Artists–V

Adriaen de Valck (1622 – p. 1676), Netherlandish

• The Transience of all Earthly Things (ca 1660), oil on canvas, 119 × 95 cm, Adriaen de Valck (1622 – p.1676). Hamburg: Kunsthalle. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image XKH152627 – col.); Website: art.com, Giclee print, item #: 12260544AA (2006 – col.) A vanitas in which sculpted busts and head, a vase of wilting flowers, a self portrait of the painter, a sketch book a globe, a flute, and a recorder with a metal-sheathed beak lie on a table. Only the head of the recorder is visible.
• The Lesson, engraving by Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), after Adriaen de Valck (1622 – p.1676). Location unknown. A teacher holds an open book of music for a young woman seated before him who is about to play from it on her hand-fluyt. The recorder is perfectly depicted and she holds it left hand uppermost. From the look on her face she seems to be disagreeing with her teacher, the way students will. A young man beside her looks on sympathetically.

Gillis [or Aegidius] I van Valckenborch [Falckenburg, Valckenburg, Valkenburg or Walckenburg]

Member of a Flemish family of artists who, for political or religious reasons, left the Spanish-occupied southern Netherlands and settled in the more tolerant German imperial cities, particularly Frankfurt am Main, where they often strongly influenced artistic developments; born ca 1570, died 1622.

• Musical Scene, Gillis van Valckenborch (ca 1570-1622). ? Location. Ref. Haas (1931: 3). Female musicians sing and play spinet and lute, accompanied by a young man on a flute. Another young man holds a flare. At the left instruments and music lie tumbled on the ground, including a trumpet, lute, shawm, fiddle, and an alto-sized cylindrical recorder with a long beak. In the background others play viol and ?bagpipes.

Valentin [Le Valentin] – see Valentin de Boulogne

Moïse Valentin – see Jean de Boullogne & Moïse Valentin

Pere Vall [Master of the Cardona Pentecost]

Spanish artist, one of the few identifiable artists active during the early 15th century in Catalonia; he may have received his training in the Barcelona workshop of Pere Serra (op. 1357-1405/8), but his known activity is limited to the nearby town of Cardona; he lived some time between 1380 and 1480.

• Altarpiece of the Nativity of the Virgin and St Amador:  St Peter and Musicians at the Gates of Heaven (14-15th century), Pere Vall (between 1380-1480). Cardona: Iglesia de Sant Miquel. Ref. Guidol (?date: 476), Rowland-Jones (1997: 12, fig. 10-b&w; pers. comm., 2005; 2006a: 20-22 & fig. 21; 2006b: fig. 7 – b&w); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Surrounding the central panel are seven small panels. The panel at the top left,depicts St Peter, holding his key, greeting arrivals at the gates of heaven who include a king and a bishop. Well within the walls of heaven, Christ, surrounded by four red angels with curiously folded wings, blesses the faithful who have already gained entry. A trio of angel musicians provide entertainment, playing lute, vielle, and a recorder. The latter is cylindrical with double holes for the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand.
• St Anne, the Virgin and Child (ca 1408), tempera on wood, 150.0 × 95.5 cm, attributed to Pere Vall (14-15th century). Budapest: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Inv. 84.6. Ref. Post (?date, 2: 286-8, fig. 176). the central panel of an altarpiece made for the church of Sant Miquel de Cardona. St Anne sits with the Virgin on her lap who, in turn, has the Infant Jesus on hers. A priest kneels at their feet. Around them, six angel musicians play portative organ, bagpipe, lute, vielle, harp and a recorder. The painter seems to have gone to some trouble to show the double holes of the recorder for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand, and three fingers of the uppermost hand can just be seen covering their holes. Post (loc. cit.) notes the similarity of its style to that of the Altarpiece of the Nativity at Cardona. Two more possible panels are known, namely The Embrace before the Golden Gate (MEV, inv. 10,733) and the Birth of the Virgin (Barcelona, col. Part.)

Anne Vallayer

French painter; received by the Académie Royale in 1770, on presentation of the still-lifes Attributes of Painting and Attributes of Music (both Paris, Louvre); born (1744), died (1818).

• Musical Instruments (1770), oil on canvas, 88 × 116 cm, Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818). Paris: Musée de Louvre, Inv. 8260. Ref. Joconde (2003 – col); Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image PWI89762 – col.) A horn, lute, music stand with a candle, violin, musette, oboe, flute, and a score lie jumbled on a table. The Joconde image lacks sufficient detail to confirm the presence of a recorder. However, the Bridgeman image shows the “recorder” to be a flute.

Francesco Vanni

Italian painter, draughtsman and printmaker active in Rome and Siena during the transition from mannerist to baroque styles; born Siena (1563), died Siena (1610); stepson of Acangelo Salimbeni (d. 1580).

• Adoration of the Shepherds (1600), oil on canvas, 312 × 192 cm, Francesco Vanni (1563-1610). Salzburg: Dommuseum. Ref. Weltkunst 1 (? date: 1902, fig.); RIdIM (Paris, 2000). The Holy Family are surrounded by visitors including shepherds, one of whom plays a bagpipe. Above, a glory of angels include one playing an organetto, a second a lute and a third a cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder since all fingers of the lowermost hand seem to be covering their holes, but a flute remains a possibility).
• Moses (series): Worship of the Golden Calf (1590), cartoon, Francesco Vanni (1563-1610). Ref. Bartsch (1854-1870, 12 Appendix of Cartoons: 22/4 b1). A man has his hand on a wind instrument on the ground. It is of alto size with six finger holes showing in line, though the upper half is covered. There is also a lute in the foreground beneath. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Turino Vanni – see Master of Trapani

Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci = Perugino

Varo Remedies

Spanish-Mexican, para-surrealist painter and anarchist;  she lived and worked in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Venezuela  and Mexico City; her mature style, is beautifully enigmatic and instantly recognizable; her paintings of androgynous characters that share her own facial features, mythical creatures, the misty swirls and eerie distortions of perspective are characteristic of Varo’s unique brand of surrealism; born María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga in Anglès, a small town in the province of Girona, Spain (1908), died Mexico City (1963).

• El Flautista / The Flute Player (1955), Remedios Varo (1908-1963). Mexico City: Museo de Arte Moderno. Ref. Website: Remedios Varo (2016-col.); Zeiss-Banks (undated-col.)  In front of some peculiar shrubbery on a rocky crag with volcanoes in the background, an androgynous figure stands  playing a slender three-piece tenor-sized neo-baroque recorder. At  her feet are a number of stone slabs with fossils of marine creatures in them. Through her magic, some of the slabs are rising into the air and composing themselves into a tower. The recorder has a flared bell and the hint of a beak, and window-labium. It is played left-hand uppermost with all fingers covering their holes.

Giorgio Vasari

Italian painter, architect, impresario and biographer; his Lives of the Artists (1550/1568) is a fundamental source of information on Italian Renaissance art; a prolific decorative artist and frescoist; his architectural achievements include the Uffizi in Florence; born Arezzo (1511), died 1574.

• Costume design for The Masque of the Gods (1565), Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). Florence: Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, 2724-F. Ref. Sommer-Mathis (1996: 91, fig. 16). One of the Muses (Cleo) stands in an elaborate costume and headdress holding three duct flutes, a narrow cylindrical one in her right hand and two crossed flared-bell recorders in her left.
• Costume design for The Masque of the Gods (1565), Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574 ). Florence: Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, 2726-F. Ref. Sommer-Mathis (1996: 91, fig. 18). One of the Muses stands in an elaborate costume and headdress holding a single narrow cylindrical duct flute downwards in her right hand.

Jan Vassens [Joannes Vasoens] (17th century), Netherlands

Netherlandish monk of the Dominican order which played an important role in the ecclesiastical and economic development of Maastricht.

• [Musical Ensembles] (1619), ceiling painting, Jan Vassens (17th century). Maastricht: Dominicanenkerk (deconsecrated) / Boekhandel Dominicanenkerk: nave ceiling. Detail. Ref. Website: Wikimedia Commons (2010-col.); Arnold den Teuling (pers. comm., 2007). The church building was constructed between 1267 and 1280 and was consecrated in 1294. It was extended in 1309 but, since the revolution of 1794, it has been in use mostly as the city archives or other purposes (until recently for bicycle parking). It was deconsecrated in 1802. Although there was further restoration in the 19th century, this seems to have been restricted to fixing peeling paintwork. It has recently been refurbished as a large book shop and restaurant. In the middle of the nave a high structure has been erected with stairs, book shelves and an elevator, so it is possible to climb up and approach the vaults and especially its paintings which, until the recent refurbishment, were hidden under a layer of whitewash. Two bays in the middle of the nave (on the transition between the oldest and slightly more recent part of the building) depict four ensembles of male and female musicians (who lack wings). Three are alta ensembles: (a) 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, a pair of kettle-drum with large thick beaters, and one unidentified); (b) trombone, 2 cornetti, trumpet, dulcian; (c) trombone and consort of 4 slender pipes with flared bells (probably shawms). One is a bassa ensemble: (d) viol, harp, and 3 recorders: cylindrical alto and two tenors.

Antonio Maria Vassallo

Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Genoa, and painting altar-pieces, mythologic scenes, portraits, still lifes and genre scenes; born ? Genoa (c.1620), died Milan (1664–1672).

• The Shepherd Playing his Flute,  oil on canvas, 140.0 × 180.5 cm, Antonio Maria Vassallo (c.1620–1664/1673). Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe, Inv. Nieb.A.807. Ref. Wikimedia Commons (202, col.) In his camp, a shepherd sits playing his flared-bell recorder to his hound. A ram dozes at his feet.

Theo van de Vathorst

Dutch sculptor and medallist; his large-scale works include the bronze doors of Utrecht Cathedral; he is the designer of 100s of art medals; born Utrecht (1934). Artist’s web-site.

• Van Eyck Medal, 60 cm diameter, Theo van de Vathorst (1934-). Utrecht. Ref.  Website: Jacob van Eyck Quarterly 4 (2007). Medal commemorating the life of Jacob van Eyck, blind recorder player, carillonist and designer of bells. The obverse depicts the blind master in a chair. It is a detail from the well-known nineteenth-century lithograph found in the Lauwerbladen uit Nederlands gloriekrans (1875-1879) by Willem Jacobsz. Hofdijk, a Romantic impression of Van Eyck testing the bells cast and demonstrated by the Hemony brothers (see illustration). Van de Vathorst made this side of the medal slightly concave, as though Van Eyck is actually sitting within a bell. The reverse shows the text ‘2007 homage Jacob van Eyck †1657’ and depicts Van Eyck playing the recorder for burghers out for an evening stroll in the Janskerhof. The medal thus brings together Van Eyck’s activities. Notes from Wind (loc. cit.)

Gaspare Vazzano [or Bazzano]

One of two Italian frescoists who worked mainly in the many churches in the small towns in the Madonie mountains of northern Sicily. The other was his pupil and collaborator Giuseppe Salerno (1570-1632). Both were locally known as “Lo Zoppo of Gangi” (the lame man of Gangi), despite their different styles – Vazzano, peaceful and sentimental; Salerno more harsh and didactic. Vazzano was born ca 1560, died ca 1620.

• Mary with Angels, oil on canvas, Gaspare Vazzano (ca 1560 – ca 1620). Collesano: La Chiesa Madre e’ Santa Maria la Nova, north aisle. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). One of the many angels plays a tenor-sized pipe, too darkly painted for details to show. The right hand is uppermost with the first finger lifted. The little-finger of the lower (left) hand is lifted as if about to be used. The instrument is slender and cylindrical with a very slight flare at the bottom of the lower portion below the players left hand. All other instruments are soft – a large viola, two large-bellied lutes, a cello, and a portative organ. The pipe could possibly be intended to represent a recorder. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Cesare Vecellio

Italian artist famous today for his book of some 500 costume woodcuts, De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo (Venice 1590), but also a painter; born ca 1521, died 1601; a cousin of Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), to whom Cesare’s costume book was attributed for two centuries.

• Madonna with Child, Saint Giovanni Battista and Saint Girolamo (1581), oil on panel, Cesare Vecellio (ca 1521-1601). Càdola di Ponti nella Alpi: Chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario. Ref. Conte (1998: 304-305); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). The Madonna and Child sit enthroned at the top of a flight of steps; beside them angels hover; below them, on either side stand the two Saints, one gesturing upwards with his outstretched arm, the other reading the scriptures. On the lower steps sit two winged putti, one playing a tambourine (with jingles), the other a very slender cylindrical pipe which he holds one-handed. Beneath the steps leading up to the throne, a lamb is sniffing dubiously at a lion!

Pietro della Vechia [Pietro Muttoni; Vecchia Francesco Vellani]

Italian painter of religious and other works, and a designer of cartoons for the mosaics in San Marco; born Venice or Vicenza (1602/3), died Venice (1678).

