including many instruments, music and weapons of war. There is one duct flute with the mouth piece and window/labium very clearly painted, but only four finger holes show, as the rest of the instrument is concealed behind an orpharion and other instruments. It would seem to be of alto size” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.) Anthony’s “orpharion” is actually one of two citterns. Other instruments depicted in the border are tambourines (with jingle rings), rebecs, citterns, lutes, violin, folded trumpets, an oboe (or shawm, bell only visible), and a ? spike fiddle (only the neck visible). The border also includes two choirs of birds singing from music books, putti (some swinging from ribbons, others making wreaths), armour, flowers, wine, keys, metal plates and ewers, and coats of arms. The central scene depicts three rebels kneeling before Antonio de Moncada, to whom they present the keys of their cities. Antonio Moncadea holds the baton of Captain-General presented to him by Queen Blanca of Sicily, as depicted in another panel from this series. The RIdIM database has an entry for a cartoon for a series of tapestries attributed to Teniers II and Kessel II, possibly in error, in a private collection in New York (RIdIM Record 903).

Hendrick Terbrugghen [Hendrick ter Brugghen]

Dutch painter, among the earliest northern followers of Caravaggio who made dramatic use of light and shadow; his principal subjects were half-length figures of drinkers or musicians, but he also produced larger-scale religious images and group portraits; his paintings are notable for the social realism of their subjects, sometimes charming, sometimes shocking or downright vulgar; born Deventer (ca 1588), died Utrecht (1629).

  • Shepherd Recorder Player (1621), canvas, 71.3 × 55.8 cm, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Kassel: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Inv. GK 180. Ref. Kettering (1983: fig. 1); Nicolson (1958: pl. 21); Haak & Willems-Treeman (1996: 212, fig. 440); Jacob van Eyck, Der Fluyten Lust-hof (ed. H.M Linde), Schott OFB 25, Mainz (cover); Lloyd et al. (1979: 177, pl. 4 – col.); Griffioen (1988: 440-441); Website: gallica (2012-col.); RIdIM Munich (2009, Kksg – 69). A shepherd in a feathered cap and loose gown plays a cylindrical alto recorder with a very slightly flared bell. His fingering seems a little haphazard, but there are plenty enough finger holes and he seems to be covering the lowermost hole  with little finger of his lower (left) hand. A maker’s mark may be visible just below the window/labium.
  • Shepherd Flute Player (1627), 85 × 69 cm, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Gotha: Herzogliche Museum, Picture Gallery. Ref. Kettering (1983: fig. 14); Nicolson (1958: pl. 78); Griffioen (1988: 440-441). A shepherd in a fur hat and cloak holds a soprano hand-fluyt in his right hand. Identical to a work in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (see below).
  • Flute Player (1627), painting, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Moscow: Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Ref. Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0003403 (2009 – b&w); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2014-col.) A shepherd in a fur hat and cloak holds a soprano hand-fluyt in his right hand. Identical to a work in the Herzogliche Picture Gallery, Gotha (see above).
  • Flute Player (1633), 63.5 × 51.0 cm, school of Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Schwerin: Staatliches Museum. Ref. Nicolson (1979: fig. 136); Griffioen (1988: 440-441); Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0003529 (2009 – b&w). An old man wearing a cap and a gown plays a crudely depicted soprano/alto sized cylindrical recorder, the foot of which is out of frame. The beak seems to be reversed, but his fingers and thumb are in perfect recorder-playing position, all covering their holes.
  • Shepherd Playing the Recorder, Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629). Blois: Château Royal, Le Musée des Beaux-Artes de Blois. Ref. Wikimedia Commons (2012-col.) Ref. Getreau (2016). A boy in shepherd garb seen in side profile, plays a narrowly flared duct flute, the beak and window clearly visible. The fingers are deployed nicely for recorder-playing; however, the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is raised and its hole out of sight, and the thumb is held perhaps a little too much to the side for this to be a recorder.
  • David Greeted by the Women (1624), canvas, 82 × 102 cm, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Utrecht: Centraalmuseum. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). David holds the severed head of Goliath as two women (one with her back to us) sing and one holds a small slightly flared-bell duct flute (almost certainly a recorder, one finger hole visible) in readiness to play. This work is not listed in the on-line catalogue of the Centralmuseum, Utrecht. Other versions attributed to Terbrugghen can be found in the Museum Het Catharina Gasthuis, Gouda, the North Carolina Art Museum, Raleigh, and in the Muzeul Brukenthal, Sibiu (Romania).
  • The Triumph of David (1624), canvas, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Gouda: Museum Het Catharina Gasthuis. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). David holds his sling, shown as a catapult, and the severed head of Goliath. Two women (one with her back to us) sing and one holds a small slightly flared-bell hand-fluyt made of pale wood in readiness to play. Her left hand is upper-most with all fingers down, the little finger touching the side of the instrument, and the thumb very close to vertical. Three fingers of the right hand are on the instrument before it widens towards the bell end, which, however, is cut off by the side of the painting. The beak and window/labium are very clearly depicted. This painting is a version of the one at Utrecht (see above).
  • David Praised by the Israelite Women (1623), oil on canvas, 81.8 × 105.4 cm, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Raleigh: North Carolina Art Museum, GL.60.17.66. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w, attributed to Dirk van Baburen). David holds the severed head of Goliath as two women (one with her back to us) sing and one holds a small slightly flared-bell duct flute (almost certainly a recorder, one finger hole visible) in readiness to play. There is an identical painting dated 1623, formerly attributed to Abraham Janssens (ca 1575-1632) and Dirk van Baburen (1594/5-1624) in the Muzeul Brukenthal, Sibiu (Romania); and another version attributed to Terbrugghen in the Centraalmuseum, Utrecht.
  • David with Goliath’s Head [David Greeted by the Daughters of Jerusalem] (1623), oil on canvas, 80 × 102 cm, Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Sibiiu/Hermannstadt: Muzeul National Brukenthal. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague ex Ruth van Baak Griffioen (pers. comm., 2003); Website: CODART (2008 – col.) David holds the severed head of Goliath as two women (one with her back to us) sing and one holds a small slightly flared-bell duct flute (almost certainly a recorder, one finger hole visible) in readiness to play. Formerly attributed to Dirck van Baburen (ca 1594/5-1624) and to Abraham I Janssens (ca 1575-1632). There is an identical painting attributed to Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629) in the North Carolina Art Museum, Raleigh, dated 1623.
  • Flute Player, painting, circle of Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Location unknown: sold Palais des Beaux-arts, Brussels, Lot 293 (24-25 November 1964). Ref. Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0003534. A young girl in a hat decorated with flowers points to a butterfly on a wall. In her left hand she holds a soprano, flared bell recorder, perfectly depicted.
  • Flute Player, painting, circle of Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). Location unknown: sold Christies, London. Ref. Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0003538. A young girl in a floppy hat plays a pipe, right hand uppermost. Although the instrument is only vaguely depicted, the hands, fingers and right thumb are well deployed for recorder-playing.
  • Flute Player, oil on canvas, circle of Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629). London: Sotheby’s, The Gustav Leonhardt Collection, Property from the Bartolotti House, Amsterdam, 29 April 2014, Lot 567. Ref. Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 003530 (b&w); 45 RPM record cover: Concert voor blokfluit en strijkorkest in C, Op. 44, no. 11, CNR HV 803. A young man with curling locks beneath a turban-like hat, holds a soprano-sized recorder, right hand uppermost. Bears signature and date, lower left: HTBrügghen fecit / 1621.

Heinz Tetzner

German expressionist painter and draughtsman; the strong lines and dark colouration characteristic of his work produce an effect of persistent tension; born Gersdorf (1920), died 2007.

  • Child Playing a Recorder (1920), painting, Heinz Tetzner (1920-2007). Ref. Fulbourn: Collection of Walter Bergmann, WB 94 (2002, slide) & magazine clipping (2005); Anthony Rowland-Jones (2002 & 2005, pers. comm.) A young girl plays a stylised flared-bell recorder, right hand uppermost.

Hermann Teuber

German artist whose works were forbidden to be exhibited under the rubric of the Nazi action against “degenerate art”; after the war he was named Professor for print graphics at the College of Arts in Berlin; his output includes woodcuts, linocuts, engravings and lithographs; born Dresden (1894), died Munich (1985).

  • Flute Player in a Studio (1951), oil on paper, Hermann Teuber (1894-1985). Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Inv. No. B 25/60. Ref. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (2002: DISKUS-Objekt-Dokument 02530949 – b&w). A naked man stands playing a pipe in a room with screens and a table on which a jug, shells and other objects are scattered. No details of the pipe are visible, but the disposition of the player’s fingers and thumb are highly suggestive of recorder playing.

Theophanes [Theophanis] the Cretan [Bathas] – see Theophanes Strelitzas

Hans Thoma

German painter, printmaker and museum director; his works include landscapes, portraits and genre pictures; born Bernau im Schwarzwald (1839), died Karlsruhe (1924).

  • By the River Wurm (1885), Hans Thoma (1839-1924). Frankfurt: Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Städtische Galerie, SG 952. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Fsm 80). Beside a swiftly flowering stream lined with trees and shrubs a young lad stands playing an ambiguous pipe. Since all fingers of his lowermost (right) hand are employed this may well represent a recorder.
  • Flute Player (1901), oil on paper, Hans Thoma (1839-1924). Freiburg: Augustinermuseum, Inv. Nr. M91/39. Ref. Postcard: Augustinermuseum, Freiburg (col.) In a green meadow beside a narrow stream beneath a burgeoning tree a shepherd sits playing a slender flared-bell pipe, an artist’s idea of what a blockflöte looked like in 1901.
  • Endymion, painting, Hans Thoma (1839-1924). In the moonlight, wearing nothing but a loin-cloth, Endymion sits beside a lake playing a long, slender ambiguous pipe with a flared bell. No details of beak or window/labium are depicted, but the fingers seem well-disposed for recorder-playing.

Tibor K. Thomas

Canadian artist born in Romania who emigrated to Montréal, Québec in 1969; his subjects include landscapes and portraits; born Tibieru Krausz, Fagaras, Romania (1919).

  • Jeune flûtiste (1984), Tibor K. Tomas (1919–). Private Collection. Ref. RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter 19 (1): 28, fig. 9 (1994). A young woman stands before a painting playing an alto recorder of modern construction.

Malcolm Thompson

Contemporary US artist, sculptor and military pilot; born Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (1935).

  • Boy Playing a Recorder, oil on canvas, 83.8 × 63.5 cm, Malcolm Thompson (1935-). Chicago: Leslie Hindman, Estate Properties, 6 September 1990, Lot 539. Ref. Artfact (2003). Signed “M Thompson”. Not seen.

Charles & Samuel Thompson

English luthiers and publishers who worked at the at the sign of the Bass Violin in St Paul’s Churchyard, London, 1770-1790.

  • Frontispiece: The Compleat Tutor for the Flute Containing the Best and Easiest Instruction for Learners to Obtain a Proficiency … (ca 1760), printed & published by Thompson & Son, London. UK: Private Collection, Margaret Rees. Ref. Rees (2002: 55, fig. 2 & 99). On a balcony overlooking a garden, a coated and hatted gentleman stands playing a three-piece baroque alto recorder as birds fly above. Athough this is similar to the frontispiece to the 1765 edition (see below) it differs from it in that the player here faces to our right, his attire is different, and he does not carry a sword.
  • Frontispiece: The Compleat Tutor for the Common Flute (ca 1765), printed & published by Charles & Samuel Thompson. Ref. Vinquist (1974: 236); Godman (1962: front cover). On a balcony overlooking a garden, a coated and hatted gentleman with a sword at his side stands facing our left playing a three-piece baroque alto recorder.

John Thornton

English glazier, known from windows in Coventry, York and Great Malvern; op. 1405 – ca 1440.