• The Concert, oil on canvas, 49 × 65 cm, Pietro della Vechia (1602/3-1678). Location unknown: sold by Kunsthandlung L.T. Neumann, on behalf of August Eymer, Vienna. Ref. Sale catalogue: Alte und moderne Kunst, (1962); Paris RIdIM (2000). Musicians play harpsichord, theorbo and a small flared-bell pipe (possibly a recorder), surrounded by ladies (seated) and gentlemen (standing).
• The Concert, oil on canvas, 12 × 33 cm, Pietro della Vechia (1602/3-1678). Venice: Museo Quirini Stampalia, Inv. 303/96-99. Ref. Website: Quirini Stampalia Web Gallery (2001). In a clearing in the forest, a woman with her blouse in disarray plays a lute, whilst a man in a feathered hat plays a tenor-sized duct flute (possibly a recorder), left hand uppermost, the window/labium evident. The second of four works entitled Quattro Motivi, painted on one of a pair of cassoni (marriage chest, often richly decorated). In the first scene the lovers stroll arm in arm beside a lake; in the third they lie together; in the fourth they take their leave. Cassoni were traditionally commissioned by the bridegroom or his kinsmen on the occasion of his wedding, though intended to hold the bride’s trousseau. Presumably he chose what was painted under the lids.
• A Musical Party, oil on canvas, Pietro della Vechia (1602/3-1678). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002-col.) A man in a jerkin with slashed sleeves, half-turned towards us, plays a lute; a woman sings from a score held in her hand; a small child plays a narrow cylindrical pipe. The window/labium of the pipe can just be glimpsed, and the little player’s hands are beautifully positioned for recorder playing: the first two fingers of his top (right) hand and all fingers of his bottom hand covering their holes, the little finger outstretched.

Luis Gonzales Velazquez

Spanish artist whose painted decorations of the vaults and domes of numerous churches in Madrid include illusionist elements; born Madrid (1715), died Madrid (1764).

• Mercury and Argus, painting, Luis Gonzales Velazquez (1715-1764). Madrid: Museo de la Real Academia de bellas Artes San Ferrnando. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Leaning against a tree, Mercury plays a clearly depicted soprano baroque recorder with one hand and reaches for his sword with the other as Argus drowses before him. Io (as a heifer) looks on.

Adriaen van de Velde

Dutch animal and landscape painter and draughtsman; his favourite subjects were scenes of open pasture land, with sheep, cattle and goats, which he executed with dexterity, with much precision of touch and truth of draughtsmanship, and with clear silvery colouring; he also painted a few small winter scenes with skaters, and several religious subjects; born Amsterdam (1636), died Amsterdam (1672); on of Willem van de Velde the Elder and brother of Willem van de Velde the Younger, the marine painter.

• Italian Landscape with a Ferry (1667), Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Schloss Schleißheim, Gemäldegallerie, Inv. 1853 (4888). Ref. RIdIM (2013, Mstag – 680 – b&w). A boat equipped with a rudder and a sail ferries some people and animals across a river. At the end of the boat sits a man who holds a duct flute (possibly a recorder) in his hands ready to play. In the background is a hilly landscape behind a wooded shore and a village with a church tower.

Esaias van der Velde

Dutch painter, draftsman, and etcher who was one of the founders of the realist school of Dutch landscape painting in the early decades of the 17th century; born Amsterdam (1587), died The Hague (1630).

• Elegant Music-Makers in a Garden (1622), etching on paper, 21.1 × 24.7 cm, by Gillis van Scheyndel (1622 – a.1654) after Esaias van der Velde (1587-1630). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-15.098; Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Accn 61.713. Ref. Hellerstedt (1986: 64, no. 25); Jongh & Luijten (1997: 183, no. 34); Rasmussen (2004, Lute). At a table, a lutenist accompanies a singer and a woman playing a long slender pipe, probably a tenor recorder. Before them, a couple seem to be dancing. A skinny-ribbed hound looks on. In the background are two other men. Their song, according to the inscription below, is dedicated to the young ladies of Holland, whom Venus has given to grateful gentlemen. However, the first line of the inscription, in Latin, reads: “Thus the children squander their parent’s gains, They indulge their appetite and take their leisure in luxury.” The Dutch lines that follow are delivered in the form a toast by one of the music makers: “May Love live long and bear fruit, our marriage has begun. Our parents were boorish, they earned their living in a miserly fashion. [We, on the other hand, have] a well-greased pot, beautiful weather. Everything must be consumed, we have more than enough, but how will we swallow it all?” This is a clear references to the Prodigal Son, a parable of real concern to Holland’s more conservative citizens dismayed at the free-spending ways of the country’s nouveaux riches.
• Musical Party (1629), black chalk and brown wash, Esaias van der Velde (1587-1630). ? Location. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. (2001). An all-male group, some standing and listening, with musicians sitting around a table. They include viol, viola and singers. In the foreground a lute rests against a stool with a cushion on it. On the table, between music books, is a ‘wave-profile’ hand-fluyt of soprano/alto size. The beak and window/labium are very clearly depicted, but the finger holes only faintly shown. Probably five are visible, plus paired holes for the little finger of the lowermost hand.

Jan van de Velde

Dutch draughtsman whose work includes genre and fantasy figures; active 1640-1645. Not be confused with Jan Jansz. van de Velde III (1620-1662).

• Songbird (1643), pen and brown ink on paper, Jan van de Velde (op. 1640-1645). Brunswick: Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Inv. Z. 439. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 137007 (2014-b&w). A drollery depicting a rather large bird, with arms and hands instead of wings, who perches on a tree stump. He is wearing a feathered cap, a scarf and a jacket. With his right hand he plays a narrowly conical duct flute with a flared bell so this is probably a bird flageolet rather than a recorder. A butterfly hovers above; a dragonfly below.

Francesco Vellani

Italian painter active in Modena who painted mainly sacred subjects in the late Baroque style; born 1688, died 1768.

• Marriage of the Virgin, Francesco Vellani (1688-1768). Modena: Galleria Estense, Inv. 8029. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Angels at the top of the painting play viola, bass, harp and lute; and one (at the top left) holds a possible recorder in his left hand. The recorder is of alto/tenor size, cylindrical, with a slight bell flare, but no further detail is visible.

Bonifazio Veneziano – See Bonifazio de’Pitati

Paolo Veneziano [Veneziano Paolo, Paolo da Venezia)

Italian artist, founder of the Venetian School, regarded as the official painter of the Venetian  Republic; his style is “still Byzantine”, that is to say Italo-Byzantine, but increasingly influenced by the Gothic art developing north of the Alps, and personal elements; born c.1295, died 1362; born to a family of artists, he operated a large workshop in which he worked together with his sons Marco, Luca, and Giovanni. 

Coronation of the Virgin(1358), tempera on panel, 109.9 x 68.6 cm,  Paolo and Giovanni Veneziano (op.1333-1358). New York: Frick Collection, Inv. 1930.1.124. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-430 (2023, col.) Angels above the central scene play drum, bladder pipe, psaltery, vielle, straight trumpets, harp, lute, tambourine, gittern and a two flared bell pipes which are shawms (not recorders) with clearly depicted pirouettes.

Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne

Dutch painter, engraver and poet whose paintings show a preference for the themes of the countryside (scenes with wagons, peasants and horsemen) rather than the city; in later life he changed his style and painted crude peasant scenes in monochrome; born Delft (1589), died The Hague (1662).

• Beggars Playing Pipe & Hurdy-gurdy (The Beautiful and the Ugly), oil on panel. Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (1589-1662). New York: Private Collection. Ref. Website: CGFA – a Virtual Art Museum (2010); Recorder Magazine 20 (2): cover – col. (2000); Wikimedia Commons (2011-col.) One of the beggars plays a cylindrical recorder. His companion, an old crone, plays a hurdy-gurdy. A splendidly happy painting in van de Venne’s later ‘monochrome’ style!
• Celebration in Honour of the Truce between the Spanish and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, (1616), oil on panel, 62 × 125 cm, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (1589-1662). Detail. Paris: Musé de Louvre, Inv. 1924 ; MR 1084. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999 – detail); Rasmussen (1999-2004, Lute); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-561 (2023, col.) The concert amongst the trees is a sign of harmony as much as of celebration. Musicians play lute, violin, harpsichord, cello, harp, orpharion, ? curtal, xylophone and a tenor recorder of stout cylindrical construction, though the foot is hidden. There are two large frame drums among the military emblems.
• The Parable of the Prodigal Son (1617), oil on copper, 12.6 × 17.8 cm, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (1589-1662). Kassel: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Inv. GK 221. Ref. Bol (1989: 26); Rasmussen (1999-2004, Lute); Munich RIdIM (2009, Kksg – 74); Bridgeman Art Library, Image KSL278990 (2013-col.) Against the backdrop of a landscape with a castle is a table covered with a banquet to entertain ca 10 people who are entertained by dancers and musicians playing violin, cello, ?orpharion, lute and ?recorder. In the mid-ground are a rider and horse, peasants and distinguished people playing social games. Also in the background is a reference to the story of the Prodigal Son showing a man being driven from the palace garden. Rasmussen (loc. cit.) remarks that the musicians are closely related to those in Venne’s Truce of 1609 (Louvre, Paris).
• Barber Showing a Jester How He Has Been Shaved, engraving by Adriaen Matham, after a painting by Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne (1589-1662). Mansell Collection. Ref. Ward (1983: 40: pl. X – b&w). On the wall behind the barber’s chair are his tools of trade, a cittern and a cylindrical recorder with a flared bell.
• From Johan de Brune’s Emblemata of Zinne-werck published by Jan Evertsen Kloppenburch, Amsterdam (1624): Street Serenade, engraving by Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne (1589-1662). Ref. Bol (1989: 119); Rasmussen (2004, Lute). “The serenaders play bass viol, one or more violins, lute and recorder” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Not seen. The Emblemata of Zinne-werck is an emblem book, with text (in poetry and prose) by the Dutch poet Johan de Brune and engravings by Adriaen van de Venne.
• Dancing Dwarf (1620-1626), water colour and body colour, over black chalk, heightened with silver and gold, on paper, 96 × 152 cm, Adriaen Pietersz. van der Venne (1589-1662). London: British Museum, Inv. 1978,0624.42.73. A dancing dwarf and a peasant piper, from an album of 102 drawings; the dwarf wearing a striped silk costume and holding a hat, a man and two children behind, looking on. The pipe is clearly a duct-flute, probably a small recorder. This is very much in the bambocciate style taken up by Faustino Bocchi (1659–1742).  Numbered ’74’ in the upper right-hand corner; one of an album of 102 drawings.

Marco Ventura

Contemporary Italian illustrator who works in a style similar to those of Renaissance fresco painters drawing in pencil on gesso coated paper and then hand colouring the image; born Milan; son of artist Piero Ventura.

• Joy (2007), Christmas Stamp, gravure print, 20 × 24 mm, Marco Ventura (op. 2007). Ref. Web-site: Norvic Philatelics (2007 – col.); Postcard, Royal Mail Group (2007 – col.) Formatting and typography by Rose Design; printed by De la Rue Security Print. The small stamps are definitive size – 20 × 24 mm – and the Large Letter stamps 30 × 24 mm. The stamps are die-cut on the self-adhesive sheets, perforated conventionally all round. The stamps sold at PO counters and supplied to dealers have rouletted backing paper for easy separation, but the stamps in presentation packs have guillotined ‘imperf’ backing paper. They are available as ‘large’ stamps and as part of a 115 × 102 mm Miniature Sheet which is conventionally gummed and contains the six stamps, arranged as a block of 4 and a pair, within a border also illustrated by Marco Ventura. Part of a series of three stamps depicting musical angels playing trumpet (Peace), lute (Goodwill), tambourine (Glory), and recorder (Joy). The recorder is stylised and the fingering with both hands at the same level rather fanciful. These stamps appear in a number of other philatelic products.

François-Xavier-Henri Verbeeck

Flemish artist; director of the Antwerp Academy; born Antwerp (1686), died Antwerp (1755).

• Elegant Company Playing Music in an Interior, oil on panel, 26 × 33 cm, François-Xavier-Henri Verbeeck (1686-1755). Paris: Galerie Virginie Pitchal. Ref. Gallery Pitchal, Fêtes et Festins: Tableaux de Maîtres Allemands, Flamands, Français, Hollandais et Italiens des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (2001). A group of men and women sit and stand around a table singing and playing lute, tambourine and fiddle. Some are elegantly dressed, but others seem more rustically dressed, as if the servants have been brought in to make up the numbers. Opposite them a man seated plays an ambiguous pipe with a widely flared bell, a shepherd musician like those depicted by David Teniers (father and son).
• Elegant Company Playing Music, oil on panel, 41.4 × 53.4 cm, François-Xavier-Henri Verbeeck (1686-1755). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, An important private Collection from Hanover, Volume I, 27 March 2007, Lot 62. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 197142 (2014-col.)  A man displays an enormous dead hare at a table. To his left is a cello in front of which is a tub of wine, presumably on ice. To his right is a buxom woman who holds a lute in one hand and a score in the other. At her feet sits a young girl who holds a small recorder. Behind them a younger woman gestures towards the lute. In the background a couple are promenading, and another woman is exiting through an open door.
• Allegory of the Arts, ?oil on panel, 47.5 x 51.0 cm, François-Xavier-Henri Verbeeck (1686-1755). Madrid: Duran Arte y Subastas, Lot 40, 22 June 2022. In a crowded room with a marble column, heavy drapes, a globe, and two busts, a woman sits at a draped table reading from a book of music and, perhaps, singing. Behind her, a man plays a clearly depicted bass recorder with a long bocal and characteristic windway/labium clearly depicted. In front of them and centre stage sits a young woman who plays a baroque lute. Behind them, a man is backing into the room holding a furled manuscript; perhaps he is a composer. With her back turned to the musicians left, another woman is painting a portrait of a bearded man. Auctioned as one of a pendant pair, the other an Allegory of the Sciences.
• Music-making Company on a Terrace, oil on panel, 35 × 44 cm, François-Xavier-Henri Verbeeck (1686-1755). Vienna: Palais Dorotheum, Old Master Paintings, 11 December 2018, Lot. 294 (unsold). Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image 2329 (2023, col.) A woman seated at a table plays a lute. Beside her, to her left, a seated couple listen, both pointing to a score on the table. Between is a young lad. Behind the couple, someone is playing a tabourine (with jingle rings), and a small crowd are listenng. To the lutenists right, a man in a dark suit and a crimson cloak stands playing a cello. In the background, another couple are sitting in a garden: he is playing a slender pipe, possibly a recorder; she is gesturing with one hand and pointing with the other to the musicians in the foreground.
• Concert in the Park, oil on panel, 39 x 31 cm, Frans Xavier Hendrik Verbeeck (1686-1755). Rychnov nad Kneznou: Kollowratský Zámek (Kolowrat Castle). Ref. Buchner (1973, pl. 118, b&w); Lute Iconography, Image LI-1664 (2023, b&w). Rychnov nad Kněžnou: Castle. A woman plays a lute with an extended (doubled) neck. Beside her a man plays a tenor-sized baroqaue recorder: a second woman leans against him. In the bottom left hand corner a dog looks up at the musicians. In thop right hand corner a female bust surveys the scene, disdainfully.

François Verdier [sometimes called van Hamken]

French painter and draughtsman; his subjects include mythological and biblical themes and portraits; born Paris (1651), died Paris (1730); son of Louis Verdier, a court clockmaker.

• Mercury and Argus, oil, 68 × 100 cm, François Verdier(1651-1730). Paris: Musée de Louvre, Inv. 8282. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Rowland-Jones (2001a: fig. 12). Argus has fallen asleep leaning against his arm, his crook held loosely in the other hand which also holds Io’s halter. Mercury (Hermes) peers at Argus, holding a turned three-piece baroque alto recorder with ivory beak and mounts in his right hand and reaching behind him for his sword with his left. A goat rears up in alarm behind Mercury. In the distance is a church and behind that a castle.
• Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, 73.3 × 90.5 cm, circle of François Verdier (1651-1730 ). Location unknown: auctioned Sotheby’s, London, Sale W03709, Old Master Paintings, 08 July 2003 Lot 426 (unsold). Ref. Catalogue, Sotheby’s Sale W03709 (2003: Lot 426 – col.); Gabrius Data Bank (2007 – col.) Derives from a detail of Verdier’s painting today at the Château de Versailles (MV 8266). Argus has fallen asleep leaning against his arm, his crook held loosely in the other hand which also holds Io’s halter. Mercury (Hermes) peers at Argus, holding a turned three-piece baroque alto recorder in his right hand and reaching behind him for his sword with his left. A goat rears up in alarm behind Mercury. In the distance is a church and behind that a castle.

Adrien Verdoel

Dutch artist of the school of Rembrandt who painted biblical scenes and vanitas still-lifes; active Flushing (ca 1620 -1695).

• The Five Senses, panel, 75 × 98 cm; Adrien Verdoel (op. 1620-1695). Location unknown: offered for sale by a French dealer. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). On a cloth-covered table lie an assortment of objects, including a violin, several books, an open music score, a vase of tulips, a bowl of fruit, a clay smoking pipe, a bag of money, an ink-well and quill, and a small flared-bell recorder which has a bell decorated with turnings.

Johanna Vergouwen (? – 1714), Flemish

• The Twins Hendrick and Everhard Kockman at Three-and-a-Half Years Old (1668), oil on canvas, 152.2 × 200.1 cm, Johanna Vergouwen (? – 1714). Amsterdam:Christies, Sale 2788, Old Master Pictures, 6 May 2008, Lot J 180; formerly Private Collection of E. de Visser, Hoorn. Ref. Exhibition: The Golden Age of Children’s Portraits, Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem Museum van de Gouden Eeuw (2000); Eva Legêne ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2010, col.) “Two small boys play dressing up, with enormous ostrich feather hats and metal armour breast plates. One rides a hobby horse, the other holds the hilt of a long sword (in its scabbard) in his left hand, and a recorder in his right. This is alto-sized, mainly cylindrical, but with slight wave and bell flare. Two (possibly three) finger holes can be seen above his gripping hand, and two more in line lower down. The hand certainly covers more than one finger hole” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.) The two young boys were identified as the twins Hendrick and Everhard Kockman at three-and-a-half years old. However, these two children, whose father was the Catholic mayor of Zwolle, Herman Franciscus Kockman and his wife, were already born in 1660, thus being eight years old at the time Vergouwen signed the present portrait.

Placidus Verhelst

Member of a Flemish family of sculptors, stuccoists and engravers active in Germany; born 1727, died 1778; son of Egid Verhelst I (1696-1749), brother of Wilhelm Verhelst (1729–92) and the engraver Egid Verhelst II (1733–1818).

• Decorative swag (1767), gilded woodcarving, Placidus Verhelst (1727-1778). Augsburg: Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Schaezlerpalais, Festsaal. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2002). The Schaezlerpalais was the magnificent residence of the all-powerful banking family, the Fuggers. This includes a huge rococo ballroom or banqueting hall, the Festsaal, with gilded woodcarvings by Placidus Verhelst, completed in 1767. At the east wall (shorter slide with entry door) above the right-hand of three mirrors is a decorative swag with trumpet and other instruments including the head and part of the body (up to the first finger hole) of an elegant baroque recorder. The corresponding mirror on the left is decorated with gardening tools (a swag with a watering can in the centre)” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Constantin Verhout

Dutch artist, active Gouda (1663-1667).

• Boy with a Flute, oil on copper, 23 × 26 cm, Constantin Verhout (fl. 1663-1667). Location unknown. Ref. Website: Blockfloeten Museum (2009). A well-dressed lad stands beside a column, his hat in one hand and a soprano-sized duct flute (probably a recorder) in the other. The recorder has a metal-sleeved beak and a foot-ring; the window/labium is clearly depicted.

Jan [Johnnes] Verkolye [Verkolje] the Elder

Dutch mezzotint engraver, draughtsman and painter of mythological subjects, genre scenes and portraits whose work was in much demand; born Amsterdam (1650), died Delft (1693).

• The Lovers Promenade, on metal, 24 × 18 cm, Jan Verkolye the Elder (1650-1695). Location unknown: sold by Palais Galleria, Paris, 31 May 1972. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A young man doffs his hat and importunes his female companion. In the background a fellow in a feathered hat plays a slightly flared alto recorder.
• Interior Scene with a Couple Seated at a Table, painting, Jan Verkolye the Elder (1650-1695). Location unknown: auctioned 10/07/2003 (unsold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2007 – col.) He tunes a violin and she holds a music score in her right hand and a very slender pencil-like object in her left which reaches across another score on the table. Gabrius (loc. cit.) suggest this is a recorder, unconvincingly.

Francesco Verla

Italian painter and follower of Mantegna and Perugeno; born  Villaverla (1470), and died Rovereto (c.1521).

• Madonna and Child Enthroned with St John the Baptist, St Peter, Angels and Donors, Francesco Verla (1470–c.1521). Ref. Website: Fondazione Zeri, Inv. 57702 (2017, b&w). At the foot of the throne two winged putti play a small drum and a narrowly conical pipe, possibly a recorder given the posture of the little player’s hands. Curiously, the kneeling donor is much the same size as the putti!
• Madonna and Child with Saints, Francesco Verla (1470–c.1521). Ref. Website: Wikimedia Commons (2016, col.) On the predela of the throne, two winged putti play tambourine (with pellet bells) and a narrowly conical pipe, possibly a recorder.

Barend Vermeer – see Barend van der Meer

Jan Vermeer van Delft

Dutch painter prized for his creation of pure colour, form and effects of light, whose pictures are seemingly without human sympathy; born Delft (1632), died Delft (1675).

• Girl with a Flute (ca 1666), oil on board, 20.2 × 17.8 cm, Jan Vermeer van Delft (1632-1675). Washington: National Gallery of Art. Ref. Brion (1963: 57 – col., 58); Tibia 1 (1991); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A tronie in which a girl in a conical Chinese hat and a dress with fur cuffs and lining, holds a one-piece, renaissance-style recorder only the head and upper body of which are visible. In the 1696 auction of paintings owned by Jacob Dissius, the son-in-law of Vermeer’s principal patron Pieter van Ruijven, in which 21 works by Vermeer were sold, two of the paintings were described as tronies. Some scholars believe that the pendants mentioned in the Dissius auction were likely to have been the Girl with a Flute and Girl with a Red Hat, which are approximately the same size. Other than their dimensions the pictures have many points in common which might indicate that they were conceived as a pendant pair. The two young sitters have a strong resemblance to each other; they both wear exotic hats and the same drop pearls; and both are set against a tapestry in a chair with lion finials. Light enters from the left side of the picture caressing the left cheek, nose and chin of both figures. There are also technical affinities: both paintings are on panel, and green earth is used in the shadowed portions of the face. However, Girl with a Flute is not unanimously accepted as authentic, although modern consensus seems to be polarized around the idea that it was begun by Vermeer and finished by a later hand. It has been suggested that the finger which rests on the recorder was added later and did not exist in the original composition.
• A Young Woman with a Wine Glass and a Musician playing a Tenor Recorder (early 1660s), oil on canvas, 46 × 47 cm, after a lost work by Jan Vermeer van Delft (1632-1675).  Brussels: Private Collection;  exhibited at the Keizerskapel, Antwerp, from June 17 to July 17, 2020.  Ref. Website: The Art Newspaper (2020, col.); Website: CODART, About Johannes Vermeer (Delft, 1632-1675), a case study (2020, col.) A young woman holds a wine glass up to the light of a side window. Seated at a table behind her, a young man holds a soprano-sized recorder left hand uppermost. The instrument is cylindrical with a slightly flared foot; the window, beak, window labium and several finger holes are clearly visible. Before him on the table is a distinctive white faience jug with a silver cap, a clay smoking pipe and a colourful folded carpet. From an adjacent room, through a glass window with a green curtain, another woman (a maid, perhaps) observes the scene without the young lady and the musician being aware of her presence. It has been suggested that this painting is a copy of a hitherto unknown Vermeer, but this has yet to be confirmed. Perhaps it is the work of master forger Han van Meegeren.

Andries Vermeulen

Dutch artist who specialized in landscapes and ice scenes after seventeenth-century Dutch models but also created marine paintings and summer landscapes, and made drawings after Aelbert Jacobyz. Cuyp (1620-1691); born Dordrecht (1763), died Amsterdam (1814); son of landscape painter and art dealer Cornelis Vermeulen (1732-1813).

• Untitled, Andries Vermeulen (1763-1814). Dordrecht: Museum. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). One of a number of wall-panel paintings for a house in Dordrecht. In the centre of a large pastoral painting a shepherd plays a flared-bell pipe (possibly a duct flute) with the lowermost finger hole offset, but lower than the right hand. However, the mouthpiece end is unclear.

Cornelis Vermeulen

Dutch painter and art dealer in Dordrecht, known particularly for his copies from the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century; born ca 1732, died Dordrecht (1813); father of Andries Vermeulen (1763-1814).

• Frontispiece: Piéces de clavecin composées par J. Henry d’Anglebert …- Paris, l’auteur (s.d.) Gravure d’après P. Mignard (1689), engraving, Cornelis Vermeulen (1732-1813). Paris: Private Collection; Bibliothèque Nationale, Department de la Musique. Ref. van Dijck & Koopman (1987: n. 122); Music.Images.Instruments 2: 98 (?date); Paris RIdIM (1999); Anderson (1994: 72); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). A personification of Music sits atop a sphere playing her lyre with an enormous piece of music spread across her lap. A dove flies above. Beneath her, winged putti sing and play organ, transverse flute, and violin. Other instruments stand around including violin, viol, harpsichord and a turned three-piece baroque recorder which lies beside an open book of music. In the top right hand corner a trophy of instruments includes horn, syrinx, oboe and straight trumpet.