  • Great East Window: Angel Musicians (ca 1440), stained glass, John Thornton (op. 1405 – ca 1440). Great Malvern: Parish Church of St Mary and St Michel (The Priory), Nave. Ref. Charles Eamer Kempe (1860: sketch, col.); Hamand (1947: pl. 3 – col.); Hamand (1963: 2-3); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). The window contains, a group of five musical angels in two rows. Two in the upper row play lute and shawm (the pirouette is clearly depicted). The right hand of three lower angels is playing a long slender pipe with a slight flare over the bottom quarter. All fingers are shown down, except the lower left-hand little finger. One finger hole is half visible by the right-hand little finger, and another just above the left hand, below which there are four clear finger holes, one almost at the bell end, all in line. The mouthpiece and lips are very like those of the angel at the bottom left who plays a long pipe and tabor, but there is no sign of a window/labium on either instrument. As it lacks the pirouette of a shawm, a recorder (tenor or longer) may have been intended.

(Karl Albert) Bertel Thorvaldsen

Danish-born sculptor who spent most of his life in Rome (from 1789–1838), where he maintained a large workshop with patrons throughout Europe; his work is neo-classic in style and he is seen as the successor of Antonio Carova (1757-1822), though his figures are more stiff and formal than those of the master; born Copenhagen (c. 1770), died Copenhagen (1844).

  • Musical Putti (1833), marble relief, 39.2 × 43.0 cm, Bertel Thorvaldsen (c. 1770-1844). Copenhagen: Hyskenstræde, Hovestaden, Inv. A587. Ref. Anges musiciens (2012) – b&w). Three putti play harp, lute and a narrowly conical pipe, but the player’s hands and fingers are perfectly disposed for recorder-playing, there seems to be a beak rather than a reed or the mouthpiece of a cornetto.

Theodoor [Théodore] van Thulden [Tulden]

Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who played an important role in introducing a more Flemish style of painting to the northern Netherlands; born Hertogenbosch (1606), died Hertogenbosch (1669).

  • Music (1636), Theodoor van Thulden (1606-1669). Private collection. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 1175); Website: gallica (2012-b&w, as ‘Vanité’. A sort of vanitas which includes people. A woman (a personification of Music) sits at a draped table playing a lute to the delight of a putto who stands beside her pointing heavenwards over his shoulder. On the table, behind a cello which leans against it, lies a long (? tenor) wind instrument with a smooth, marked bell-flare, and rather slender mouth-piece, with a hint of a window/labium, but four lower and two upper finger holes clearly showing. Scattered about floor are a violin and bow, a case for the lute, playing cards, a clay pipe, masks, a sword, a casket. Standing against the wall opposite the lutenist is a virginals.
  • The Instability of Happiness (c.1630), oil on canvas, 167.0 × 233.2 cm, Theodoor van Thulden (1606-1669). Aschaffenburg: Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg, Inv. 1123. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Mstag 326); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, Image 0000119492 (2010-b&w); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-3310 (2023, col.) A sort of vanitas which includes people. A finely dressed woman sits beside a table, her arm around an ornate pitcher. A naked child shows her a soap bubble he has blown from a small pipe held in his right hand and a tiny dish held in his left. On the table is a casket, a highly decorated nautilus shell, a chalice, and a pearl necklace. Opposite (on the rhs) is a huge vase of flowers, games board, a bottle of wine in a wicker basket and other objects. In the foreground and stretching from left to right is a jumble of musical instruments comprising lute, theorbo, violin, rebec, and a recorder (only the head and two finger holes of which are visible), a music score, an actor’s mask, playing cards and a tennis rackett and balls. Variously attributed to Johann Hülsmann and Adriaen van Utrecht.
  • Herod’s Feast, ? engraving, Theodoor van Thulden (1606-1669). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). King Herod gives St John the Baptist’s head on a plate to his daughter Salome, to the surprise and shock of his guests. A small boy perched on a small pillar at the opposite end of the table to Herod plays slender pipe with an abruptly flared bell, possibly a recorder. A young man sitting next to the boy seems to be playing a flute.

John Thurston

English watercolorist and draftsman; known principally for his illustrations of books, especially an edition of Shakespeare published in 1814; born 1774, died 1822.

  • The Farmer’s Boy (1800-1802), 16.5 × 8.9 cm, wood engraving by Charlton Nesbit (1775-1828), after a design by John Thurston (1774-1822). Washington DC., Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0440/L. Ref. Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007). The farmer’s boy seems to be on duty as a shepherd. Or perhaps a shepherdess has gone for a walk. He sits beside a stream beneath a tree against which a shepherd’s crook and hat lean, playing a cylindrical recorder with a flared bell. His dog sleeps beside him. A church spire can be seen in the distance. This engraving first appeared as the frontispiece for second edition (1800) of the poem The Farmer’s Boy, written by Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823), and arranged in four parts corresponding to the seasons. The Miller engraving is closest in style to the impression in the sixth edition (1802).

Willem Thybaut (16th-century)

Dutch stained-glass maker from Haarlem.

  • The Capture of Damietta, Egypt in 1219 During the Crusades (1597), stained-glass window, Willem Thybaut. Detail. Gouda: St Janskerk, West end of North Aisle. Ref. Bouterse (1995: 86); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). One of 64 superb 16th-century stained-glass windows in this large church. This window is one of nine donated mainly by the free cities of Holland after the church transferred from the Catholic to the Protestant faith in 1573. This window, is one of three depicting battle scenes. It was presented by the free town of Haarlem, which had links with Gouda, in 1596. The crusaders from Haarlem were particularly heroic during this attack. In the bottom left-hand corner of the window is a box in which a number of flutes and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) can be seen. “The recorder is … not too realistically represented, having a strange labium, like the metal front pipes (prestant register) of an organ” (Bouterse, loc. cit.) “In fact the transverse flutes and duct flutes (? recorders) are in pieces with the heads and bodies standing vertically in a tray. Although there are references in literature, it is unusual to find a duct flute (? recorder) associated with warfare in works of art, an association belonging more to the smaller forms of transverse flute. Moreover, the width of the visible head end suggest that this is a tenor recorder. Below the box with the flutes are a drum and trumpet” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Pellegrino Tibaldi

Italian painter, sculptor and architect whose Odysseus frescoes in Bologna are among the most outstanding examples of Mannerism; born Puria (1527), died Milan (1596).

  • Contest between the Muses and the Pierides, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596). Bologne: Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999) From Ovid we learn that so great was the acclaim given the nine daughters of King Pieris that they deigned to challenge the Muses. But Calliope on her own out-sang them. They did not accept their defeat (judged by an impartial jury of water-nymphs) gracefully, and abused the Muses so much that, in their bickering, they found themselves turned into chattering magpies. On the right the Pierides dance as they sprout wings and feathers and turn into magpies. In the centre, seated on a mossy bank beneath a shady tree, the water nymphs sit in judgement. On the right, the Muses play cymbals, harpsichord, viol, tambourine, transverse flute, lute, violin, cornetto and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) with a flared bell. Only the head of the latter is shown, but the beak is clearly visible though back to front. A painting of this subject by Tintoretto also includes a recorder.
  • Saint Cecilia and Two Angels, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596). Prague: Art Gallery. Ref. Antwerp Museum, Yearbook (1965: 148, pl. 26); Archiv Moeck; Mirimonde (1974: 126, pl. 98); Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). St Cecilia sings from an open Music Book, conducting with her right hand. An angel to her left accompanies on lute. To her right, a second angel plays a small harp. On the table in front of the musicians, lie a violin, a mandora, a triangle and a tambourine underneath which a flared-bell recorder is just visible.
  • Saint Cecilia and two Angels, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596). Vienna: Kunsthisorisches Museum. Ref. Mirimonde (1974: pl. 98); Imago musicale 1 (1984: 95, as by Antiveduto Grammatica?); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999); Rasmussen (1999, Tambbourine). St Cecilia sings from an open music book, conducting with her right hand. An angel to her left accompanies on lute. To her right, a second angel plays a small harp. On the table in front of the musicians, lie a violin, a mandora, a triangle and a tambourine underneath which a flared-bell recorder is just visible.
  • St Cecilia Singing with Two Angel Musicians (16th century), after Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596), Italian. Lisbon: Museo de Arte Antigua. Ref. Mirimonde (1974: 127, pl. 99); Paris RIdIM (1999). St Cecilia sings from an open music book, conducting with her right hand. An angel to her left accompanies on lute. To her right, a second angel plays a small harp. On a table in front of the musicians lie a violin, a mandora, a triangle, and a tambourine underneath which a flared-bell recorder is just visible.
  • Apollo and the Muses, painting, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596). Parma: Galleria Nazionale, Inv. 58(191). Ref. Warburg Institute (2013-b&w). Something is not quite right on Mt Helicon: it looks as if Euterpe has played a wrong note! Everyone is glaring at her, her eyes are downcast at the score on her lap, and she hold her (ambiguous) pipe in one hand. One of her sisters seems particularly annoyed, leaning forward aggressively with one had on her very large syrinx. A Muse, brandishing a long straight trumpet, looks at Apollo who himself looks rather bemused as he leans on his lyre. Other muses hold a lyra viol, a viola da braccio, a lyre, and a perfectly depicted alto-sized recorder. One Muse kneels at the stream’s edge with a pitcher, doubtless preparing to pour water on the cat-fight that seems to have disturbed the harmony.

Giovanni Battista [also called Giambattista] Tiepolo

Italian draughtsman, etcher and painter, the last great master of the Venetian school, and the greatest muralist in the rococo style; active in Venice and northern Italy, Würzburg, Madrid; born Venice (1696), died Madrid (1770).

  • Apollo and the Four Continents : Europa (1753), ceiling fresco, Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770). Detail. Würzburg: Residenz, Stairwell. Ref. Rowland-Jones (1992: 42, 59 & cover; 1998d: 422-423, fig. 5 – col., detail fig. 6 – col. & footnote 36); Thomson & Rowland-Jones (1995: 65, fig. 20B); Paolo Biordi (pers. com., 2000); Website: Web Gallery of Art: Frescoes in the Würzburg Residenz (2014-col.) Derived in large measure from Veronese’s Marriage Feast at Cana, this allegorical painting features a central group of musicians who accompany two singers. A youth (? Bassano) plays a baroque-style recorder, a man (Tintoretto) plays the violin, another (Titian) a large bass viol. “In keeping with the splendour of the picture, Tiepolo painted a fine recorder with an ivory mouthpiece, but this was apparently unnoticed when the fresco was restored after the bombardment of Würzburg during World War II, and the recorder is now a less distinguished all-wooden one” (Rowland-Jones, 1998d, loc. cit.) On the relationship between the musicians depicted in this painting and others by Veronese and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo see Rowland-Jones (1998d, loc. cit.) The man in the uniform of a colonel of the Franconian artillery seated across a canon is Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753), military engineer and architect, who designed the staircase, itself an artistic masterpiece.
  • Anthony and Cleopatra’s Feast, fresco, Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770). Detail. Venice: Palazzo Labia, East wall. Ref. Robbins Landon & Norwich (1991: p. 3, not acknowledged); Badiarov (2005 – col.); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Web Gallery of Art: Frescoes in the Palazio Labia in Venice (2014-col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-1148 (2023, col.) Cleopatra entertains Anthony surrounded by her retainers. In the background, musicians on a balcony play cylindrical pipes (duct flutes, straight cornetti or small shawms) accompanied by a colascione player. A second group play straignt trumpet and what looks like a violoncello da spada. There is a model for this painting in the National Art Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, in which the musicians brandish what look like curved trumpets rather than pipes.
  • Musicians, red & white chalk, Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770). Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie. Ref. Oja (1978: 14, item 78). A group of four musicians sing and play recorder, violin and bass viol. Not seen and not listed in the online catalogue of the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgat. However, this may refer to a sketch by Jacob Jordaens, Inv. C 1951/323.

Giovanni Domenico [also called Giandomenico] Tiepolo

Italian draughtsman, etcher and painter; son of the Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo; talented genre painter, especially of scenes from contemporary life and the popular theatre; also known for his paintings of the Stations of the Cross, and chinoiserie decorations; worked in Madrid from 1762 until his father died in 1770; produced innumerable drawings for collectors, besides nearly 200 etchings after his own and his father’s designs; born Venice (1727), died Venice (1804).