Jan Vermeulen

Dutch vanitas painter of the circle of Pieter Potter, Pieter van Steenwyck and the early Jan Davidsz. de Heem; born Haarlem (fl. 1638-1674).

• Still-life, panel 79.5 × 64.5 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Amsterdam: Salomon Lilian (2014); formerly offered for sale by Christies, London (1994), by Colnaghi, London (1995, 1996, 1998 & 1999). Ref. Christies (London), Catalogue (1994); Paris RIdIM (1999); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Gabrius Data Bank (2001 – col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); CD Cover, Der Fluyten Lust Hof Brilliant Classics 93391 (2007). A flute and a number of recorders lie tumbled on a table with books, a globe, a viol (or violin – only the neck is visible), music and a flared-bell soprano recorder with a brass sheath reinforcing the mouthpiece. The foot of a larger (? alto) recorder and the body and foot of what might be a bass recorder are also depicted. Griffioen (1988: 120) notes the existence of a total of nine paintings by six artists showing recorders with metal-sheathed beaks, including still-lifes by Collier, van Steenwyck, and a family portrait by van Vliet. Note that some 17 such works by Vermeulen alone are catalogued here, as well as examples by other painters such as Vinne (in four works). Three surviving 17th-century tenor recorders have beaks with metal sheaths, namely those in the collection of in the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna (Puglisi 1981: 32-43).
• Still-life, 79.5 × 64.5 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Vienna: Galerie Sanct Lucas. Ref. Galerie Sanct Lucas, Summer Exhibition Catalogue 11 (1972, col.); Rasmussen & Huene (1982: 34, fig. 10, b&w); Griffioen (1988: 440-441). Books, a globe, notepaper and a number of musical instruments lie tumbled on a table, including a violin, lute, a shawm (bell only visible), the body of a flute (or possibly a recorder), and the head-joint of a flared-bell soprano recorder with a brass sheath reinforcing the mouthpiece.
• Still-life, oil on panel, 40.0 × 50.5 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Köln: Kunsthaus Lempertz, Auction 977, Alte Kunst, 14 May 2011, Lot 1081. Beneath a drape, books, a globe, notepaper, a portrait of a man in a turban, and a number of musical instruments lie tumbled on a table, including a violin, lute, a shawm (bell only visible), the body of a flute (or possibly a recorder), and the head-joint of a flared-bell, soprano recorder with a brass sheath reinforcing the mouthpiece.
• Still-life with Books and Musical Instruments, 33 × 38 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Private Collection: offered for sale by Hoogsteder and Hoogsteder, 31 May 1996. Ref. Buijsen & Grijp (1993: pl. 44 – col.); Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2952 (2023, col.) Identical to the above. Books, a globe, notepaper and a number of musical instruments lie tumbled on a table, including a violin, lute, a shawm (bell only visible), the body of a flute (or possibly a recorder), and the head-joint of a flared-bell soprano recorder with a brass sheath reinforcing the mouthpiece.
• Vanitas Still-life, panel, 30.0 × 38.5 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). The Hague: Mauritshuis, Inv. 662. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 1286); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 7289 (2010-b&w). Includes four wind-instruments: the fontanelle and very marked bell flare of a shawm (top right); a ? flute, half hidden by a globe; the head (only) of a recorder with a ? brass sheath protecting the beak (on table at lower right); and standing (leaning) at the centre right a flute (or possibly another recorder) with a brass sheath or cylindrical lower end and five clear finger holes. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
• Vanitas Still-life (1651-5), oil on panel, 81.5 × 63.5 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). The Hague: Mauritshuis, Inv. 401. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 1286); IJdelheld #34; Griffioen (1988: 440-441); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 7288 (2022, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-923 (2023, col.) Includes a violin only the peg-box of which is visible, a lute, a ?flute, and a recorder only the ?brass-sheathed beak of which can be seen. Most of the instruments are covered by a large open book. Some crumpled papers hang out from under a corner of the book, the top sheet with a sketch of a bearded man.
• Vanitas with Violin, Shawm, and Lute, 60 × 86 cm, an Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Stockholm: Rapps Kunsthandel (1958). Ref. Bol (1969: 357, fig. 318); Griffioen (1988: 440-441). On a table lie scattered a globe, an hourglass, music, a viola and bow, a shawm (only the foot of which is visible), a lute, a flute, and a soprano recorder. Only the head is visible, the beak sheathed in a ? brass sleeve.
• Vanitas Still-life (1654), oil on panel, 73.3 × 57.8 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). New York: Sotheby’s Sale N08952, 21 January 2013; formerly in the Ponce Museum of Art, Puerto Rico Inv. 65.0536. Ref. Bernströ & Rapp (1958: 87-90, fig.); Nash Age, pl. 74; Griffioen (1988: 440-441); Paris RIdIM (1999); Wikimedia Commons (2013-col.) The only dated work by the artist. On a stone plinth lies a jumble of objects including a worm-eaten skull with an ivy wreath, a crown, money bags, an hourglass, a book of sheet music marked Bassus, pearls the bell of a shawm, the body of a pipe (with four finger holes), the bell of a shawm, a necklace, a mitre, and a flared-bell, soprano recorder with a brass sheath around the beak. A maker’s mark is partially visible on the recorder, possibly a scroll. A ticket reads VANITAS VANITATUM ET OMNIA VANITAS; another reads MORS OMNIA VINCIT.
• Vanitas Still-Life, oil on canvas, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001-col.) A still-life with a worm-eaten skull, a crown, an hourglass, a pearl necklace, a book, the bell of a ?shawm, the body of a ?flute, a trumpet, the neck of a violin, and a perfectly depicted flared-bell recorder with a brass sheath covering the beak. Auctioned 6 April 1995, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
• Still-life with Books, oval, 66 × 48 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Location unknown; sold by Palais Galliera, Paris, 7 March 1969; sold by Maitre Bloch, Versailles, 16 June 1978. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). Two books lie open on a shelf (one propped up against the wall), together with an hourglass a candlestick and candle, the middle joint of a wind instrument of some kind, and what looks like part of a recorder with two finger holes visible.
• Still-life, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Location unknown; sold by Leger Galeries, London. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A book lies open on a table on which are scattered papers, a shawm, what looks like the body of a flute, a violin, a lute, and the head of a recorder with a brass sheath covering the beak, as in other works by this painter. Cf. Allegory on the Death of Admiral Tromp by van Steenwyck.
• Books and Musical Instruments, oil on wood, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Nantes: Musée des Beaux Arts, Inv. No. 558. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2006). On a table, a script (text illegible) with seals, papers and books (one standing open and more or less upright) are piled in disarray with what looks like the bodies of two flutes, a lute, and a recorder almost entirely hidden by the other items. The recorder has a metal-sleeved beak.
• Still-life, canvas, 63 × 81 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Location unknown; sold by Charpentier, Paris 5-6 December 1957. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). On a table two books lie open (one standing more or less upright) with musical instruments, including a shawm, a lute, a violin and a recorder only the head of which is visible) with a brass sheath covering the beak, as in other works by this painter. Cf. Allegory on the Death of Admiral Tromp by van Steenwyck.
• Vanitas Still-life with Musical Instruments, oil, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Linköping: Länsmuseet. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). On a table are scattered a globe, books, a flute (with a brass sheath), a lute, a cello, a shawm and a recorder only the head of which is visible with a brass sheath covering the beak, as in other works by this painter.
• Still-life with Musical Instruments, oil on wood, 85 × 78 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Copenhagen: Statens Museum for Kunst, Cat. 755. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). On a table are scattered a globe, papers, books, notes, an ink-well and quill, an hourglass, a money pouch, a violin (only the scroll is visible), a flute (partially visible) and a renaissance-style soprano recorder with a brass sheath covering the beak, as in other works by this painter.
• Trompe l’Oeil of a Vanitas arranged behind a closed Window, oil on canvas, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001-col.) Behind a panelled window lie jumbled music, books, a jar, a shawm, papers, and a cylindrical recorder with a brass sheath, the foot not visible. Auctioned 6 May 1997, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
• Trompe l’oeil van voorwerpen achter een beglaasde kastdeur, Anonymous, after Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). London: Johnny van Haeften (2001). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 32432 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A copy from an original by Vermeulen (1651-1655). Includes what appears to be the same brass-sheathed recorder found in other works by Vermeulen.
• Vanitas Still-Life, oil on canvas, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Location unknown; auctioned May 1994, sold. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001-col.) A still-life with a skull with ivy wreath, a crown, money bags, an hourglass, a pearl necklace, a book, the bell of a ?shawm, the body of a ?flute, a trumpet, the neck of a violin, and a perfectly depicted flared-bell recorder with a brass sheath covering the beak.
• Vanitas Still-Life, oil on canvas, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001-col.) On a table covered with a blue cloth, lie jumbled a globe, an hourglass, books, a portrait of King Charles I, music, a lute, a shawm (only the foot visible), the body of a ?flute, the neck of a violin, and the head and upper body of a recorder with a brass sheath covering the beak. Auctioned 28 May 1992, unsold, and 10 March 1993, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.) Possibly a copy of a painting of identical composition in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
• Vanitas Still-Life, oil on canvas, 79 × 98 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Location unknown: offered for sale by Sotheby’s (London), 4 July 1990, Lot 177 (unsold). Ref. Sale Catalogue: Sotheby’s (4 July 1990: 226 – col.); Gabrius Data Bank (2001-col.); Constance Scholten (pers. comm., 2005). On a pedestal lie a watch, a ?kit, a skull, a mask, a book, a document with a seal, and a candlestick. Beside, on a table covered in green cloth, are a theorbo, a violin and, sticking out from underneath the theorbo, a cylindrical recorder the beak, window/labium, upper body and two finger holes of which are visible. In the background is a globe.
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, 84.5 × 74.0 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). Augsburg: Städtische Kunstsammlungen., Inv. 12601. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Ask 53); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2002). On a bench lie jumbled a blue cloth, a globe, two much-thumbed books (one open), a flute, a lute, and other objects. The head of an alto/tenor cylindrical recorder projects from beneath the lute and a fold of the blue cloth. The beak of the recorder is brass-sheathed; details of the windway and block are (unusually) clearly visible.
• Vanitas, oil on panel, 69.8 × 56.4 cm, Jan Vermeulen (fl. 1638-1674). London: Rafael Valls, offered for sale (2005 – col.) On a plinth lies a jumble of vanitas objects, including a skull, books, bone, crown, watch, purse, hourglass, candlestick, spectacles, violin (scroll only visible), pipe (possibly a recorder, only the foot and lower body visible), music sheet, and an unusual object which may be a recorder. The latter is black and cylindrical with a brass-sheathed beak and ornamental brass rings down the body; the foot is not visible.

Fra Giovanni da Verona

Multifaceted Italian artist and member of the Olivetan order (a congregation within the Benedictine Confederation); he was a skilled engraver, illuminator, sculptor, woodcarver and architect; his wood inlays are remarkable for their use of perspective; born Verona (1457), died 1525.

• Intarsia (1503-1505), Fra Giovanni da Verona (1457-1525). Siena: Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Choir. Ref. Winternitz (1979: pl. 13c & 48a – b&w); Wise (1988: fig. 65); Hammerstein (? date: fig. 45); Moeck; Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Abbazia di Monteoliveto, Asciano (2001); Hijmans (2005: 222); Website: Lute Iconography LI-543 (2023, col.) The open doors of a cupboard reveal music and instruments on shelves, including lute, cittern, and two pipes, one of which is a duct flute (flageolet or recorder).
• Intarsia (1503-1505), Fra Giovanni da Verona (1457-1525). Siena: Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Choir. Ref. Web-site: Abbazia di Monteoliveto, Asciano (2001). The open doors of a cupboard reveal two shawms and two flared-bell recorders (very clearly depicted, one with a fontanelle).
• Intarsia (1514), Fra Giovanni da Verona (1457-1525). Vatican: Stanza della segnatgura, Choir. Ref. Hammerstein (1994: fig. 47). One of a number of panels illustrating musical instruments. This one shows a harp and three duct cylindrical duct flutes, one shows only three finger holes, one shows at least six, another is unclear.

Bonifazio Veronese – See Bonifazio de’Pitati

Paolo Caliari Veronese

The foremost Italian decorative painter of late Renaissance Venice who combined elements of the High Renaissance style with Mannerist elements, including complex compositional schemes that often employ a ‘worm’s-eye view’ perspective and Michelangelesque figures in powerful foreshortened or contorted poses; active in Venice and for a short time in Mantua, Vicenza and Padua; born Verona (1528), died Venice (1588).

• Music (1556-1557), oil on canvas, tondo 230 cm diam., Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Venice: Palazzo Ducale, Libreria Vecchia, (Biblioteca Marciana) ceiling. Ref. Winternitz (1979: pl. 6b); Rowland-Jones (1997e: 89 & 90 – detail, b&w); Winternitz (1979: 54-56 & pl. 6b – b&w); Robertson (1992: 12, pl. 3 – col.); Rowland-Jones (1997e: 90-92): Website: Lute Iconography LI-615 (2023, col.) One of 21 circular pictures adorning the ceiling of the great room of the Libreria Vecchia which illustrate allegories of education, the arts and the sciences. Two women play viol and lute watched by a third. Between them stands a wingless cupid, probably intended to underline the connection of music with love. Behind them, a statue of Pan gazes down from a plinth. Above them, two broken recorders tied together, hang from a willow tree, possibly votive gifts from shepherds. “The smaller [instrument] is of square construction like a wooden organ pipe; the larger round one, in its oblique position, shows the fipple in profile. It does not require a Renaissance eye or imagination, nor a reminder of Giovanni da Udine’s innnuendos in the fruit garlands of the Villa Farnesina or of the general fashion for more less delicate pictorial allusions, to recognize here a discreet supplement to the figure of Pan-Priapus who, transcending his caryatid existence, squints amiably down at the ladies” (Winternitz, loc. cit.) More to the point, perhaps, “Veronese’s ladies have devoted themselves to Musica and have permanently abjured marriage. Their recorders are shattered and sliced, and displayed crossed” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2000).
• The Finding of Moses (c. 1580), oil on canvas, 50 × 43 cm, Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. P000502. Ref. Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 117); Tena & Mena (1985: 213, fig. 502 – col.); Robertson (1992: 55, pl. 32 – col.) Image from Website: CGFA – A Virtual Art Museum (2014-col.) A most beautiful painting of a scene from the Old Testament (Exodus II, 5-6) in which the Queen of Egypt and her attendants unwrap the baby Moses. On the far right a lady in waiting encourages a dwarf (jester) holding a pipe (recorder or shawm) with a gently curved medium flared bell to play some music. No finger holes are visible; nor is a window/labium. The mouthpiece is squarish, but painted rather vaguely in order not to detract from Pharoah’s daughter’s superb dress.There are several other versions derived from this small painting (Robertson, loc. cit.), including those at Dresden, Dijon, Turin, Liverpool, Lyons, Turin and Washington. In most of the studies and paintings worked up from this model the dwarf does not hold a recorder but is given the job of holding the horses at the left of the picture (Ibañez & Gallego, loc. cit.)
• The Finding of Moses (ca 1581 or later), 122 × 168 cm, Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Dijon: Musée des Beaux-Arts. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001 & 2003); Website: WikiArt (2014-col.) The artist was assisted by Benedetto Veronese. Similar to the Prado version but reversed. The dwarf (jester) on the left clutches a stubby alto-sized recorder in his right hand. The instrument has what appears to be a black, possibly metal band around the head of the instrument, almost in the window/labium position, although the recorder is seen in side profile and no window/labium is visible. The mouthpiece and the beak are very clear. The body is cylindrical, apart from an abruptly flared bell with a beaded rim.
• Moses brought before Pharoah’s Daughters (ca 1581 or later), 122 × 168 cm, Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, A143. Ref. Anthony Harrison et al. (2004 – col.) Similar to the Washington version. The dwarf (jester) on the right, here, clutches a conical alto-sized pipe in his right hand.
• Hermes, Herse and Aglauros (1576-1584), oil on canvas, 232.4 × 173.0 cm, Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, Accn 143. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008). On the table between the two sisters is a bass viol seen on on the flat, end on; and between it and the table-edging are three tenor pipes, cylindrical and featureless, lying in a jumble. The symbolism matches that of the neighbouring Titian Venus – the pipes representing lust, the bass viol masculinity. Aglauros’ was fated because, in preference to her younger sister, she wanted the favours of Mercury.
• Proclamation to the Shepherds. See print by Jacob Matham.
• Concert, painting, possibly by Paolo Caliari Veronese (1528-1588). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Two men and two decidedly pregnant ladies are in conversation whilst three female musicians entertain them. One kneels, playing a viola da braccio; one, seated, plays a lute; one standing plays a slender duct flute (possibly a recorder) left hand uppermost.

Antonio Verrio

Italian painter active in England; specialising in illusionist ceilings and wall decorations, including those of the state rooms of Windsor Castle; in 1684 he was appointed Principal Painter to the King; born Lecce (1639), died Hampton Court, London (1707).

• Ceiling painting, Antonio Verrio (1639-1701). Chatsworth House: Grand Staircase, ceiling. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). Ceres with other gods, including Mercury, and other personages, some with musical instruments. A bearded man in white with a hood could be playing a basset recorder, directly blown into the top end at the side (like some present-day bassets); and a satyr plays a tenor-size instrument from the side of his mouth, but not in cornetto-playing position. Detail is not good for either instrument, but the bottom end of the ? basset recorder seems to have a very gentle flare. The lower part of the tenor instrument below the lower (left) hand has some finger holes just visible, including the lowest hole offset to the left. It is is cylindrical but has slight flare at the bell and, it seems, a widening bore.

Paulus van Vianen

Dutch goldsmith, silversmith and jeweller who (in 1603) became Kammergoldschmied to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, a position he retained until the end of his life; born Utrecht (ca 1570), died Prague (1613); member of a family of gold- and silver-smiths.

• Minerva and the Muses (1604), silver plaquette, 25.4 × 33.6 × 0.4 cm,  Paulus van Vianen (ca 1570-1613).  Detail. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, BK-1953-12. Ref. Weber (1975: 930); Munich RIdIM (1999: Weber 930); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). Van Vianen often derived the subject of his plaquettes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as is the case here. The goddess Minerva visits the Muses on Mt Helicon because she wishes to see the sacred spring that the winged horse Pegasus caused to gush forth near them with a blow of his hoof. She stands in the middle of the Muses who each hold a musical instrument: cello, lyre, tambourine, ?cittern, a small rectangular harp, a small pipe (possibly a duct flute) with five finger holes visible but others perhaps hidden by the owner’s hand, a triangular harp and a large tapered wind-instrument with only five finger holes.  The latter might be thought to represent a basset recorder (ARJ, loc. cit) although there is no sign of a window/labium or beak. But I am inclined to think it depicts a somewhat fancifully large member of the cornetto family, if anything.
• Feast of the Gods (1604), silver plaquette, 25.8 × 35.0 cm, Paulus van Vianen (ca 1570-1613). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, BK-NM-12628. Ref. Website: Mercury Collection (2007 – col.) In the centre foreground is the seated figure of Saturn, with a scythe and an hourglass. His wife, Rhea, is at the far right. With their sons Jupiter (ruler of the sky), Pluto (ruler of the underworld) and Neptune (ruler of the sea) and other gods, they partake of a meal, which, however, does not seem in the least bit festive. The gloom cast over this scene clouds our understanding of its meaning. At the top left, music is provided by the Muses (one of whom plays the virginals and another the lute), Apollo who strums his lyre, and Pan who pipes away on his syrynx, whilst Mercury sits distractedly on a rock holding a cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder, though it is free of detail), right hand uppermost. At the front-left, a rather coy-looking Cupid holds a very small portative organ.

Anthony [Anthoni, Anthonie] Victoryns

Flemish artist active in Antwerp; a genre painter who specialised in farm interiors, pictures of peasants especially from the 1630s, and more independent works; only a few signed works are known, and his oeuvre is obscure; flourished ca 1630, died Antwerp (1655/6).

• Peasants Music-making in a Barn, oil on panel, Anthony Victoryns (op. ca 1630-1655/6). Location unknown: Auctioned by Christie’s, 2 May 1991 (sold), 11 May 1994 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002 – b&w). Watched by a young man leaning on a stick, an old woman seated on an upturned basket plays a small cylindrical pipe reading from a sheet of music held out to her by an old man who sits opposite. Between them, a pitcher of wine stands on a barrel.

Teodorio Viero (1740-1819) – see Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

Jan-Carel Vierpijl [Vierpeyl]

Netherlandish painter of group portraits and social scenes, including merry and gallant companies; born 1665-1685; active in Antwerp 1697-1717, last known work is dated 1723.

• The Dance, painting, Jan-Carel Vierpijl (op.1697-1723). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). In a grand chamber a man in a turban dances to music provided by an ensemble which includes an alto recorder, violin and bassoon. A woman in a chair having her glass filled by a maid has an expression of rapture in her face in response to the music and the dancing. A man in the lower right corner tends wine in a drink cooler. A dog in the opposite corner seems to be dancing with the man. In the background, others seem about to join in the dancing.
• The Concert, painting, Jan-Carel Vierpijl (op.1697-1723). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Around a table four elegantly addressed musicians play lute, violin, flute and a clearly depicted baroque alto recorder. Behind them, a servant brings some refreshments.

Tommaso de Vigilia

Sicilian painter; active in Palermo where what remains of his work is represented in a number of churches; his style shows the influence of Catalan painting which he often merges with Marchigian and Genoese styles; op. 1451, died 1494.

• Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Saints, Tommaso de Vigilia (fl. 1451-1494). Palermo: Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palazzo Abatellis, Inv. 44. Ref. flickr: Anges musiciens (2013-col.) Amongst the angels, two sing and two play musical instruments including fiddle and a small duct flute (probably a recorder). The beak and window/labium of the latter is quite clearly depicted. It is played right hand uppermost. Two fingers of the upper hand cover their holes; a third is visible between the upper and lower hands. Three fingers of the lower hand appear to be covering their holes. Although the bell end is occluded, there appears to be another hole for the little finger. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

van Vijse [Vijf, Vyse, Eijsen]

One of a number of 17th-century Dutch painters with this surname, including Pieter van Eijsen (1661-1669).

• Vanitas Still-life, oil on panel, 47.5 × 65.0 cm, van Vijse (17th century). Location unknown: formerly Private Collection, Japan; auctioned Sotheby’s, London, 22 May 1989; auctioned in Old Master Paintings, Dorotheum, Vienna, 3 October 2001, Lot 152. signed and dated lower right: (P, G or H) van Vijse, Ao (anno) 1662. In the hall of a castle, a man in an enormous hat decorated with flowers sits meditating about the transience of life. On a pillar behind him hangs a an ornate clock. A table beside him is littered with books, a globe, papers, a candlestick, smoking pipes and other vanitas objects. Underneath the table are a skull and crossbones and a book. To the right is a black-curtained alcove in which stands a funeral urn. On the steps and floor beneath the alcove, musical instruments lie in a scattered heap, including violins, a harp, and what appears to be a tenor recorder with a metal-sheathed beak and a flared bell. Sotheby’s (1989) offered this as a work by Gerrit van Vucht (ca 1610-1697).

Francesco Villamena

Italian engraver who made few original engravings but reproduced designs of other artists, amongst them Raphael, Paolo Veronese, Federico Barocci, Girolamo Muziano and Giulio Romano; his output included frontispieces and book illustrations, religious and historical subjects, portraits, and a series of genre figures; born Assisi (1556), died Rome (1624).

• Man and Woman with a Recorder, engraving by Jan Theodor de Bry (1561-1623) after a design by Francesco Villamena (1556-1624). The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). An elderly woman, a bunch of keys dangling at her waist, sits blowing her first notes on a long pipe with a more or less sharply flared bell which is held for her by her apparently blind male companion. She fingers the upper two finger holes with her left hand; the bore opening shows that the flare is wood thickening. A motto beneath reads:
  

  Vivite coniunctis animis operisque beati.

  “The context and motto strongly suggest a duct flute (possibly a recorder), given the harmony/love/marriage theme” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

• Nicolo detto il cieco da pistoia / Said Nicolo, the blind man from Pistoia, engraving by Wilhelm Traut, after a design by Francesco Villamena (1556-1624). Stuttgart; Den Haag: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department. Ref. Archiv Moeck; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). An elderly woman, a bunch of keys dangling at her waist, sits blowing her first notes on a long pipe with a more or less sharply flared bell which is held for her by her apparently blind male companion. She fingers the upper two finger holes with her left hand; two further finger holes are visible, and the bore opening shows that the flare is wood thickening. No window/labium is visible. A motto beneath reads:
  

  Inflatanus, pulsandi artem non docta, manuque,
  Et digitis caeci exilit inde melos.
  Non quod anus potest, hoc praestat lumine captus,
  Quod nequeunt seorsum, reddit uterque simul.

Sergio Villarreal

Contemporary Mexican painter.

• [Boy Playing a Pipe] Sergio Villarreal (contemporary). Location unknown. Ref. Website: flautotraverso.it (2014 – col.) A young boy seen in side-profile plays a cylindrical pipe, probably a recorder judging by the thumb and finger positions.

William Vincent

British mezzotinter and publisher; no documentary evidence has yet been found on his career; his plates all seem to belong to the 1680s, and possibly early 1690s. All or some later came into the possession of John Smith (p. 1654-1742), who reprinted them.