  • Minuet with Pantalone (ca 1756), oil on canvas, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1696-1770). Detail. Barcelona: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, #64989. Ref. Rowland-Jones Rowland-Jones (1998d: 415, fig. 1-b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: WikiArt (2014-col.) Masked dancers perform to an accompaniment by musicians on a balcony/ A youth plays a baroque-style recorder, a man plays the violin, and another a large bass viol. On the relationship between the musicians depicted in this painting and others by Veronese and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo see Rowland-Jones (1998b).
  • Nuptial Cortege of Pulcinella’s Relatives, drawing, ink wash and charcoal, 29 × 41 cm, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1696-1770). Paris: Gallery Eric Coatalem (2014). Ref. Paris RIdIM (2000). From Divertimento per li regazzi. Two Pulcinellos and a crowd of beautifully dressed young women march up a rise with banners flowing behind them. They are led by a town band comprising two violins and two flared-bell pipes which may represent recorders, often symbolic of marriage.
  • Minuet in the Villa, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1696-1770). Venice: Ca Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano. Ref. Corbis Images CS003343 (2010 – col.) A young woman in a billowing white dress and an enormous ribboned bonnet dances with a man in a handsome red jacket, wig and ruff, his tricorn hat under his arm. He holds a small pipe in his left hand, possibly a recorder. A little dog seems to be biting at the lady’s ankles. This composition strikes an ironic attitude towards ridiculous and vacuous formalities and all the most ephemeral aspects of fashion and behaviour.
  • The Flight into Egypt (1753), Plate 19: Joseph Adoring the Child While Two Angels Sing, etching on paper, 18.9 × 24.8 cm, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1696-1770). Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, Inv. 1941.1234; New York: C. & J. Goodfriend, Online Exhibition – Old Master Prints and Drawings, Item 49 (2011). Mary and the child rest beneath a palm tree. Joseph and an angel are on their knees in adoration, while behind the palm tree are two musical angels one of whom sings from a book, the other holds what appears to be a baroque recorder.

Gillis van Tilborgh

Flemish artist who specialised in group portraits and both “low-life” and elegant genre paintings; he also painted gallery pictures that reflect the relationship between artists and patrons in the 17th century; born ? Brussels (c.1625), died Brussels (c.1678).

  • Family Portrait, Gillis van Tilborgh (ca 1625-1678). Paris: L. Moreno Collection. Ref. Leppert (1977: 154); Paris RIdIM (1999). A bourgeois or noble woman is depicted with a guitar, violin, and a pipe (probably a recorder, but only the foot is visible),
  • The Five Senses: Hearing, wood, 21.5 × 18.0 cm, Gillis van Tilborgh (ca 1625-1678). Brussels: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Cat. 471c. Ref. Leppert (1977: 154); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). An allegorical domestic scene in which a man sings and a woman plays a recorder, the hole for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand clearly visible. There is a copy entitled The Duo in the Musée des Beaux-Artes, Quimper.
  • The Duo, after Gillis van Tilborgh (ca 1625-1678). Quimper: Musée des Beaux-Artes, Inv. 873.1.11 Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). An allegorical domestic scene which a man sings and a woman plays a recorder, the hole for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand clearly visible. A copy of the original entitled Hearing in Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Brussels. Formerly attributed to Teniers.
  • Group Portrait: Wedding Celebration, oil on canvas, 115.6 × 160.7 cm, Gillis van Tilborgh (ca 1625-1678). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 71.32. Ref. Website: Metropolitan Museum of Art (2007 – b&w). Family and friends pose around a table in front of the a house or inn. Centre frame, a man plays a small lute and another plays a cylindrical pipe, probably a recorder.
  • Musical Party (1659), oil on canvas, 97.2 × 79.4 cm, Gillis van Tilborgh (ca 1625-1678). Maidstone: Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery. Ref. Website: BBC – Your Paintings (2014-col.) Before a house a group of family and friends are gathered to enjoy music-making after a meal. An elderly man conducts whilst others sing and play violin and a cylindrical pipe, probably a recorder. On the steps leading up to the house a woman smokes a pipe. This painting was restored in 1964.

Johannes (van) Tilens [Hans Thielens, Jan Thielens, Johannes Thielens, Hans Tielens, Jan Tielens, Johannes Tielens, Hans Tilens, Jan Tilens]

Flemish landscape painter whose subjects also included mythological and religious themes; born Antwerp (1589), died Antwerp (1630).

  • Apollo and the Muses, oil on canvas, Johannes Tilens (1589-1630). Antwerp: L. Jacobs van Merlen Collection. Ref. Leppert (1977: 155, pl. XXI – b&w); Rijksbureau voor Kunstihistoriche Documentatie 114137 (2010-b&w) On a rocky ledge overlooking the river Helicon, Apollo and the Muses play many instruments, including violin, cello, and harp; and on the ground are a recorder (with seven holes clearly visible), trombone, cittern, and flute.

Johannes Tinctoris (vernacular name probably Jean (Jehan) le Taintenier; also Tinturier)

Brabantine composer and music theorist of the Renaissance. He is known to have studied in Orléans, and to have been master of the choir there; he also may have been director of choirboys at Chartres. It has been speculated that he studied in Cambrai with Dufay, who spent the last part of his life there; certainly Tinctoris must at least have known the elder Burgundian there. Tinctoris went to Naples in ca 1472 and spent most of the rest of his life in Italy. Also known as a cleric, a poet, a mathematician, and a lawyer; there is even one reference to him as an accomplished painter. Born Braine-l’Alleud, (ca 1430–1435) ; probably died Italy (1511)

  • Title page: Opera de San Miguel de los Reyes (ca 1483), illuminated manuscript on parchment, 27.3 × 19.5 cm, Johannes Tinctoris (ca 1430–1511). Valencia: Universitat, Biblioteca Històrica BH Ms. 835. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Europeana Regia (2011-col.) Tinctoris is seen working at his desk in front of a window opening onto a harbour scene. Marginal decorations on either side depict a man playing psaltery on the left and a band of musicians on the left playing gitterns, rebecs and a slender, more-or-less cylindrical pipe, quite possibly a recorder in this company, played left hand uppermost. Above, God the Father gives a high five over the proceedings. Below, winged putti disport themselves.

Tintoretto (born Jacopo Comin)

Italian Mannerist painter of the Venetian school and one of the most important artists of the late Renaissance; his works include both secular and religious subjects, and portraits; born Venice (1518), died Venice (1592).

  • Paradiso (1588-1592, or 1579-1580), Tintoretto (1518-1592). Paris: Musée de Louvre., Inv. 570.  Ref. Website: Wikimedia Commons (2016, col.)  A model for the massive painting in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace, Venice. An angel centre-left appears to be playing a pipe. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers comm.) thinks it only remotely likely that this is a recorder.
  • Contest Between the Muses and the Pierides (1544-1545), oil on wood, Tintoretto (1518-1592). Verona: Museo di Castelvecchio. Ref. Robbins Langdon & Norwich (1991: 56-57 – b&w). An early work, his only major oil painting on wood. From Ovid we learn that so great was the acclaim given the nine daughters of King Pieris that they deigned to challenge the Muses. But Calliope on her own out-sang them. They did not accept their defeat (judged by an impartial jury of water-nymphs) gracefully, and abused the Muses so much that, in their bickering, they found themselves turned into chattering magpies. One of the Pierides plays the organ surrounded by her sisters who sing and play soft instruments organ, lutes, vielle, viol, and a pipe suggestive of a recorder. Three large magpies with outstretched tail feathers carry away music (left), a ? recorder (centre), and a vielle (right). Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) The pipe played by one of the Pierides has a short but marked bell flare. The mouthpiece is unclear, and there is no sign of a window, but the painting is very impressionistic. The two bottom finger holes are clearly shown as is another under the lifted first finger of the left upper hand with the thumb held nearly vertical to the instrument. All the other instruments are ‘soft’. The upper part of the pipe below the bird’s beak is obscured by leaves, but two lower holes and one (possibly two) higher hole(s) can be seen. A painting of this same subject by Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596) also includes a duct flute (flageolet or recorder).

Johann Heinrich Tischbein I [‘der Kasseler’]

Member of a German family of artists who became court painter to the Landgrave William VIII of Hesse-Kassel and served as professor of the Akademie in Kassel from 1762; amongst the foremost portrait painters of the period, particularly of women; known for the amiable charm of his worldly style and his technical virtuosity; born Haina (1722), died Kassel (1789).

  • Musical Gathering, oil on canvas, 94 × 127 cm, Johann Heinrich Tischbein I (1722-1789). Auctioned Dorotheum, Vienna, Old Master Paintings, 3 October 2001, Lot 253. Ref. Website: International Auctioners (2006 – col.) An elegantly dressed young woman plays a guitar, a young man holds a violin to his shoulder pointing with his bow to a score held over a table by one of two children in front of him. The other child holds a turned baroque recorder of soprano/alto size. On the table are a cushion and a lute, face down. Another lad peeps out from behind a drape in the background. An almost identical painting (possibly the same one) auctioned on 5 July 2000 with the title Children Making Music was attributed to Philip Mercier (1689-1760), and there are similar paintings by Jean Raoux (1677-1734), Jacques-François Courtin (1672-1752) and unknown imitators of that artist.

Titian [Tiziano Vecellio]

Italian painter, draughtsman and printmaker Titian  is considered to have been the greatest 16th-century Venetian painter, and the shaper of the Venetian colorist and painterly tradition. He is equally pre-eminent in all the branches of painting practiced in the 16th century: religious subjects, portraits, allegories and scenes from Classical mythology and history. Titian was active in Venice, and briefly in Padua, Rome and Augsburg. He was born Pieve di Cadore (north of Venice) in  (1485–90), and died in Venice (1576).

  • Concert champêtre [Pastoral Concert] (1508), oil on canvas, 105 × 136 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Paris: Musée de Louvre, 71. Ref. Castelfranco (1955); Fehl (1957: 153-168); Bonicatti (1964: 91); Lesure (1966: pl. 3); Gianoli & Mascherpa (1967: pl. XIX – col.); Winternitz (1967 & 1979: pl. 7 – b&w); Pallucchini (1969: fig. 55); Pignatti (1971: 55, pl. 157 – col.); Musica calendar (1973, July: 8-21 – col.); Fischer (1974: 71-77); Wethey (1975, 3: cat. 29, pl. 2-3); Bonicatti (1980: 316, fig – b&w); Hale (1977: fig. 87 – b&w); Mirimonde (1977: pl. 116); Gentili (1980: 15-26, fig. 3); Majer (1983: pl. 10); Gowing (1987: 177 – col.); Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1989, IC-00-3891; Rowland-Jones (1997c: 13, detail – b&w; 2009: 219, fig. 2 – col.); Joconde Website (1999); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G435.90[b]2; Rasmussen (1999, Lute); Rowland-Jones (2002c: 8, pl. 2 – b&w); Hijmans (2005: 222); Website: Lute Iconography LI-626 (2023, col.); Lasocki (2023: 118). Purchased by Louis XIV in 1671, this painting is in part a direct representation of a passage from Sannazzaro’s Arcadia, published in Venice in 1504. Two seated men, a courtier-lutenist and a shepherd in deep conversation, are disregarded by two near-naked nymphs (invisible, as sacred beings), one of the Arcadian streams and one of the woods and pastures. Like the shepherd with his flock in the distance behind her, the latter nymph carries her attribute pipe represented by a slender, flared-bell duct flute (flageolet or recorder). The preparatory drawing in the Malcolm Collection, British Museum, identifies this as a recorder. In the background is a shepherd with his flock, accompanied by a lute. After protracted debate over the centuries, this work is now generally accepted as partly painted by Titian and partly by Giorgione.
  • Ländlisches Konzert (1668), print by Jan de Bisschop (late 17th century), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Frings (1999: 164, pol. 5 – b&w). A reproduction of Titian/Giorgione’s Concert champêtre (1508). See above.
  • Pastoral Concert, oil on canvas, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001-b&w). A reproduction of Titian/Giorgione’s Concert champêtre (1508) with the female figures more demurely dressed. See above. Auctioned 15 December 1997, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
  • Pastoral Concert (18th century), oil on canvas, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Venice: Museo Corer. A reproduction of Titian/Giorgione’s Concert champêtre (1508) with the female figures more demurely dressed. Badly damaged.
  • Tempesta, oil on canvas on board, oval, 30.5 × 21.5 cm,  William Etty (1787–1849), after Titian (1485-90–1576). London: Private Collection. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2009: Image FAS179167, MAA288056 & MAA283748 – col.) A reproduction of the central scene of Titian/Giorgione’s Concert champêtre (1508) rather than Giorgione’s The Tempest (Galleria dell Accademia, Venice), to which it bears no resemblance.
  • A Boy with a Pipe (The Shepherd) (1510-1515), oil on canvas, 62.5 × 49.1 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Richmond: Hampton Court Palace, RCIN 405767. Ref. Berenson (1957, 1: 84, pl. 655); Brooke, 1960: 16); Rowland-Jones (2002c: 8, pl. 2-b&w; 2002b: 48, pl. 1-b&w); Website: Queen Elizabeth II: Royal Collection (2016-col.) A youth holds the head of a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) of which only the head is visible. Formerly attributed to Giorgione, the Queen’s art historians now attribute this painting unconditionally to Titian. As it dates from 1510-1515 when he was working on the Louvre Pastoral Concert with Giorgione (who died in 1510) and that picture also has a recorder in it, the Titian attribution is convincing, even if the face is in the manner of his teacher rather than in his own firmer later style. However, recent studies of this picture show that the boy holds a staff in the original painting, not a recorder: the recorder was painted over by a restorer, probably some time between 1750 and 1859 (Anthony Rowland-Jones, 2002b & 2003b). An old copy from Haigh Hall was sold at Christie’s in 1946 (Brooke, loc. cit.) And there is a copy of the original in the National Gallery of Scotland display at Duff House, Banff, which shows the shepherd holding a staff, not a pipe.
  • Musicians in a Landscape (ca 1510), drawing (pen & two shades of brown ink over traces of back chalk), 22.3 × 22.6 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Detail. London: British Museum, Inv. 1895,0915.817. Ref. Royalton-Kisch et al. (1996: pl. 29); Groos (1996: fig. 76 – b&w); Website:  Villa I Tati (2016: ML85 G766); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). This work has also been attributed to Domenico Campagnola (1500 – after 1552), who passed his engravings and drawings off as Titian’s – see Groos (loc. cit.) A standing man plays a grotesquely decorated bass viol to a seated girl who holds a slender flared-bell pipe loosely in her right hand. The four lower holes and offset little-finger hole are clearly visible indicating that this is a recorder. The thumb hole is also visible (although this may be just an ink mark). The female figure and position correspond closely to the seated nymph in Titian’s Pastoral Concert, thus increasing the possibility that the pipe in that picture is also a recorder.
  • Musicians in a Landscape (ca 1642– ca 1680), copper-plate engraving, 23.2 × 25.4 cm, by Valentin Le Febre (1642–ca 1680), after a drawing by Titian (1485-90–1576). Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe; Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0039/K. Ref. Warburg Institute, London (photo); Giraolamo Frescobaldi, Canzona, arranged for recorder quartet (D Tr T B) by Dom Gregory Murray, Faber, London (1968 – cover, b&w); Paris RIdIM (1999). A standing man plays a grotesquely decorated bass viol to a seated girl who holds a slender flared-bell recorder loosely in her right hand. The engraving lacks the offset hole for the little finger of the lower-most hand depicted in Titian’s original (British Museum, London), and the thumb hole is not visible. Reversed from Titian’s original; and the muscular back of the recorder player appears rather more masculine. The etchings by Le Febre, after Titian and Veronese, were published in Opera selectioria quae Titianus Vecellius Cadubriensis et Paulus Calliari Veronensis inventarunt ac pinxerunt quaeque Valentinus le Febre Bruxellensis delineavit et sculpsit by J. van Campen (Venice 1682).
  • Study: A Pair of Lovers Playing Music in a Landscape, drawing, pen and brown ink on red-grounded paper, Titian (1485-90–1576). Oxford: Christ Church Gallery. Ref. Oberhuber (1976: fig. 21); Rasmussen (1999, Lute); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). “Includes a man with a lute and a woman with a recorder. Figures related to the Giorgione-Titian Concert champêtre (Paris Louvre) and the Titian [Three] Ages of Man (Coll. Duke of Sutherland). Cf. also the anonymous drawing in Bayonne” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) “The man holds a lute and is in exactly the same position as the man in Pastoral Concert. The girl is the same as the lost early version of Titian’s Three Ages of Man, known from several engravings. Her face is in exactly the same position, which Titian altered in his final version, and she holds one recorder, again as in the early version. Moreover the farmhouse buildings in the landscape, taken from Campagnola, are very like those in Titian’s early version, changed into a sort of chapel in the Edinburgh painting. The recorder is of soprano/alto size, cylindrical mostly but tapering a little towards the bell. It is sketchy, but I think a window/labium is shown in a side-on position. ‘Chloe’ holds the recorder in her right hand, with three fingers on the instrument, two with holes showing (just) underneath, and one further finger hole a little below the hand. There is some bell flare, and an incised decorative ring just before this starts” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
  • Three Ages of Man (ca 1510–1515) oil on canvas, 90 × 151 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland (lent by the Duke of Sutherland). Ref. Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (1994): postcard (col.); Hale (1977: fig. 141 – col., 142 – b&w); Winternitz (1979: 50-51, pl. 90 – b&w); Joannides (1991); Recorder Magazine 17 (1): cover (1997, detail – col.); Rowland-Jones (1997b: 15 & 16, detail – b&w); Rowland-Jones (1999c: 3-6, fig. 4, detail, b&w; 2002c: 9-10, pl. 9-b&w); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Lasocki (2023: 116-7. “In the background an old man, sitting among skulls, symbolizes the evening of life. The infants at the right, in the middle ground, indicate the beginning, The two lovers in the foreground, gazing raptly into each others eyes, represent the climax of life” (Winternitz, loc. cit.) The young man holds a recorder in his right hand. The girl holds two slender, flared-bell recorders, parallel to one another, their mouthpieces pointing upwards towards her mouth, and she has the fingers of both hands on the finger holes of the instruments. “The flutes, connecting the two bodies as it were, have a twofold significance. They are the symbols of the amorous union; and the simultaneity of their sounds dignifies the harmony of souls” (Winternitz, loc. cit.) There is an almost identical painting by Salvi Giovanni Sassoferrato in the Borghese Gallery, Rome. And there is an engraving after an earlier version of this work by Valentin Lefèvre (1642-1708). Joannides (loc. cit.) has discussed this painting at length and suggests that it depicts the legend of Daphnis and Chloe, though a second interpretation of this complex picture relates the theme to Christian marriage.”Titian, like Cossa, prominently combined the marriage symbolism of the myrtle in the girl’s chaplet with that of her two recorders. The recorders are held parallel, and in the playing position; in design they both resemble the drawings in Virdung’s treatise of 1511 but, while the one held in the girl’s right hand has its full tally of finger holes, the one in her left hand has only five, like the female side of the bridal double pipe. Both this recorder and the expressions on the lover’s faces suggest deep sensual desire, but in the poesia underlying Titian’s allegory, the love of Daphnis and Chloe was only consummated after their marriage. The recorders express both sensuality and the sacrament of marriage, the latter reinforced by the chapel in the background which Titian painted in place of the original farm buildings” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2000). “Looking again … I notice that the canvas at the left-hand side seems to have been cut, slicing off a bit of the man’s elbow. It also slices off the lower part of his recorder, but looking at the jagged edge I made out an additional hole, making five in all still visible” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2003).
  • Opera selectiora quæ Titianus … et … Veronensis inventarunt ac pinxerunt, Venetiis: Three Ages of Man (1682), engraving 22.5 × 34.3 cm, by Valentin Lefèvre (1642–1708), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Uppsala: Universitet, Bibliotek, UUB G 1917/49; London: Royal Academy of Arts, 06/2046. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Royal Academy of Arts (2016). A copy of Titian’s Three Ages of Man (see above), painted between ca 1510 and 1515. Shows three slender, flared-bell recorders; the one held by Daphnis is more clearly shown than in the original. There is an almost identical painting by Salvi Giovanni Sassoferrato in the Borghese Gallery, Rome.
  • Three Ages of Man (1682), etching by Valentin Lefèvre (1642–1708), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-H-H-1199. Based on the original by Titian but with a number of differences: the old man is missing, the girl holds but one recorder, there is a castle in the middle distance.
  • Three Ages of Man, oil on canvas, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001-b&w). A copy of the original by Titian. See above. Auctioned 2 July 1996, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
  • Three Ages of Man, painting, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A copy of the original by Titian.
  • Three Ages of Man, pen & ink on paper, 19.5 × 28.0 cm, after after Titian (1474/1482-1576). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Z 2532. Ref. RIdIM Munich (2003: HDkm – 197); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Design for a tapestry. Probably based on a print of an early version of the original.
  • A Shepherd and a Nymph, oil on canvas; 81 × 90 cm, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, A522. Ref. Website: Ashmolean Museum (2007 – col.) An accurate copy of the group on the left of Titian’s painting known as The Three Ages of Man in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland which may date from ca 1510-1515. The original painting left Venice at a relatively early date: in 1568 Vasari described a similar picture owned by a collector in Faenza. This copy could have been made after the original or an early copy, such as that in the Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome.
  • Madonna and Child (1515), Titian (1485-90–1576). Bellano: Deanery Church. Church of Saints Nazaro and Celso Ref. Cagli & Valcanover (1969: cat. 51). Two angel-putti sit on the step below the Virgin’s throne. One plays a lute, the other a slender wind instrument with a flared bell (? recorder). A large tambourine leans against the step between them. Possibly painted in collaboration with Francesco Vecellio.
  • Altarpiece: Assumption of the Virgin (1516–1518), oil on panel, Titian (1485-90–1576). Venice: Chiesa de Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Presbytery. Detail. Ref. Feldbusch (1951: pl. 22); Pallucchini (1969, II: fig. 126); Art Bulletin 53: 197 (1971); Rabb (1993: pl. 3, col.), Gould (1985: pl. 11, b&w), Tietze (1950: fig. 35); Cagli & Valcanover (1969: cat. 82, pl. xv); Rowland-Jones (2002c: 7, pl. 1-b&w); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2014-col.) The red-robed Virgin stands firmly on a cloud made airborne by the efforts of three angels. A further 30 or so angels surround her, singing and playing instruments. Amongst them, a standing angel/putto (centre right) holds a slender duct flute (recorder or flageolet) looking up at the Virgin. Beside him a squatting angel/putto looks down concentrating on blowing his crumhorn; another (centre left) holds a timbrel.