• Two Young Men, mezzotint, 13.9 × 10.5 cm, William Vincent (op. 1680s). The Hague; London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.336. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012-b&w). Reprinted by John Smith (p. 1654-1742). A young lad in coat, wig and hat sits at a table facing left and playing a baroque three-piece recorder. His friend stands on the other side of the table pointing at a little dancing dog (a King Charles Spaniel). The same as the image below, but reversed.
• Two Young Men, mezzotint, William Vincent (op. 1680s). Ref. Archiv Moeck. Reprinted by John Smith (p. 1654-1742). A young lad in coat, wig and hat sits at a table playing a baroque three-piece recorder. His friend stands on the other side of the table pointing at a little dancing dog (a King Charles Spaniel). The same as the image above, but reversed.

Leonardo [di ser Piero] da Vinci

Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer; the archetype of the Renaissance man, his curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention; he is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived; born Vinci (1452), died Clos Lucé (1519). Da Vinci’s Notebooks, which contain some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings fusing art and natural philosophy, were made and maintained daily throughout his life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him. The notebooks are variously held by a number of collections, notably the British Musuem, British Library, Louvre, etc., etc. One, the so-called Codex Leicester, is owned by Bill Gates.

• Notebooks: [Pipe] (1508–), drawing, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Ref. Zammattio et al. (1981); Thieme (1982-1983). As a musician Leonardo was especially interested in the larynx which he considered the essential organ of the voice and of phonation. He was wrong in this since he failed to recognize the vocal chords. His notes (in mirror writing) compared the trachea to an organ pipe: by varying its length and diameter the pitch of the voice was correspondingly altered. But the accompanying diagram appears to represent a cylindrical duct flute, the window/labium and several finger holes clearly depicted.

David Vinckboons [Vinckeboons] (1576 – ca 1633)

Flemish draughtsman and landscape and genre painter; a leading figure in the transition from Mannerist tradition to the new realism in genre painting; one of the most popular and prolific painters and print designers of his time, his work has been confused with that of Pieter Brueghel the Younger; born Mechelen (1576), died Antwerp (ca 1633).

• Dorpskermis [Village Festival] (1595-1612), engraving on paper, 44.3 × 71.0 cm, Willem Isacsz. van Swanenburgh (1580-1612) after David Vinckboons (1576 – ca 1633). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-70.168. Ref. Luijten Mirror (1997: 104, no. 15); Rasmussen (2002, Horn). Depicts a village festival. On the right a stage is being built for a play by rhetoricians company and the audience are assembling, each vying for a better view. The drummer is half-way up the ladder while the player’s sign is being hung above the stage. There are people from all walks of life: farmers, elegant citizens and peasants dancing to music provided by two bagpipers. Some enjoy a meal and drinks at the tavern. A man is urinating against a wall. At the bottom left foreground three children run after a dog: a boy who sounds a coiled horn which he holds with one hand, holding a spear in the other;  another boy who bows a violin; and a little girl who blows a small cylindrical pipe (described by Rasmussen as “a recorder (one-hand pipe))” her cheeks inflated whilst cradling what is unmistakably a recorder in her apron. The recorder in the apron (missed by Rasmussen)  is seen from behind, with details of the beak, windway and even the thumb hole clearly visible. In the bottom left corner an inebriated man who has collapsed is helped to his feet by a youth. In the background a boy and a dog run after a man on a horse who seems to be attempting to cut down a goose suspended upside down from a line strung across the street whilst other competitors on horseback await their turn at what is some kind of game. There is a caption of four lines in Latin and Dutch. This is similar to other depictions of village festivals by Vinckboons (eg Dresden: Gemäldegalerie, Szczecin: Muzeum Narodowe, Los Angeles: Getty Museum) depicting peasants making merry, dancing, eating, drinking, urinating and vomiting with wild abandon. What fun!
  
• Den Nieuwen Lust-Hof. Gheplant vol uytghelesene, welgherijmde, eerelijcke, amoreuse ende vrolijkcke ghesanghen …, printed by Hans Mathysz, Amsterdam (1602): Wedding Breakfast, copper engraving, 8 × 16 cm, David Vinckboons (1576 – ca 1633). The Hague: Koninklijke Bibliotheek: 1 B 19. Ref. Website: Bibliopolis (2007). A wedding breakfast with guests playing music; a “merry company”, a theme which Vinckboon introduced in the Netherlands and which was to become hugely popular. Song books of this kind and love-emblem books in oblong format, with numerous genre representations and emblems, found their way to a young, well-to-do public. The bride and groom, sitting at one end of the table in a shady arbor, are entertained by their guests who sing and play musical instruments. A woman plays the virginals; two men play lutes; and a second woman holds an alto-sized recorder, the beak and window/labium of which are more or less clearly depicted, the foot hidden beneath the table.

Aernout Vinckenborgh (ca 1590-1620), Flemish

• Coronation of the Virgin (1615-1620), wood, 217 × 160 cm, Aernout Vinckenborgh (ca 1590-1620). Antwerp: Sint Paulus Kerk. Angels play fiddle, lute, viol, organ, and cornetto; putti sing and play trombone, and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder). One of 15 paintings depicting the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, by painters of the Antwerp School of Painting, which decorate the north side aisle of the church. All 15 paintings were made between 1615 and 1620 with Rubens the main driver behind its creation.

Vincent Jansz. van der Vinne

The last of a family of Dutch artists from Haarlem; born 1736, died 1811.

• Musical Gathering, engraving, Vincent Jansz. van der Vinne (1736-1811). The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “A group around a table consists of a violinist, a piper, and one or two singers with a cleric conducting with both hands, not singing, possibly a teacher instructing the group. On the left, a woman leans over a harpsichord, not being played. The pipe (played left hand lowermost) is in the shade and unclear but definitely suggests a baroque alto recorder with its well-shaped beak and bell. A second similar instrument lies on the table but all except the bell end is obscured by music on a stand. The museum date this engraving no earlier than 1751 and not later than 1811. Clearly 1751 is too early (Vinne was then 15), so this shows recorders used for domestic music-making in Holland well into the second half of the 18th century” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne, the elder (1629-1702), Dutch

Dutch painter and draughtsman; he produced drawings from his travels and a number of townscapes in pen and ink with a grey wash, and he received commissions for ceiling paintings, signboards, landscapes, portraits and other works, but his oeuvre consists primarily of vanitas still-lifes; perhaps most celebrated for the illustrated diary of his travels through Germany, Switzerland and France between 1652 and 1655; born Haarlem (1629), died Haarlem (1702); member of a family of artists.

• Vanitas (1656), oil on canvas, 64 × 82 cm, Vincent Laurenz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Location unknown: auctioned Christie’s, London, Sale 6837, Old Master Pictures, 10 December 2003, Lot 34. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2007-col.); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 59091 (2010-col.) On a draped table lie scattered a globe, a skull, an hourglass, a shell, papers, books and musical instruments including a lute, a flute, violin, shawm or oboe, and a recorder. Only the head of the latter is visible showing the metal-sheathed beak.
• Still-life with a Glass Sphere, oil on canvas, 64 × 49 cm, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Moscow: Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Ref. Jongh (1982: 220, fig. 43c); Bernt (1979, 4: pl. 292); Griffioen (1988: 440-441); Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image XIR65186 – col.) Scattered on a table lie books, papers, a sketch of a man, and a glass sphere on a stand reflecting the room in front of the painting with the artist at his easel. The head of a ?soprano recorder projects from behind an open book, the beak sheathed with a metal (? brass) sleeve.
• Vanitas, oil on panel, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Amsterdam: Goudstikker Collection. Ref. Archiv Moeck. A table is covered by a jumble of books, a sword, a candle holder, a globe and several musical instruments including a lute, a flute, and the bell and fontanelle of what could be a tenor recorder or (more likely) a shawm.
• Vanity with a Royal Crown, oil on canvas, 94.5 × 69.0 cm, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Paris: Musée de Louvre, Inv. RF 3712. Ref. Fischer (1975: 93); Joconde Website (2003 – col.) On a cloth-covered table lie all manner of objects including a globe, a shepherd’s crook, a skull, papers, music, an illustration, a gourd, a feathered helmet, an hourglass, a violin, and a royal crown through which are threaded a shawm (only the bell of which is visible), and some books. Leaning against the violin is the centre joint of a wind instrument which may be a transverse- or duct- flute (flageolet or recorder).
• Vanitas (1657), Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1628-1702). Private Collection. Ref. Bernt (1970, 2: 1313). Includes three wind-instruments: the fontanelle and bell of a shawm; a ? flute with a sheath protecting the lower end and two holes visible (otherwise hidden); and the head (only) of a ? recorder with a ? brass sheath protecting the beak but, oddly, no window/labium is visible. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, laid down on board, 51.7 × 43.0 cm, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1628-1702). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings Sale AM1098, 10 May 2011, Lot 61. The body of a ? flute, a skull, music sheets, a gold crown, a dagger, shells, armour, a candlestick, flowers, a string of pearls, a plumed helmet, books, a violin, and a recorder with a metal-sheathed beak lie scattered on a draped table. The foot of the recorder is hidden under a ticket reading ‘memento mori’; under the beak is a portrait of a man, possibly the client. The window/labium of the recorder is barely hinted at.
• Vanitas, oil on panel, 39 × 36 cm, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). London: Christies (2001). Ref. Christies Catalogue (5 April 2001: 61); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Gabrius Data Bank (2001 – col.) Still-life with a crown, a skull, castanets, carnations in a glass vase, an hourglass, a scroll and an engraved portrait of King Charles I. The head of an alto recorder with a brass-sheathed beak and a long window/labium emerges from beneath the upside-down crown. The latter is surmounted by the skull. Auctioned 25 April 2001, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001 – col.) Still-life with the artist at his easel reflected in a crystal ball, and with a book, a lute, a flag, a chipped roemer, a document and seal, and an engraved portrait of King Charles I. The head of an alto recorder with a brass-sheathed beak and its characteristic window/labium emerges from beneath a book. Auctioned 24 April 1998, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
• Memento Mori, oil on panel, Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne (1629-1702). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001 – col.) Still-life with a globe, an hourglass, papers, a book of maps, a sketch of the painter, a shawm and, inclined towards the top right hand corner, is the centre joint of a wind instrument which may be a transverse- or duct- flute (flageolet or recorder). A ticket reads “Memento Mori”. Auctioned 8 December 1996, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)

Sebastian Virdung

German composer and theorist on musical instruments; initially chaplain and chorister at the court in Heidelberg and then in Stuttgart, he was later appointed to one of nine succentorships at Konstanz Cathedral where he educated the choirboys until he was dismissed in 1508, it is thought because of his difficult temperament; his treatise Musica getuscht und Angezogen, notable for being the oldest printed treatise on musical instruments, describes and classifies musical instruments into families, and discusses notation (including tablatures for organ and lute, and recorder; born Amberg (c.1465), died p.1511.

• [Recorders] (ca 1511), Sebastian Virdung (c.1468 – p.1511). From Musica getutscht und Ausgezogen, published simultaneously in both Basel and in Strasbourg. Ref. Virdung (1511: facs. Klaus 1983, transl. Hettrick 1979); Legêne (1995: 112, pl. 5a); Hijmans (2005: 217). Shows a quartet of near-cylindrical (wide-bore) recorders of which there are three sizes. Their thumb holes are clearly indicated, and fingering charts are provided. These instruments, with their clearly delimited beak and beaded foot-piece, are strongly suggestive of the Dordrecht recorder, the beak and foot of which would appear to have turned tenons for just such additions.
• [Recorder Duo] (ca 1511), Sebastian Virdung (16th century). From Musica getutscht und Ausgezogen, published simultaneously in both Basel and in Strasbourg. Ref. Virdung (1511: facs. Klaus 1983, transl. Hettrick 1979); Linde 1974: 29); Thomson (1974: : 72, fig. 7); Hijmans (2005: 217). Two near-cylindrical recorders showing left- and right-handed finger positions.
• ‘Rughalm Codex’ (Nuremberg, 1524): [Wind Instruments], colored ink drawing by Wolfgang Resch (?), after Virdung. Erlangen: Universitätsbibliothek, ‘Rughalm Codex’ Ms 1463, Liber quodlibetarius (1524). Ref. Zirnbauer (1966: fig. 16); Website: Ikonographie der Renaissanceflöte (2009 – b&w). Depicts shawms, flutes, recorders, gemshorns, crumhorns, mute cornet, bladder pipe, bagpipe. There is partial compliance with Virdung, but also strong differences.

Aurelio Virgiliano

Italian musician, known today only for his manuscript collection of virtuosic music pieces and technical instructions to which he gave the title Il Dolcimelo (ca 1600).

• Il dolcimelo d’Aurelio Virgiliano dove si contengono variati passaggi, e diminutioni cosi per voci, come per tutte sorte d’instrumenti musicale; con loro accordi, e modi di sonare / [Aurelio Virgiliano’s ‘Il dolcimelo’ in which are found passaggi and diminutions either for voices or for all kinds of musical instruments; with their charts and methods of playing] (ca 1600): recorder fingering chart, manuscript, Aurelio Virgiliano (16-17th century). Ref. For modern editions, see Historical Methods & Tutors. Diagrammatic representation of near-cylindrical flared-bell recorder are used to illustrate fingerings.