  • Altarpiece: Assumption of the Virgin (1859–1871), oil on panel, Kark Friederich Fries, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Inv. 11680. Ref. RIdIM, Mstag – 223 (2013-b&w). A copy of the original by Titian (see above). The red-robed Virgin stands firmly on a cloud made airborne by the efforts of three angels. A further 30 or so angels surround her, singing and playing instruments. Amongst them, a standing angel/putto (centre right) holds a slender duct flute (recorder or flageolet) looking up at the Virgin. Beside him a squatting angel/putto looks down concentrating on blowing his crumhorn; another (centre left) holds a timbrel.
  • Assumption of the Virgin (1820), lithograph, by George Hayter (1792–1871), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, no. V.2-52. Ref. Website, Fitzwilliam Museum (2015). A print (in reverse) of the original by Titian (see above).
  • Musical Putti (18th century), oil on canvas, 38 × 30 cm, after Titian (1474/1482-1576). Venice: Museo Correr. On a cloud a standing angel/putto holds a slender duct flute (recorder or flageolet) looking up at the Virgin. Beside him a squatting angel/putto looks down concentrating on blowing his crumhorn. These are the two putti from Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin n the Chiesa de Santa Maria Gloriosa, Venice.
  • Bacchanal of the Andrians (1518-1519 ), oil on canvas, 175 × 193 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. 418. Ref. Gould (1969: pl. 15-col.); Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 112); Winternitz (1979: 5152, pl. 8 & 9 – b&w); Recorder Magazine 17 (3): 88 (b&w), cover, detail – col. (1997); Rowland-Jones (1997c, 3); Rowland-Jones (2002c: 11-12, pl. 9-b&w). The Andrians were inhabitants of the Aegean island of Andros, famous for its wine, and therefore a centre of the worship of Bacchus (Dionysus) in antiquity. Legend told that the god visited the island annually when a fountain of water turned into wine. Philostratus the Elder described a river of wine beside which the Andreians drank, danced and sang, garlanded with ivy. Titian depicts a Bacchanalian festival with much drinking, beside a stream of wine. In the distance a Silene reclines by the source on a couch of vines. And Bacchus’ ship can be glimpsed in the distance.”Titian’s rhapsody on wine women and song … The central place among the revellers is given to two women in the foreground. In front of them, conspicuously in the middle, lies a music sheet with the notation and the words ‘Qui boyt et ne reboyt Il ne sait que boyre seul’ (‘He who doesn’t have more than one drink doesn’t known what drinking can be’). The music is a four-part canon. However, no one is singing, but each of the the two women in the centre foreground holds a flute … The instruments are actually recorders, and those in the hands of the women are held so as to be in close and conspicuous proximity. A third flute [ie recorder] is partially visible near the foot of the fair-haired women in the centre. Again … they are not being played. There can hardly be any doubt that these flutes symbolize an utter abandonment to the senses (Winternitz, loc. cit.) Re-interpreted by Rubens, and by Frans Wouters.”The recorders held by the two women both have bell flare and show one offset little finger hole, although the hole shown is right hand on the upper recorder and left hand on the lower. The lower recorder is slightly larger. The recorder on the ground pointing at the foot of the upper woman does not have as strong a bell flare as I had thought from photographs of this painting. It is a perfectly normal, sharp but short bell flare, made by wood thickening – the bore does not seem to be much flared. To the right of the glass, which hides part of the lower portion of the instrument, are two strong vertical marks which could be decorative incisions but they are strong enough to suggest that this recorder could be jointed, although there is no strengthening bulge. This also suggests that the instrument is at least of tenor size” (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2001).
  • Bacchanal of the Andrians (? ca 1640 ), print by Giovanni Andrea Genovese (op. 1650 – m.a. 1674, Italian), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Bartsch (1843-1876, 20: 172/7). A reversed ‘copy which shows two recorders only, i.e. those of the two women. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
  • Bacchanal of the Andrians (1857), lithograph, 30.8 × 35.5 cm (image), 44 × 61.3 cm (sheet), by Célestin Nanteuil (1813–1873), after Titian (1485-90–1576). San Francisco: de Young Museum 5074163106760069 A101100. Ref. Martinez (1857: pl. 3).
  • Venus and Cupid with a Lute Player (1550-1565), oil on canvas, 150.5 × 196.8 cm, Titian (1485-90–1576). Detail. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, no. 129. Ref. Winter (1950: no. 52); Studdert-Kennedy (1958: 349-351); Goodison (1965: 494, 521-522); Pallucchini (1969, II, fig. 477); Wethey (1975: cat. no. 46, pll. 123-125); Nutter (1989: 127-174); Hunt (1990); Rowland-Jones (1995a: 49, pl. 17 – b&w); Fitwilliam Museum Enterprises Ltd, Cambridge: postcard (col.); Rowland-Jones (1997c: 14); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.T535.1.4V; Rasmussen (1999, Lute); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography LI-421 (2023, col.); Lasocki (2023: 117). Very similar but not identical to the painting below. Venus, crowned by Cupid, holds a flared-bell recorder, a viol lies beside her; the young man seated at the end of her couch gazes into her eyes as he plays the lute. A further copy in enamel was executed by Horace Hone for Lord Fitzwilliam in 1815 and is still in the Museum (no. 459). When the Fitzwilliam pictures were exhibited at the Perse School, both the Titian and miniature copy were seen by Coleridge (Table Talk), who commented harshly on the miniature. Engraved: by J. Brouilliard in J. Couché, ‘Galerie du Palais Royal’, (1808), II; by J. Duchesne ainé, ‘Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture’, (1828), I, no. 710.
  • Philippe II et sa Maistresse [Philip II and his Mistress] (ca 1786), 20.0 × 22.6 cm, etching by Jacques Bouillard (ca 1747–1806), after a drawing by ? Antoine Borel (18th century), after the painting by Titian (1485-90–1576). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0602/N. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2007); Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007). Although it misses the recorder’s paired little-finger holes, this is a fairly accurate rendition of the Fitzwilliam Museum version of Titian’s Venus and Cupid with a Lute Player. The label identifying the subjects as the King of Spain and his mistress, the Princess of Eboli, has no basis in reality. Indeed, Titian had previously in the same series painted that monarch seated at a powerful organ and turning to gaze lewdly at Venus (Prado, Madrid & Berlin). The engraver hasn’t quite caught the fetching look of the Fitzwilliam Venus.
  • Venus and Cupid with a Lute Player (ca 1560), oil on canvas, 165.1 × 209.6 cm, Titian and Workshop (1485-90–1576). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Munsey Fund, 1936 (36.29). Ref. Brendel et al. (1946: 65-69); Bilzer (1960, 2: 378 – col.); Burlington Magazine 107 (1965: 520); Lesure (1966: pl. 45; 1968: 39); Winternitz (1979: 52-53, pl. 10 – b&w); Pallucchini (1969, II, fig. 478); Mirimonde (1975-1977, 4: 270, fig. 10); Zeri & Gardner (1973: pl. 93); Wethey (1975: cat. no. 45, pl. 122); Howard & Montebello (1983: 125, pl. 25 – col.); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.T535.4V[p]; Paris RIdIM (1999); Rasmussen (1999, Lute; 2002, Bagpipe); Website: Metropolitan Museum of Art (2002); Constance Old (ex Amanda Pond, pers. comm., 2002-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-36 (2023, col.) This work is the last of a series of five celebrated paintings by Titian, and it is unfinished. The earliest of the group, representing Venus and an organ player (Prado, Madrid; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), date about 1548-55. A somewhat earlier version of the composition is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (see above). In this version, Venus, crowned by Cupid, holds a flared-bell recorder; a viol lies beside her; the young man seated at the end of her couch gazes into her eyes as he plays the lute. In the background, a man leans against a tree playing the bagpipes, and satyrs and nymphs dance to the pipes of Pan, a feature absent from the Cambridge version.
  • Venus with a Lute Player, oil on canvas, after Titian (1485-90–1576). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001-b&w). A crude copy of the original by Titian (see above). Here the recorder is drawn inaccurately as a somewhat ambiguous, highly conical instrument. Auctioned 8 June 1995, sold, (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
  • Nymph and Shepherd, Titian (1474/1482-1576). Vienna: Künsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Inv. 1825. Ref. Gould, (1985: 35, pl. 47-col.); Website: Vienna Kunsthistorischemuseum, Gemäldegalerie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001; 2002c: 8-9, pl. 4-b&w). A shepherd holds a pipe (transverse or duct flute) whilst he gazes longingly at a nymph lying beside him, her back turned as she pleasures herself. A goat (a symbol of lechery) climbs a broken tree in the background to get at the foliage; a man wades across the river in the distance. The symbolism is blatantly erotic. This painting is reproduced in Teniers’ (1610-1690) The Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery of Paintings in Brussels (ca 1647), now in the Prado, where it can be seen in the top right hand corner (see above). Teniers II was conservateur en chief of the Archduke’s collection and thus made his copy from the original in which he saw a recorder, not a flute.
  • Nymph and Shepherd (ca 1656-1660), engraving, 16.7 × 22.8 cm, by David Teniers II (1610–1660), after Titian (1485-90–1576). London: British Museum, Inv. 1981,U.510. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012-b&w). Printed by Peeter van Lisebetten (1610-1678). A shepherd holds a pipe (transverse or duct flute) whilst he gazes longingly at a nymph lying beside him, her back turned as she pleasures herself. A goat (a symbol of lechery) climbs a broken tree in the background to get at the foliage; a man wades across the river in the distance. The symbolism is blatantly erotic. This painting is reproduced in Teniers’ (1610-1690) The Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery of Paintings in Brussels (ca 1647), now in the Prado, where it can be seen in the top right hand corner (see above). Teniers II was conservateur en chief of the Archduke’s collection and thus made his copy from the original in which he saw a recorder, not a flute.
  • Nymph and Shepherd, copy by Jacopo Negreti Palma il Giovane (1544-1628), after Titian (1485-90–1576). Treviso: Il Museo Civico ‘Luigi Bailo’. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000, 2001c). Given by Count Alviso Giustiniani of Venice in 1958. The shepherd is shown with a clearly depicted recorder. The beak is clear, and there is probably a window/labium. All fingers are down and there is no sign of finger holes.This is a poor painting which bears some resemblance to the copy by Teniers the Younger (Prado) in that Teniers also shows Titian’s ambiguous pipe as a recorder. However, the Treviso copy does not show Titians’s extraordinary fiery landscape at the upper right of the picture, so bowdlerising Titian’s meaning. This painting never crossed the Alps.
  • Nymph and Shepherd, oil on canvas over plywood, 63.0 × 74.5 cm, copy after Titian (1485-90–1576). Vienna: Dorotheum, Old Masters, 16 April 2008, Lot 356; Dorotheum, Old Masters, 11 December 2008, Lot 321. Ref. Website: artvalue.com (2014-col.) The original picture inspired numerous artists during Titian’s lifetime. For instance, the famous work appears in a depiction of a picture gallery by David Teniers the Younger at the Prado in Madrid. Subject to examination of the original, Prof. Mauro Lucco sees the present painting in the context of David Teniers’ activities at the Habsburg court and thinks that it might be attributed to David Teniers, explicitly stating that he was only able to assess the painting on the basis of a photograph). Prof. Justus Müller Hofstede has dealt with the present composition as well, stating: “In many places the characteristic rough Italian canvas shows through. The picture differs from Titian’s composition in many details. I think it was made by a master from among Titian’s later follower and consider it to be very ambitious in terms of quality”. In addition, there exists a scientific certificate issued by the Brussels Art Laboratory (Nuclear Section des Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles) on 7 July 2004. The stratigraphic findings, the use of characteristic pigments, and the priming speak for the painting’s origin in the 17th or 18th century. Should the painting also contain lead sulphate (which could not be detected in the course of the examination as it is very difficult to determine), it could also date from the 19th century. (Catalogue notes, 2008).
  • Portrait of Two Boys with Musical Instruments, attributed to Titian (11485-90–1576). Private Collection: Exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (1988). One boy holds a lute, the other a duct flute, probably a six-holed pipe.
  • Virgin and Child with Saints John and Gregory the Great (1517), woodcut, Titian (1485-90–1576) in collaboration with the cutter Lucantonio degli Uberti and the publisher ‘de Gregoriis. Ref. Rosand & Muraro (1976-1977: no. 11); Rasmussen (1999, Lute). “Putti, in front, play lute, recorder and shawm” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Not seen.
  • Putto Playing the Flute in a Landscape (ca 1540), vellum mounted on board, 48.0 × 39.5 cm, in a contemporary wood-carved frame, circle of Titian (1485-90–1576). England: Collection of Benjamin West, Earl of Yarborough. Ref. Waagen (1857: 502); Warburg Institute (2013-b&w). A winged putto seated on a coastal sand-dune plays a narrow, cylindrical recorder with a shortly flared bell. The double holes for the lowermost finger are clearly shown.