Matthias de Visch

Flemish painter of diverse subjects, but is primarily known for his religious scenes, history paintings and portraits; his style is transitional to the rococo and is notable for its particular  use of soft tones; born Reninge (1702), died Bruges (1765).

• Les Beaux-Arts, canvas, 300 × 127 cm, Matthias de Visch 1702-1765). Bruges: Gruuthusemuseum. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). Apollo holding his lyre steps out on a cloud proffering a laurel crown towards a woman singing from an open book. Another woman plays an ambiguous pipe which could be a recorder. Cherubs frolic in the sky above and amongst a litter of stage props (a mask, a crown), a globe, some printed music and manuscripts.
• Allegory on the Triumph of Art Over Time (1759), oil on canvas, 62.5 × 139.0 cm, Matthias de Visch (fl. 1702-1765). Keulen: Lempertz, Alte Kunst: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Skulpturen, 20 November 2004, Lot 1201. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 273730 (2014-col.) Seated on a hillock in wild landscape Apollo bathed in light holds his lyre in one hand and a perfectly depicted three-piece baroque alto recorder in the other; at his feet are a straight trumpet, books, music and a violin Opposite him, Father time crouches over a globe pointing towards Apollo but gazing away from him into the darkness.

Peter Vischer II (1487-1528), German

German brass-caster, sculptor and draughtsman; member of a family of brass founders or redsmiths; he was intrigued with certain ideas from the Classical world and the Italian Renaissance, probably from the very beginning of his activity as an artist and craftsman in the Vischerhütteson; born Nuremberg (1487), died Nuremberg, (1528); son of the brass founder Peter Vischer I (ca 1460-1529).

• Nymph of the Source (1510-1520), engraving, Peter Vischer II (1487-1528). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstich Kabinett, KdZ 15311. Ref. Seebass (1999/2000: 31, fig.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). “By a rocky source, with trees above, a rather chubby nymph sits, barely clothed, pouring with her left arm and hand liquid out of a jug. In her right hand she holds a soprano-size duct flute with a gentle ‘wave’ profile. The window/labium is very clear, with one finger hole above her hand and three below, roughly in line, very like a Dutch hand fluyt. It is compared by Seebass (loc. cit.) with Titian’s Concert champêtre; but here the nymph of the springs, not of the pastures, is holding a recorder” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Melopmene, Muse of Tragedy, Playing the Flute, ink on paper, in the style of Peter Vischer II (1487-1528). Paris: Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques, Inv. 18676.4, Recto Standing beside a tree on which hangs a tabor, Melpomene plays a slender, curved, slightly flared pipe, probably a cornetto rather than a flute or recorder.

Antonio Maria Visentini [Vicentino]

Italian painter, engraver, architect and theorist; his etchings reproducing Canaletto’s paintings of Venice helped to promote the latter internationally and changed the world’s view of that city; born Venice (1688), died Venice (1782).

• Ballo al tamburello (1730-1740), Antonio Maria Visentini (1688-1782). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2004). In a detail of this very large painting, four women dance what appears to be a furlana to the accompaniment of a tambourine and a flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder since it seems to have a bulge above the foot, and no keywork is evident.

Cornelis Visscher (ca 1619 or ?1629 – 1662), Dutch engraver – see Adriaen Brouwer (1605/6-1638)

Nicolas (Claes) Jansz. Visscher II

Dutch draughtsman, etcher, cartographer and publisher; he drew and etched landscapes and designed and etched vignettes and borders for maps; his publishing business was one of the largest in 17th-century Amsterdam; born Amsterdam (1586 or 1587), died Amsterdam (1652).

• From Roemer Visscher, Sinnepoppen, published by Willem Jansz., Amsterdam (1614, XXI): Niet hoe veel, maer hoe eel [Not how many, but how well], etching, Nicolas Jansz. Visscher II (1586/7-1652). Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0484/Z. Ref. Hollstein (1954-, XXXIX: 158, no. 448); Rasmussen (2002, Horn; 2004, Lute); Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007); Website: Lute Iconography LI-843 (2023, b&w). A page from an emblem book which contains 184 emblems divided into three sections of 60 images, each section being referred to as a ‘Schock (set of 60). “A lute juxtaposed with a pile of musical instruments, including a reverse-curve horn, bagpipe, panpipes, recorder?, shawm?, trumpet and rommel pot” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) In fact the “shawm” is capped. The “recorder” is cylindrical with six finger holes inline clearly visible, and there is a shadow which seems more likely to represent the embouchure hole of a flute or fife since no beak is evident. The accompanying text reads:
  

  Een wel ghestelde Luyt, en een goet meester daer by, is beter van melodie, als hondert instrumenten die van de Musijcke niet en weten: want het ghetal en geldt niet, noch in melodie, noch in kloeckheydt van raedt; want daer worden veeltijdt veel Raedsheeren ghemaect, en onder alle isser een of twee die de sake beleyden of verdedighen; die is dan de Luyt, en alle d’andere de boeren Fluyten.

  It is not the quantity of instruments, but the quality of a single instrument that matters. The lute is an instrument of the court or palace and is therefore a noble instrument in the quality of its sound, especially when played by a master musician. The fine melody of the lute is far more beautiful than the sounds of a hundred instruments, the humble instruments of the villagers, such as the bagpipe, panpipes, etc.

Roemer Pietersz. Visscher

Dutch Golden Age merchant, underwriter and writer; his fondness of epigrams earned him the nickname ‘De Hollandse Martialis’, after the Roman poet Martial; his most important work was the emblem book Sinnepoppen (1614); born and died in Amsterdam (1547-1620); father of poet, translator and glass engraver Anna Roemers Visscher (1583-1651), and Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher (1594-1649) who was also a glass engraver.

• Niet hoe veel, maer hoe eel [Not how much, but how little] (1614), engraving, 14.5 x 8.5 cm, Roemer Pietersz. Visscher (1547-1620). Sinnepoppen, Emblem XXI, printed by Willem Jansz (1614). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; Leiden: Universiteit Leiden; London: British Museum, Reg. 1991,0406.61; Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht. Ref. Lute Iconography, Image LI-843 (2023, b&w). A lute, bagpipe, syrinx, horn, folded trumpet, rommelpot, and a small cylindrical recorder lie in a jumble. The beak, window/labium, and seven finger holes of the recorder are clearly depicted. The syrinx is made up of independent duct flutes, each with five finger holes. The accompanying text proclaims the Lute to be better than 100 other instruments, and all the others are but farmers’ flutes.
• Niet hoe veel, maer hoe eel [Not how much, but how little] (c.1614), ink with wash on paper, 7.5 x 6.0 cm, Roemer Pietersz. Visscher (1547-1620). Glasgow: University of Glasgow Library, Sp Coll SM 1891A, Folio 7 detail 2.  From a collection of 84 original sketches for the engravings in Sinnepoppen (see above) bequeathed to Glasgow University Library in 1956. The sketch is very similar to the print (although the latter is reversed) with one exception: the sketch includes a Jew’s harp in front of the rommelpot.

Alvise [Luigi] Vivarini

Italian painter of altarpieces, religious and historical scenes; Vasari referred to him as “unhappy Vivarini”; born ca 1442-1453, died 1503-1505; son of the painter Antonio Vivarini (1440-1476/1484).

• Belluno Altarpiece (ca 1485), Alvise Vivarini (ca 1442-1505). Destroyed (1945): formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin. Ref. Humfrey (1993: 209, pl. 196). “Two boys stand on the base of a predela. One, with his back half towards the viewer, plays a lute. The other, sideways on, plays a soprano/alto recorder. The latter is held left hand lowermost; its window/labium is clearly depicted, the first finger hole shows, and the others are covered. The instrument is cylindrical in profile, but the bell end is obscured by the pegs of the lute” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000).

Nicolas Vleughels [Wleughels]

French painter, administrator and teacher of Flemish origin; he was influenced by Flemish painting (notably Rubens) and by the work of the Venetian colourists, particularly Veronese, whose works he copied; born Paris (1668), died Rome (ca 1737); son of the Flemish painter Philippe Vleughels (?1620-1694), a Flemish painter who had moved to Paris in 1642.

• Erato and Euterpe (1710), engraving by B. Jeurat after Nicolas Vleughels (1668 – ca 1737). Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Db 18. Ref. Pottier (1992: 44, pl. XXX); Archiv Moeck. Seated on a bank beside a stream, Erato (Muse of lyric, especially erotic and love poetry) holds a lyre in one hand whilst she writes on a slate with the other, assisted by a putto. Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) lies in the grass beside her holding a duct flute in each hand.

Nicolas Vleys

Flemish artist; active Bruges (1694), died Bruges (1703).

• Assumption of the Virgin, canvas, 268 × 210 cm, Nicolas Vleys (fl. 1694 – 1703). Bruges: Klooster Zwart-Zusters Augustinessen. Angels sing and play lute, shawm, trombone, and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder).

Hendrik (Cornelisz.) van Vliet

Dutch painter of conservative style portraits and church interiors, mostly the Oude Kerk or the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft; born Delft (ca 1611), died Delft (1675).

• Portrait of the van der Dussen Family (1640), oil on canvas, 159 × 210 cm, Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet (ca 1611-1675). Delft: Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof. Ref. Advert. for Didier Aaron & Co., Burlington Magazine, May (1987: xix); Griffioen (1988: 440-441, 1995: 118); Laarmann (1998: 32-36); Griffioen (1991: 387); Tibia 1 (2000: front cover – col., detail); Rowland-Jones (2000: fig. 6-9, b&w); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 133703 (2010-b&w); Arnold den Teuling (pers. comm., 2011). In a well-appointed room, the van der Dussen Family stand for their portrait. On the right are van der Dussen’s wife, Wilhelmina van Setten (1605-1683) and three daughters, the smallest with a pet bird on her arm, surrounded by symbols of fruitfulness, including the nuts on the floor. On the left, Michiel van der Dussen (1600-1681) and his two sons pose before a wooden music stand on one side of which lies an open music-book (? hymnal). One of the boys holds a cylindrical recorder in his right hand; his father holds a similar alto instrument in his left hand, pointing towards the open book on the stand (this may represent both left- and right-handed players). Interestingly, papa’s recorder, which is entirely cylindrical, has a silver decorated ring at the foot and a silver sleeve covering the beak, similar to the metal sleeves seen on recorders illustrated by other Dutch painters of this period, amongst them Collier, van Steenwyck, Vermuelen and Vinne and to those found on the three tenor recorders in the collection of 17th-century recorders in the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna (Puglisi 1981: 32-43). Two more recorders lie on top of a tall stool (one with a metal-sleeved beak) and three others lean at different levels against this stool. Curiously, the recorders do not seem to vary greatly in size, although the boy’s half-hidden instrument could be of soprano size and the one leaning from the floor to the top of the stool may be a basset in g. Both instruments beneath the stool have flared bells. Possibly the picture shows seven rather similar recorders to emphasise the family’s coherence. The music on the stand is Factum est silentium by Hieronymus Praetorius from his Cantiones sacrae de praecipuis festis published in 1599 but reprinted from 1607 up to 1623. The music scattered on the floor (amongst which is Nervi d’Orfeo, a book of madrigals published in Leiden in 1605) is secular music, and the devout father (the Dussens were Roman Catholic) is possibly pointing to the sacred music on the stand as being more appropriate repertoire for his family, and in fact Factum est silentium was in honour of St Michael, pointing to the father’s name. But even the pagan Orpheus stands for marital devotion, as well as for divinely inspired music-making.

Ary [Arie] de Vois [Voys]

Dutch artist who painted in the style of his brother-in-law, Jan Steen, before adopting the polished style of Leiden’s fijnschilders; his themes also changed, moving from peasants having fun to genre pieces, portraits and pastoral scenes; born Utrecht (1631), died Leiden (1680).

• Portrait of a Man as Bacchus, oil on copper, 20.4 × 17.8 cm , attributed to Ary [Arie] de Vois (1631-1680) or follower. Amsterdam: Salomon Lilian, exhibited pAn Art Fair, December 2003;  sold Christies, London, Sale 6708, Old Master Pictures, London, 9 April 2003; auctioned Christie’s Londen, 2009-07-08, Lot. 141. Ref. Constance Scholten to Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003); Website: Wikigallery (2014-col.); Rijksbureau vor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2016: ). Said to be a portrait of the artist Adrian van der Werff  (1659-1752). Against the background of a cloudy landscape, a rather becoming young man in a tattered leopard-skin and crowned with a leafy wreath holds a clearly depicted hand-fluyt, right hand uppermost.