Mark Todd

Contemporary commercial artist based in New York whose pieces have graced the pages of such magazines as the New Yorker, GQ, and Details; his other clients include Sony, Nike, Coca Cola, Polygram Records and Warner Brothers; born Las Vegas. WWW Page.

  • Cover: American Recorder 39 (5): Unitled (1998), Mark Todd (contemporary). A bunch of grim-looking youths hang out on a street corner playing neo-baroque recorders. How very unlikely!

Il Todeschino [or Todeschini] – see Giacomo-Francesco Cipper

Giovanni Todeschino

Italian illuminator working in Naples and in Tours on the decoration of various manuscripts in the libraries of Frédéric III of Aragon and Anne of Brittany; active 1487-1504 son of the scribe and illuminator, Joachinus Gigantibus of Rothenburg, hence his name in Italian “Todeschino” (“The Little German”).

  • Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis: frontispiece (? ca 1500), illuminations, Giovanni Todeschino (op. 1487-1504). Valenza: Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 691. Ref. Toscano (1995: ill. 39); Christina Rowland-Jones (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2007). Across the upper part of the page, ten putti sit and stand rather precariously in a row across a protruding ledge of a pedimented building. Starting from the left, putto 1 just lolls and listens; 2, 3 and 4 sing together from a book; 4 plays a triangle or sistrum; 5 a guitar; 6 a long bowed vielle; 7 and 8 stand together closely with pipes; 9, slightly hidden, seems to have the same instrument as 6; and 10 also seems to be just listening. Putto 7, who stands sideways, plays a slightly curved tenor pipe, fairly narrow with a slight short bell flare, while 8, face-on, plays a narrow cylindrical alto pipe with no bell flare, looking down at it while he plays, his chubby left hand lower. His cheeks are slightly inflated (or just chubby – they are very infantile putti!), but both 7 and 8 have the wrists of both hands well under their instruments, suggesting the presence of a thumb hole, although the images are too small to see finger holes or window/labium. The mouthpieces rest gently on their lips – they are not cornetti or shawms. They could well be intended to be recorders.

Mathieu de Tombay

Flemish sculptor who made wood carvings for churches and the Castle of the Counts Ansembourg, wooden decorations for building in Liege, and ornaments at a castle in the province of Limburg; born Lütich (1769), died 1853.

  • Putti Symbolising Music (1769-1853), oval medallion, plaster relief on wood, 71 × 53 cm, attributed to Mathieu de Tombay (1769-1852). Liége: Le Grand Curtius Museum, Départment des Armes (formerly Musée des Armes). Ref. Institute Royal du Patrimonie Artistique / Koninklijk Instituut voor hef Kunstpatrimonium (IRPA/KIK), Brussels (2007-b&w). Three putti make music together. One sings and conducts from a score; a second plays the transverse flute; a third plays a slender pipe with a flared bell, possibly intended to represent a recorder.

Jožef Tominc

Slovenian artist, born Gorizia (1790), died Gradišce near Prvacina (1866).

  • Self-portrait at Window (1826), oil on canvas, 88 × 74 cm, Jožef Tominc (1790-1866). Ljubljana: Narodna gallerija, NG S 2008. The casually dressed artist leans out from a window around which is twined a grape vine. He has a glass of wine on the window-ledge and holds in his right hand a very small duct flute, probably a bird flageolet, given the bird perched on the vine, but a garklein flutlein remains a possibility. The beak and window/labium are perfectly depicted, and two finger holes are visible towards the foot of the instrument.

Peltro William Tomkins

Member of an English family of artists; engraver of portraits, historical and literary scenes, and copies of works by other artists; appointed Historical Engraver to Queen Charlotte (1744–1818); born London (1759), died London (1840); son of the landscape painter William Tomkins (ca 1730-1792).

  • Maria, engraving, 21.3 × 27.5 cm, after John Russell (1745-1806) by Peltro William Tomkins (1759-1840). Perth, Western Australia: Private Collection. Ref. Connoisseur Magazine, London (1907, 19: 164-col.); Artfact (2003). A girl with long curls, traditionally identified as Maria, dressed in white, sits leaning on her right arm in a pitiful manner, a little dog in the crook of her left arm, a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) in her hand. Apart from the recorder, this is identical to Portrait of Girl with a King Charles Spaniel (1785), a pastel by John Russell (1745-1806) from the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor offered for sale by Christie’s, London, on 21 November 2001, Lot 3. Could Tomkins’ Maria be a representation the melancholic young widow in Lawrence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey (1767) who played a ‘pipe’? Another painting of this scene, Maria and her Little Dog Silvio (1781) by Joseph Wright (1734-1797) is in the Art Gallery, Derby.

Jacob Toorenvliet [Torenvliet, Tornvylt]

Dutch artist associated with the school of Leiden fine painting (fijnschilderij) of his teacher Dou, and was one of its last representatives; active in Amsterdam, Leiden, Rome, Venice and Vienna; born Leiden (1640), died Oegstgeest (1719); son of Abraham Toorenvliet (1620–1692), a glass painter and drawing instructor.

  • Music-making at an Inn, engraving after Jacob Toorenvliet (1640-1719). The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2001). “Three players with viol, guitar, lute; at the right, a fourth man, seated, plays right hand lowermost a soprano/alto sized duct flute (possibly a recorder, but print is not clear) which is mainly cylindrical but with a short bell flare” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
  • From Theatrum Artis Pictoriae, Vienna: Domestic Music-Making (1728 and 1733), 32.1 × 26.0 cm, copper engraving, Anton Joseph von Prenner (1698-1761), after Jacob von Toorenvliet (1640-1719). Göttweig: Stift Göttweig, Graphisches Kabinett, Cat. Nr 174. Ref. Innsbruck RIdIM (2001, Nr. 951); Prof. Tilman Seebas (pers. comm., 2001). In an inn, a violinist and a recorder-player accompany a boy who sings from a score. On the ground are a lute and some music.
  • A Mother and Child Listening to a Couple Making Music, Jacob Toorenvliet (1640-1719). Location unknown: Auctioned by Christie’s on 4 July 1991 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – b&w) A woman with a child by the hand stoops forward to listen to three musicians, an old man (? singer), a young woman playing a small lute, and a young man playing an alto-sized recorder. The latter instrument has a peculiar construction with the head of a renaissance-style recorder and the tapering body and turned foot of a baroque-style recorder. It is played right hand uppermost. The child holds a small dog in his arm.
  • An Allegory of the Arts or Painting Being Crowned by Poetry, oil on oak panel, 39.2 × 29.0 cm, Jacob Toorenvliet (1640-1719). London: Sotheby’s Sale LL1037, 8 December 2011, Lot 236. Ref. Briels (1987: cover & frontispiece – col.); Website: MasterArt (2014-col.) A female figure representing Painting reclines, a brush in one hand, her palette in the other. A male figure with a myrtle crown and a paper labelled Poesia stuck to his forehead holds a myrtle crown above the artist. Beside a small table on which she leans are some books and papers, a purse, and the cranium of a human skull beneath which the head and body of a recorder can be seen. The beak of the recorder appears to have a metal sleeve.

Thomas Torak

Contemporary USAmerican artist living in Pawlet, Vermont, who describes himself as a liberal classicist; his painting is in a contemporary realistic style; his subjects include still-lifes, landscapes and portraits. Husband of artist Elizabeth Torak. Artist’s web-site here.

  • Recorder Player, oil on canvas, 24 × 20 ?inches, Tom Torak (op. 1974–). Ref. Website: Academic Arts Association, Celebrating Realism in Art since 1949 (2014-col.)  The artist’s friend, Tim, a bearded man in an open jacket, plays a perfectly depicted two-part alto neo-renaissance-style recorder with unusually wide brass ferrules at the mid-joint. The instrument is slightly tapered with an abruptly flared foot. Tim looks rather perplexed, though he is said to be “a terrific recorder player”. Winner of the 61st Academic Artist Association Gold Medal, Springfield, 2011. Currently for sale (May 2014).

Diogo de Torralva

Portuguese architect in the fully Italianate classical style; flourished 1540-1551.

  • Wood carving, designed by Diogo de Torralva (1550). Lisbon: Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Belém ou dos Jerónimos (Monastery of Jerónimos-Praça do Império); Church, NE end of Western Choir Stalls. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). The monastery is a World Heritage Site. The building was commenced in 1502. “The rows of seats with exuberant Flemish and Italian influence and decoration are the first Renaissance woodcarvings in Portugal. They were designed by the architect Diogo de Torralva and were built from oak and chestnut in 1550 by the master craftsmen Diogo de Sarça (Spanish, fl. 1548–1555) and Filipe de Vries. The stall backs have 18th-century paintings with Apostles and Doctors of the Church. Each seat has a projection or misericord to support the monk while standing in the stalls” (Monastery of Jerónimos-Praça do Império, loc. cit.)

Francesco di Marco India Torbido, ‘Il Moro’

Italian painter whose principal works are considered to be those in the Fontanelli Chapel in Venice; also painted portraits; born Venice (1482/5) died Verona (1561/2).

  • The Recorder Player, Francesco Torbido, ‘Il Moro’ (1482/5 – 1561/2). Padua: Museo Civico agli Eremitari. Ref. Frings (1993: 154, fig. 15-b&w); Moeck, Kataloge, folder (1980 – col.) Shows a young boy with a laurel crown holding the head of a renaissance-style recorder. This has also been attributed to Lorenzo Luppo Zara. There is a ? 19th-century copy in the Bate Collection, School of Music, Oxford University presented, along with his instruments, by French recorder player and teacher Jean Henry (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000).

Marti [Martin] Torner

Spanish artist active in the Balearic Islands-Valencia (op. 1480-1497)

  • Altarpiece: The Life of the Virgin (ca 1490), central panel: Virgin with Angels, oil on panel, 530 × 287 cm, Marti Torner (op. 1480-1497). Segorbe: Museo Catedralicio, Inv. 15. Ref: Centre for Music Documentation (CMD) in Madrid; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Rodriguez Culebra et al. (2006: 54-55-col.) It has been suggested that this altarpiece may have been intended for the Cathedral of Segovia (Museo, loc. cit.) “An angel musician in a gallery on the left of the painting plays a long recorder. The angel in the corresponding pulpitum on the right plays a shawm, and a portative organ and harp appear lower down. The recorder has a very elongated and narrowing beak with the window/labium placed at the point where the body becomes cylindrical. The player’s upper (left) hand is so placed that the holes are just visible under the fingers and the thumb is almost upright in recorder playing position. The same is true of the right hand, except the outstretched little finger does not quite reach its hole. There are six finger holes in line, then one offset, and yet another slightly offset on the same side, followed by a rather long, but only gently flaring, bell end” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Luis Tornera (19th century), Spanish

  • [Dancing Putti] (1915-1916), wall-painting, Luis Tornera (19th century). Lorca: Casino, ballroom. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A wall-painting in 18th-century style on the theme of music and dancing. Watched over by a statue of a satyr, in a garden, three putti amuse themselves. One dances, banging cymbals together; one lounges in a stone seat; and one stands, playing a slender, conical pipe. The first three fingers of his uppermost (right) hand and all four of his lowermost hand are covering their holes. However the characteristic beak and window/labium characteristic of a recorder are not depicted; but nor is any pirouette suggestive of a reed.

Johannes Torrentius [born Jan Simonz. van der Beeck]

Dutch painter, imprisoned and tortured in Haarlem because of his ‘immoral’ paintings, who on his release became court painter to Charles I of England; painted in a unique style with  chiaroscuro and monochrome, predating Rembrandt; born 1589, died 1644.

  • Vanitas (1625), 61.5 × 113 cm, Johannes Torrentius (1589-1644). Schipluiden: Collection Jungeling. Ref. Griffioen (1988:, 440-441, # 92); Legêne (1995: 115). On a bench lie papers, books, a candlestick, an hourglass, writing implements, a skull (which bites one of the books) and a cylindrical recorder, the foot of which is just out of frame. Legêne (loc. cit.) notes that this is the earliest date her researches indicate for a recorder in still-life painting in the Netherlands. The present survey pushes this date back at least eight years. See Jan Brueghel’s allegorical still-life Hearing (1617); Theodor Matham’s engraved Vanitas (1622); an untitled still-life by Clara Peeters (1623); and Pieter Claesz’ Still-life with Musical Instruments (1623). In addition, many undated Netherlandish still-lifes of this period also include recorders.

Henri (-Marie Raymond) de Toulouse-Lautrec (Montfa)

French painter and lithographer belonging to no particular school; deprived of the physical life that a normal body would have permitted, he lived completely for his art, dwelling in the Montmartre area of Paris the centre of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life that he depicted in his work; his subjects include working-class, cabaret, circus, nightclub and brothel scenes; he is admired today for his unsentimental evocations of personalities and social mores; born Albi, Tarn (1864), died Château de Malromé, near Langon, Gironde (1901).

  • Le Jouer de Flute [The Flute Player], oil on canvas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Location unknown: Auctioned 6 February 2001 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.) The naked torso of a man playing a flared-bell duct flute, though no details are visible.

Georges de la Tour

French baroque painter who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648; he  painted mostly of chiaroscuro candle-lit genre and religious scenes the general tone of which is a clear brick-red; born Vic-sur-Seille (1593), died Lunéville (1652).

  • The Musicians’ Brawl (ca 1625), oil on canvas, 87.8 × 144.3 cm, George de la Tour (1593-1652). Los Angeles: Getty Museum, Inv. 72.PA.28. Ref. Conisbee (1996: 243-244, cat. 9 – col., detail, fig. 6 – col.); Ausoni (2009: 204-205-col.); Website: Getty Museum (2016 – col.). Illustrates the proverb Etiam mendicus mendico invidet, “It is one beggar’s woe to see another by the door go.” Said to be the original and identical to the following. Depicts an argument with a blind hurdy-gurdy player over a shawm. The bottom half of a flared-bell recorder or possibly a small shawm (which clearly shows the double hole for the lowest finger) is shown tucked into one of the fighters’ belt. Another musician holds a violin.
  • The Musicians’ Brawl (ca 1625-1627), George de la Tour (1593-1652). Chambéry: Musée des Beaux-Arts. Ref. Edition des Amis des Musées de Chambéry: postcard #903 (col.) Similar to the version in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and in a Private Collection. Depicts an argument with a blind hurdy-gurdy player over a shawm. The bottom half of a flared-bell recorder, or possibly a small shawm (which clearly shows the double hole for the lowest finger) is shown tucked into one of the fighters’ belt. Another musician holds a violin.
  • The Musicians’ Brawl (1625-1630), oil on canvas, George de la Tour (1593-1652). Private Collection. Ref. Website: flautotraverso.it (2003, detail – col.) Similar to the versions in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Chambéry. Depicts an argument between a blind hurdy-gurdy player and a shawm player. The latter squirts lemon juice into the blind man’s eyes, perhaps to determine if he really is blind. The bottom half of a flared-bell recorder, or possibly a small shawm (which clearly shows the double hole for the lowest finger) is shown tucked into shawm player’s belt. On the right a musician holding a violin and another holding what appears to be a bagpipe seem to be enjoying the ruckus. On the left, an anguished old woman grasps the top of her broom  and seems to be praying for the quarrel to end.
  • Adoration of the Shepherds (ca 1645), oil on canvas, 107 × 131 cm, George de la Tour (1593-1652). Paris: Musée de Louvre. Ref. (Gowing 1987: 412 – col.); Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris: postcard IC-00-3792 (1989 – col.); Pottier (1995: 140, pl. 16 – b&w); Conisbee (1996: 120-122, pl. 73 – col.); Lallement & Devaux (1997: 196). A nativity scene in which one of the shepherds holds what is almost certainly a renaissance style recorder, only the head of which is visible.

Nicolas Tournier

French painter; one of the most important French Caravaggists; born Montbéliard (1590), died Toulouse (ca 1639).

  • Flute Player (ca 1625), oil on canvas, 76.5 × 61.0 cm, Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639). Brescia: Pinacotecca Tosio Martinengo, Inv. 215. Ref. Moir (1967 – col.); Instituto Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0003585 (2009 – b&w). A man holds a cylindrical soprano recorder with a short bell flare. The window/labium is clear; there is no beak; the thumb and all fingers are down except the little finger of the lower (right) the open finger hole for which shows clearly. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)

Suzanne Tourte

French painter and lithographer much of whose work is figurative; born Cormontreuil (1904), died Argenteuil (1979).

  • Flute Player (1950-1953), oil painting, 81.3 × 116.8 cm, Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979). Brussels: Horta, 17 March, 1997, Lot 120. Ref. Website: Artfact (2004); Website: art.net. (2016-col.) A woman stands beside an ornate gate playing a pipe, possibly a recorder, though no details are visible.
  • Piper, lithograph, 49.5 × 63.5 cm, Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979). ? Location. Ref. Website: Ebay item 351455794224 (2016-col.) One of a series of 180 prints. Two figures sit together, one on the right playing a cylindrical duct flute, the window-labium clearly depicted, but only six fingers covering their holes. The figure on the left seems rather less than human with a single eye and a strangely bifurcating proboscis which appears to grasp the wrist of the piper’s right (lower) hand.
  • Naked Woman Playing the Flute, oil on paper laid on canvas, 43.5 × 27.6 cm, Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979). ? Location. Ref. Website: art.net. (2016-col.). A naked woman, standing, plays a cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder.
  • The Flute Players (1942), oil on canvas, 81 × 81 cm, Suzanne Tourte (1904-1979). ? Location. Ref. Website: art.net. (2016-col.) Watched by their friends – some sitting, some standing – a young man and a young woman play small slender cylindrical pipes, probably a flageolets rather than recorders.

Wilhelm Traut – see Francesco Villamena (1556-1624)

Johann Georg Trautmann

German painter and etcher known especially for his paintings of night scenes lit by fires; his works include depictions of musicians, genre scenes and portraits; born Zweibrücken (1713), died Frankfurt-sur-Main (1769).

  • Recorder Player and Singer, brush & grey wash drawing on paper, 9.0 × 6.3 cm, Trautmann, Johann Georg (1713-1769). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Collection, 0181/X. Two men seen in half-length, one in a wide-brimmed hat plays a wind instrument that, although freely drawn, is probably a flageolet rather than a recorder, given the long pipe through which it is blown. In the background, a second man sings.

Gaspare [Gasparro] Giovanni Battista Pascale Traversi [Traversa]

Italian painter who has been described as a Neopolitan Hogarth, Steen or Longhi; he was active principally in Rome where he had moved in c.1752 and where he became celebrated for his ‘genre’ compositions in which he managed to immortalise the society of the era with great psychological refinement; born Naples (c. 1722), died 1770.

  • A Concert, oil on canvas, 197 × 148 cm, Gaspare Traversi (1722-177). Vienna: Dorotheum, Old Master Paintings, 25 April 2017, Lot 51. Ref, Website: Pinterest, Olits photostream (20222, col.) Around a crowded table four men rehearse together, one on cello, one on violin, one on chittarone, and one on a recorder. They are conducted by a woman seated before them. At her side a child looks on. On the left, a young woman bids us be silent as she skilfully picks the pocket of the oblivious cellist. Only the decorated head of the recorder is visible but details of the beak and windway/labium are clearly depicted.  “This … … constitutes a surprising eighteenth-century reinterpretation of the Caravaggesque theme of buona ventura – ‘good fortune’ – which Traversi was most likely able to study through the works of the great Neapolitan masters that had adhered to Caravaggio’s manner. The painting is distinctive for its quality of subtle humour, its highly dynamic composition and its great realism: these characteristics would later become the principal traits of the artist’s mature works”  (Dorotheum).

Jan (Jansz.) Treck

Netherlandish painter whose carefully composed, restrained still lifes were a development of the style of the pioneering Haarlem still-life painters, Pieter Claesz. and Willem Heda; born Amsterdam (1605/1606), died 1652; brother-in-law (and possibly student) of painter Jan Jansz. den Uyl the Elder (1595/6 – 1652).

  • Vanitas Still-life (1648), oil on oak, 90.5 × 78.4 cm, Jan Treck (1605/6 – 1652). London: National Gallery, Inv. NG6533. Ref. Website: National Gallery, London (2001). Objects intended to cause the viewer to reflect on the inevitability of mortality and the consequent foolishness of all human ambition are scattered along a bench. They include some armour, a skull wrapped in straw, a stoneware jug, some music, some books, a clay pipe for blowing bubbles, documents, a viol (only the neck of which can be seen), a casket, and a recorder (only the head and upper two finger holes of which are visible) in a tray. “The recorder below the two finger holes is hidden by an hour-glass. This refers to the concept of music requiring time to be performed – so death has interrupted the passage of time and life, and thus also the playing of the music. In the part of the head of the recorder where one expects to see the maker’s name there is a sigmoid scroll, but no letters can be made out on it” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000). The title-page of one of the books is of a play by Theodore Rodenburgh (ca 1578-1644) which was published in Amsterdam in 1618; it can be translated into English as “Evil is its own reward”.

Irene von Treskow (1941–)

British curate and illustrator; a design student with Henryk Tomaszewski in Warsaw; formerly art director of Saatchi and Saatchi; ordained as a priest in 1996 and now combines her freelance work as an illustrator with her duties as a curate with St Philip’s and All Angels and at St Luke’s in Kew, London.

  • Postage stamp: UK 30p Christmas Stamp and First Day Cover (issued 2 November 1998), Irene von Treskow. Ref. Press release: Royal Mail Announces Last Posting Dates. An angel musician holds a duct flute (almost certainly a recorder), right hand uppermost. Von Treskow is flummoxed by suggestions that her angels, on the stamps, are women. “They are neither male nor female,” she says. ” But I’ve been very pleased that some people have asked if they are looking down at Jesus in the manger. That is exactly what they are meant to convey” (Ruth Gledhill, The welcome return of angels to earth, Times, 28 November 1998).

Martin Treu – see Mongrammist M.T.

Montalto Treviglio – see Giovannie Stefano Danedi Francesco Trevisani

Giovannie Stefano Danedi Francesco Trevisani

Italian painter of altarpieces and cabinet paintings of biblical and mythological themes and of portraits, both of noble Italian patrons and visiting Grand Tourists; born Capodistra, now Capo d’Istria, Slovenia (1656), died Rome (1746).

  • The Infant Jesus Sleeping (1709), oil on canvas, 148.5 × 126.0 cm, Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Detail. Paris: Musée de Louvre, Inv. 697. Ref. Lallement & Devaux (1996: 252); Joconde Website (1999); Paris RIdIM (1999). Mary draws a blanket over the sleeping Jesus; a small cherub kisses his hand; a young angel strums his lute; a small angel holds up his hand to hush a cherub who is piping away on a perfectly depicted baroque recorder, the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand neatly covering its hole. There is another version of this in the Old Masters Art Gallery, Dresden.
  • Personification of Music: Young Woman Playing the Lute, oil on canvas, Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Private Collection. Ref. Website: This is Classical Guitar (2013-col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-1252 (2023, col.) A young woman seated at a harpsichord plays the lute. On the harpsichord lid lie a violin and bow and some sheet music. The foot of a baroque recorder can be seen projecting out from under the violin.
  • Personification of Music: Young Woman Playing the Lute, painting, 98 × 73 cm, Francisco da Silva Romão (1834-1895) after Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Salvador: Museu de Arte da Bahia. Ref. Website: Wikimedia Commons (2010, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2049 (2023, col.) A young woman seated at a harpsichord plays the lute. On the harpsichord lid lie a violin and bow and some sheet music. The foot of a baroque recorder can be seen projecting out from under the violin.
  • Personification of Music: Young Woman Playing the Lute, painting, ? dimensions, Jacques-François Courtin (1672-1752) after Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Köthen: Private Collection. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography LI-2168 (2023, col.) A young woman seated at a harpsichord plays the lute. On the harpsichord lid lie a violin and bow and some sheet music. The foot of a baroque recorder can be seen projecting out from under the violin. Here, the lute seems to be strung and fretted unconventionally.
  • The Holy Virgin, engraving, 38.7 × 29.8 cm, after Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Collection 0617/V; Uppsala: Universitet Bibliotek, UBG 1945/19; San Francisco: Legion of Honor, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A nativity scene which includes a lute-playing angel and the young St John the Baptist. A putto sings from a book; another plays a small recorder of late baroque design with curved-over beak and bulging ornate rings at the joints. All the recorder player’s fingers are covering their holes, but the lower (right) little finger has a hole beside it. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
  • Youth Playing a Flute; Putto; Study of Hand, black and white chalks on dark brown paper with repairs on the top and bottom, 39.6 × 26.1 cm, Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana, ND Cat. No. 1292, BA Shelfmark F 268 Ind n. 52 verso. At the top left a youth standing in profile, facing right, plays a one-piece duct flute (if it is a recorder at all then it is of renaissance design). At the upper right is the side of an infant with the right arm raised. Below, is a right hand. Given that elsewhere Trevisani depicts only baroque-style recorders it seems likely that this is a drawing of a classical sculpture such as one of those based on Praxiteles.
  • Mary and Christ Child with Infant John the Baptist and Three Angels Playing Music, canvas, 107.3 × 92.8 cm., after Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). Nijmegen: Radbound Universiteit. Ref. Dutch University Institute for Art History Florence, NIKI 0030192 (2011 – b&w). Mary lowers a cover over the infant Christ in his cradle as he is admired by three cherubs (winged putti). One of the cherubs prays, another reads from a book, the third plays a slender recorder. Beside Mary, an angel plays a lute.

Gustav Uno Troili

Swedish portraitist and minor composer; born Ransburg Manor Värmland (1815), died Stockholm (1875).

  • Italian Shepherd Boy, watercolour, 23 × 29 cm, Gustav Uno Troili (1815-1975). Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, NM B140. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A young peasant boy sits on a bank playing an ambiguous pipe which looks more like a small shawm. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Cornelis Troost

Dutch actor who became an outstanding painter, primarily remembered for his works depicting scenes from the Amsterdam Theatre (he also made theatre decorations for plays) and daily life of the upper crust in Amsterdam as well as military scenes; born Amsterdam (1696), died Amsterdam (1750).

  • A Couple Making Music (1743), oil on panel, 49 × 68 cm, Cornelis Troost (1696-1750). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. SK-A-4115.  The artist, an elegantly dressed man  holding a perfectly depicted baroque alto recorder stands beside a woman (presumably his wife Susanna Maria van der Duyn) who sits at a table writing in a music book. Doubtless she is recording his latest creation for posterity.

Girolamo Troppa (ca 1636 – ca 1706), Italian

Italian painter; little is now known of his life and work, though he was evidently an artist of some standing in late 17th-century Rome, with the title of ‘cavaliere’ and several documented pupils; his frescoes and canvases are of biblical subjects; born Rocchette, Sabina (1630), died ?Rome (after 1710).

  • Boy with a Mandora, oil on canvas, 98 × 136 cm, Girolamo Troppa (ca 1636 – ca 1706). ? Moscow: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Ref. Pushkin [State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow] (1986: 131, pl.466-col.); Villa I Tatti ND 611M37; Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A somewhat Caravaggesque painting depicting a reclining youth holding a mandora in his left hand; beside him are two putti, one of whom the youth pats with his right hand, the other of whom plays a slender ambiguous pipe (cornetto, flute, duct flute) with two fingers of the upper (right) hand covering their holes below which two open holes are visible, and two or three fingers of the lowermost hand covering their holes but with the thumb above the instrument.
  • The Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne, oil on canvas, 124.5 × 172.0 cm, Girolamo Troppa (ca 1636 – ca 1706). Kassel: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Inv. GK 977. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2009, Kksg – 7). Bacchus approaches with a large entourage whilst Ariadne is seated left mourning the loss of Theseus. In his train dancing Bacchae, one with a tambourine in the background with the satyr Silenus, one blowing on a syrinx. In the left foreground, is a seated Bacchante who blows on a pipe, possibly a recorder

Peter Paul Troschel ( 1620–died after 1667)

  • Titlepage: Aelbianische Musenlust für eine Singstimme und Basso Continuo (1657) by Constantin Christian Dedekind (1628-1715), copper engraving, 13.4 × 17.7 cm, Peter Paul Troschel (1620–p.1667). Dresden: Sächsische Landesbibliothek–Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek., Mus.1805.K.1. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-3610. On each side of the river Elbe, Apollo and the Muses face off against Orpheus and the Poets. Each band is arranged on the slopes of a mountain. On the left, atop Mt Helicon, Apollo strums his lyre whilst beneath him the Muses play lute, a slender pipe (probably a duct flute, possibly a recorder), violin, harp, trombone, organ, cornetto, tambourine and viol. Bernhard (the dedicatee, perhaps) holds a long-necked lute, – arriving late, it seems. On the right, on top of Mt Parnassus, Orpheus strums his lyre whilst beneath him the Poets play lute, a slender pipe (probably a duct flute, possibly a recorder), trombone, harp, violin, viol, triangle, cornetto and organ. Pegasus flys above bearing a banner with a strange device. In the background the Elbe winds its way between a series of mesas which look all the world like the set of a cowboy film!

Antoine Trouvain

French painter and printmaker; a disciple of Gerard Edelinck, he was appointed to the Royal Academy in 1707; born Montdidier (1656), died Paris (1708).

  • Quatrième Chambre des Appartements Royaux: La danse: Le Duc de Chartres dans le menuet avec Mademoiselle (1696), engraving, Antoine Trouvain (1656-1708). Ref. Benoit (1971: pl. v, fig. 6 – detail); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2010). One of a series of illustrations of activities at court. The two dancers are watched by five seated and two standing royals. On the left are the Duc de Bourgogne (future Dauphin of France); Liselotte, Madame, Duchesse de Orléans; Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Chartres (future Duchess of Orléans); Louise Bénédicte, Duchess of Maine (daughter in law of Louis XIV); the Duc de Chartres; Marie Thérèse, Princess of Conti (sister of the Duchess of Maine). On the right are Élisabeth Charlotte, Mademoiselle de Chartres (future Duchess of Lorraine) daughter of Madame; Philippe, Duke of Chartres (future Duke of Orléans and Regent of France) son of Madame. The Duc de Chartres succeeded to the Orléans title in 1701, and he married in 1692. The dancers are accompanied by musicians playing from a gallery behind the audience: two recorder players, one string bass, and two violinists. The recorders, both altos, are slender at the top (where their window/labium can just be made out), and they become very slightly outwardly conical with no bulges with some decorative turnery at the foot which is not flared. This shows that the royal musicians still had old-style recorders, and that the take-up of the new-style instruments was rather slow. One recorder is played left-hand lowermost, the other right-hand lowermost.

Jean François de Troy

French Rococo painter and tapestry designer; his works were based mainly on historical and allegorical compositions, but he is now most highly regarded for his smaller (cabinet-sized) and more spirited scenes of elegant social life, painted in Paris between 1725 and 1738, when he went to Rome; born Paris (1679), died Rome (1725); son of portrait painter François de Troy (1645–1730).

  • Minerva Visits the Muses, painting, Jean François de Troy (1679-1725). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). In a forest glade Minerva in her helmet and holding a pikestaff stands amongst the Muses, seven of whom are naked, or nearly so. They all look a tad overfed. Littered nearby are books, a globe, and musical instruments. Amongst the latter are a cello, viola, violin, clavichord, bandora, lute, ? shawm, trumpet or trombone, and a number of wind-instruments. Unfortunately, the photograph doesn’t allow us to identify any of the latter, but the gallica index mentions a flûte à bec which might be supposed to represent a recorder.

I. Troÿen – see Bassant Jr

Chris Tsonias

Contemporary Greek artist who makes a range of more or less playable musical instruments and other things from recycled cardboard and paper, including recorders, guitars, pianos; born Komotini, North Eastern Greece (1968). Artist’s website.

  • Paper recorder (2012), decorated 3-piece baroque-style recorder made entirely of paper, apart from the plastic beak. Tsonias makes these in a variety of colours, and they are said to be playable.

Ruth Edith Tuck

South Australian watercolourist, stage-designer, teacher and critic; she was strongly influenced by the German Expressionists; her subjects included flowers, landscapes and portraits; born Cowell (1914), died Mitcham  (2008); wife of  painter Mervyn Ashmore Smith (1904-1994).

  • Heather Mansfield, Adelaide, and her Teacher Susan Worrell playing a Triosonata by Robert Valentine (1980), pen and ink drawing, Ruth Edith Tuck (1914–). Photocopies ex libris Rodolf & Utta Henning. Ref. Archiv Moeck. Heather and Susan play neo-baroque recorders.
  • Recorder Ensemble Accompanying Renaissance Dancers in Elder Hall, Adelaide (1980), pen & ink drawing, Ruth Edith Tuck (1914–). Photocopies ex libris Rodolf & Utta Henning. Ref. Archiv Moeck. A recorder quartet of women recorder players perform for dancers in renaissance dress.

Shirley Tucker

Contemporary English graphic artist who worked for Penguin and, from 1959 until 1987, for Faber & Faber; she was responsible for countless classic modernist jacket designs, including, perhaps most famously, the original 1966 edition of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

  • Untitled (ca 1970), line drawing, Shirley Tucker (20th & 21st centuries, English. Ref. Recorder Music Magazine 3 (8): inside front cover (1970). Advertisement for Faber Music. A mock-medieval couple with pointed shoes and funny hats. She sings from a scroll, looking very grim; he plays a cylindrical duct flute, doubtless meant to be a recorder but looking more like a six-holed flageolet.

Therèse [Teresa, Therese] Baronin [Barrone, Baronessa] von Türkheim [Türckheim]

Austrian painter known from two genre scenes in pastels, both in the Goethe Museum, Frankfurt; active 1802-1834; probably related to Ludwig Freiherr von Türkheim (1776-1846), a celebrated physician, lawyer and friend of Beethoven, and to Johann Freiherr von Türckheim, the Hessen envoy to Vienna.

  • Scene from Peasant Life I (1802), 39.5 × 51.5 cm, pastel, Therèse Baronin von Türkheim (op. 1802-1834). Frankfurt am Main: Goethehaus und Frankfurter Goethe-Museum, 1956: 66. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Fgm 28); Jeffares (2012-b&w). A family sit around a table. An old woman feeds a very old man from a bowl, though he seems quite capable of handling his own wine-glass! A young woman holds a distaff in her hand, pointing to the old woman with her other. A young man leans attentively over the old woman’s shoulder. In the garden beyond a boy plays an alto-sized conical duct flute (flageolet or recorder) the window/labium of which is clearly depicted.The pendant (Scene from Peasant Life II) also depicts a group around a table. A young man offers a glass of wine to a young woman seated opposite him. We can see that she has something in her hand which she holds behind her back. At one end of the table sits an elderly woman; at the other a man plays a violin. An elderly man looks on.

Gregory Türing

Austrian stonemason, member of a family of stonemasons from Memmingen (Allgäu), based in Innsbruck from 1488; carved reliefs for many Innsbruck patrician houses, including the Katzunghaus, Trautsonhaus, Prechthaus and Helblinghaus; died 1543; son of Nicholas Türing (m. 1517/18).

  • Three Musicians, sandstone relief, Gregory Türing (m. 1543). Innsbruck: Katzunghaus. Ref. Website: Ikonographie der Renaissanceflöte (2009 – b&w). One of four reliefs depicting musicians. Three musicians sitting on a bench play viol (horizontally across the lap), lute and a narrow cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder. The others reliefs show two peasants dancing to the music of a shawm and bagpipe; a transverse flute accompanied by a drum; and a slide trumpet, cornetto (or horn), mute cornet (or small shawm).

Joseph Mallord William Turner

English painter of extraordinary landscapes and seascapes; born London (1775), died London (1851).

  • Modern Italy: The Pifferari (1838), William Turner (1775-1851). Glasgow: Kelingrove Art Gallery & Museum. Ref. The Times, Wednesday March 11 (1998: 29 – col.) A dramatic landscape view over a river valley and town. On the right bank of the river a religious procession is approaching a sacred place on the roadside and to the left two figures kneeling in front of a monk. Beyond them is a tiny group of strolling musicians or ‘pifferari’. Armed with bagpipes and pifferi they would come to Rome each Christmas from southern Italy to play at wayside shrines to the Madonna, a practice which had its roots in a pagan tradition connected with Ovid, who encouraged the worship of the gods with music. It is very likely that this association prompted Turner to paint a companion piece that same year entitled Ancient Italy – Ovid Banished from Rome which is now held in a private collection. Pifferari usually played simple reed pipes, but sometimes used fifes or duct flutes.

Turone di Maxio da Camenago

Italian painter who, although a Lombard, ran a productive and locally dominant workshop in Verona; known from the Holy Trinity polyptych (Verona, Castelvecchio) in which the characteristic staring eyes and the ponderous mass of the principal figures contrast with the daintiness of minor figures. The bright local colours, the assured design and modelling and the sculptural weight of the figures all mark an advance on the painting of earlier 14th-century Veronese works; active ca 1356-1380.

  • Coronation of the Virgin (1360), Turone di Maxio da Camenago (op. ca 1356-1380). Verona: Museo del Castelvecchio. Ref. Brown (1986: #529 – b&w). “Two angels play psaltery, and shawm or recorder” (Brown, loc. cit.) The very small instrument is held nearly concealed in two hands, not actually played. It could be a small pipe. The reproduction is not clear enough for proper identification.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Artists–T. Last accessed 23 November 2024. https://recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/artists-t/