Louis Volders

Dutch portraitist who worked from about 1700 at the Stadhouderlijk court in Leeuwarden; often confused in the literature with John and Lancelot Volders, or the three painters conflated; active 1689; died 1713.

• Portrait of a Family on a Terrace (c. 16601), oil on canvas, 87.0 × 118.5 cm, Louis Volders (op. 1689-m.1713). Madrid: Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Inv./cat.nr 5267. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, illustration 1000314534 (2014-col.) Two men and a youth sit together, a little girl standing beside her father. Opposite them are his wife, five girls and a young woman. One of the girls plays a guitar; a lute, a viol and an open book of music are on the ground in front of them. Between the lute and the viol, lying flat on the floor is what looks like an alto recorder.

Il Volterrano = Baldassare Franceschini

Michiel Frans van der Voort [Michiel Vervoort] the Elder (known as Welgemaeckt)

Flemish sculptor and draftsman, best known for the Baroque church furniture which he made for the principal churches in Flanders; he also produced secular works, particularly of mythological and allegorical subjects; born Antwerp (1667), died there (1737).

• Musical Trophies, gilt, carved wooden panels, Michiel Frans van der Voort the Elder (1667-1737). Flemish. Antwerp: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, case of the great organ. Ref. Jan Bouterse to Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Lute Iconogdraphy, Image 3086, col.) A number of panels visible from about the organist’s bench include garlands of musical instruments. One such garland comprises harp, shawm, cornett, traverso and cylindrical recorder with details of the window/labium and finger holes clearly depicted, the paired holes for the little finger of the lowermost hand arranged diagonally as if to indicate semitone holes, but possibly the work of woodworm! Others comprise drum, cornett, mute cornett, syrinx (comprised of seven duct flutes with finger holes); lute, tambourine and bagpipes; and guitar violin, traverso, fife and triangle (with jingle rings). Although the case dates from the 17^th century, the organ it houses dates from the late 19^th century and is the work of Belgian organ builder Pierre Schyven (1827–1916).

Michiel Frans [François] van der Voort [Michiel Frans Vervoort]

Flemish printmaker; born Antwerp (1714), died Antwerp (1777).

• Five Musical Putti, (1737-1777), etching on paper, 11 × 15 cm, Michiel Frans van der Voort (1714-1777).  Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1878-A-1795. Five putti play music in a landscape. One to the right is on hands and knees; on his back is a music book from which another putto seems to be conducting. Behind the conductor is a putto with a shawm. To the left are two more putti, one of whom plays a clearly depicted baroque recorder whilst the other holds a music book.

Cornelis de Vos

Flemish artist and art dealer; his chief genre was portraiture, particularly of young children; his style is characterised by detailed sensitive brushwork and full-bodied colouring; some work on large commissions was delegated to him by Rubens; born Hulst (1585), died Antwerp (1651).

• Allegory of the Futility of Wealth or Transitoriness (ca 1630-1635), 190 × 194 cm, Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651). Brunswick: Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Inv. 109. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “Combines the trappings of a vanitas with a portrait of a family, being man, wife and three children. A catalogue form 1776 says that this is Rubens’ family, and the woman certainly looks like Hélène Fourment; the children are about the right age for ca 1635; and Rubens was certainly very rich. At the bottom right there is a cluster of musical instruments, including an alto cornetto without its mouthpiece, the wide bell-end of a shawm, and between them the middle part of a cylindrical instrument (transverse flute or recorder) showing four finger holes and possibly part of a fifth. There is also a large lute, and some music” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Auditus [The Sense of Hearing], engraving, Crispijn de Passe (? I or II) after Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651). Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2047 (2023, b&w). A woman personifying the Sense of Hearing, sits cross-legged beneath a tree playing her lute. To her left are a viol, a cornetto, and an open book of music. To her right are a deer, a bagpipe, and a musical wind-instrument case with eight tubular compartments, beside which is a long, slender, cylindrical flute. In the background are the buildings of a town, including a church. There are no recorders in this print!

Marten [Martijn, Maarten, Maerten] de Vos the elder

Flemish painter and draughtsman who ranks among the best painters of altarpieces in Antwerp during the late 16th century and considered the most important figure painter in Antwerp before Rubens; provided some 1600 designs for print publishers; his drawings have been praised for their lively, industrious and generally positive character, frequently with romantic Italianate landscapes in the background; born Antwerp (1532), died Antwerp (1603).

• The Seven Liberal Arts (1590-1595), oil on panel, 147 × 200 cm, Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Private Collection; formerly Galleria Luigi Carretto, Torino. Ref. Website: Web Gallery of Art (2014-col.) The Liberal Arts, represented by seven splendidly dressed female figures, each with their attributes, seated in a garden. They are Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Grammar, Astronomy. They are presided over by winged Astronomy who is in discussion with a male visitor whilst behind her a winged man is prompting an older man in a loin-cloth towards her. Music plays the lute, and at her feet are a cornetto, a crumhorn, a bagpipe and a case seen end-on with the bells of eight wind-instruments visible in their tubes. Their bores seem to be expanded at the bell, but recorders are a possibility.
• AESTAS [Summer] (c.1590), engraving, 10.4 x 13.3 cm (plate), by Philips Galle (1537– 1612) after Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Loc. Llubliana, Slovenská národná galéria; London: British Museum, Reg. 1942,0720.1.19. Ref. Lute Iconography, Image LI-841 (2023, b&w). From a series of four plates illustrating the Four Seasons. A personification of Summer sits beneath a tree beside a stream, playing her lute. Scattered around her a cittern, a cornetto (or possibly a crumhorn without its windcap), shawm, viol, harp, a musical wind-instrument case of the kind used to store recorders or flutes with five cylindrical compartments, and two open books of music. On the opposite side of the stream, three elegant couples are enjoing a performance by another couple – a woman singing and a man accompanying her on the lute. In the distance, farmers are harvesting their fields.
• The Marriage Feast at Cana, oil on oak panel, 75.3 × 106.5 cm, after Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.4094. Ref. Boydell (1985: 49, fig. 39). Formerly attributed to Hieronymus Francken I (1540-1610). In a large banquet room, the guests sit at a long dining table. At one end sits Christ turning jugs of water brought to him by a servant into wine. From a gallery at the other end of the table a musician sings from an open book, three play lutes, and a fourth plays a slender duct flute, probably a recorder to judge by the cross-fingering employed.
• The Sense of Hearing, pen & brown ink, brown wash heightened with white, 19.2 × 25.4 cm, Martin de Vos (ca 1531–1603). Princeton University Art Museum, Inv. x1946-63. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2916 (2023, col.) At the foot of a tree, a woman (a personfiication of Hearing) sits playing her lute, left-handed. To her right is a deer; before her a pile of musical instruments; a cittern, a cornetto, a viol and bow, a harp, a lyre, and a case with tubes for four woodwind instruments, possibly recorders. In the foreground is a lizard. In the background Adam and Eve are being admonished and cursed by God himself. In the mid-ground, on the other side of a stream, a crowd from all walks of life are being lectured to by the similarly angry Son of God.
• The History of the First Men (Boni et Mali Scientia): Jubal’s Workshop (1583), engraving, 19.8 × 22.8 cm and 19.4 × 24.8 cm, by Johannes Sadeler I (1550-1600) after Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Coloured version. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts; Vienna: Albertina, Inv. HB78; The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department; New York: C. & J. Goodfriend, Online Exhibition – The Musical Scene Five Centuries of Prints and Drawings of Musical Subjects, Item 38, 2011. Ref. Early Music 1 (3): (1973: 186-187); Mirimonde (1977: 24, pl. 61); Web-site: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (2009); Ferino-Pagden (2001: 190, fig.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Lute Iconography, Image LI-1959 (2023, b&w.) “Illustrates Genesis 4:21-23, where Jubal, one of the three sons of Lemech, is named as the father of musicians. The learned Latin verses explain that Jubal played musical instruments: lyres, harps and the slender flute (monaulos), while attendant nymphs enjoy merry delights, elegant games and happy dances. The engraving shows Jubal as the proprietor of a busy instrument-making concern. He seems to be adjusting a rather fancifully shaped violin with only three strings and a central sound hole, while his assistants saw wood, bore a tube on a lathe, drill holes in a wind instrument, and so on. This surely one of the earliest depictions of the techniques of instrument making. The shop seems to offer various instruments for sale: transverse flutes, recorders, bagpipes, viols (or violins), rebecs, shawms, and so on …The round dance in the far background seems to be accompanied by a single shawm. The couple dancing in the middle ground is supplied with music by the improbable combination of violin, flute, and bagpipe” (H[oward] M[ayer] B[rown], Early Music, loc. cit). The ‘recorder’ lying on a table in front of Jubal has a widely flared bell and only four finger holes. A caption reads:
  

  Musica tractabat Jubal instrumenta Lyrafqz
  Et cytheras, doctus, tenuemaz inflare monaulon:
  Dum nymphae comites, gaudent celbrare iocofas
  Blanditias, lepidos ludos, hilarefque choreas.

• Terra (1580-1637), engraving 20.4 × 22.2 cm, by Crispin I de Passe (ca 1565-1637), after Martijn de Vos (1532-1603). Paris: Bibliothéque Nationale, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie; The Hague: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department; New York: Public Library, Prints Division, Astor, Lenox & Tilden Foundations; Washington D.C.: Folger Shakespeare Library, ART 259051. Ref. Hollstein (1949-, xlvi: 185, no. 1353); Beck & Roth (1965: pl. 22); Hirth (1972: no. 1422); Fischer (1972: 39-46, pl.; 1975: 34); Michel Sanvoisin (1973), Nouveaux Duos pour flûte à bec et guitare, Heugel CPJ 19, Paris (front cover); Jongh (1976: 24); Mirimonde (?date-4: 276, fig. 19; 1977, Astrologie: pl. 107); American Recorder (1980, 1); Early Music (1982,10: 249); Moens & Kockelbergh (1994: 109, no. 61); Paris RIdIM (1999); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Rasmussen (2002, Lute; 2007, Flute); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1737 (2023, b&w). Part of a series representing the four elements – earth, air, water and fire. In a garden, an elaborately dressed man plays a lute whilst his female companion sings from a manuscript. Before them is a table on which lie a bowl of fruit and other food, a decorated plate, a lizard, a drinking glass, a book, an open music book (showing the score of Lassus’ Susanne un Jour), and musical instruments including a violin, cittern, cornetto, cylindrical flute, and a duct flute (recorder or flageolet). The latter is conical with a prominent bell The beak and window/labium of the later are clearly depicted, however only two finger holes are visible. Roth & Beck (loc. cit.) identify the duct flute mistakenly with the piffero, a reed instrument. In the background a woman playing bass viol, a man playing flute, and another playing a lute accompany dancers. An explanation of the complex symbolism of this painting may be found in Fischer (1972, loc. cit.)
• Euterpe / Dulciloguis calmos Euterpe flatibus urget, engraving, 16.4 × 9.4 cm, by ? Philips Galle (1600-1676), after Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Antwerp: Museum Plantin-Moretus, Prentenkabinet, PK.OP.07532 | II/G.273; San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.12319. Ref. Hollstein (1949-, XLVI: 167, no. 1301); Musiek & Grafiek, Antwerp (1994: 5, fig. 3d); Paris RIdIM (2000); Rasmussen (2002, Bagpipe; 2007, Flute). The fourth engraving in a series depicting the Muses. Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) sits playing a straight trumpet held in her right hand. In her left hand she holds a cylindrical recorder with a greatly flared bell; the beak, window/labium and four lowermost holes (in line) are clearly visible. Beneath the recorder stands a case, a set of tubes for five wind instruments. At her feet lie a folded trumpet, a crumhorn without a windcap, a cornetto, a set of small bagpipes and a flute. To her right and in the distance four other female figures play bagpipes, flute, straight trumpet and a crumhorn (again without a windcap). Just below the recorder is a case for five flutes.
• From Età dell’uomo, scene allegoriche: Adolescentia amori (1596), engraving by Crispijn I de Passe (1564-1637) after Maarten de Vos (1532-1603). Rome: Biblioteca Casanatense, 20. A. II. 114, fol. [88] c. di tav.; London British Museum. Ref. Hollstein (1949-, xlvi: 222, no. 1458); Mirimonde (1977, Alchemie: 146, pl. 83); Hellerstedt (1986: 16, no. 5); Rasmussen (2002, Lute; 2007, Flute); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2016, col.) From a Four Ages of Man series. A handsome youth playing a lute is admonished by Venus while Amor takes aim with his bow and arrow. Beside Venus is a viol and beside the youth there are several books and musical instruments: cittern, flute, pommer (?), recorder and cornetto. In the background a woman plays a double bass as a couple dances. The window/labium and flared bell of the recorder are clearly depicted. In the lower margin:

Dum puerilis adhuc, dum vernat amabilis aetas,
(Nam mihi turpe minus) cur non genus omne ego vice
Liberioris amem? haude pauide tua castra Cupido
Ingrediar; vacuus curae, termerarius, audax;
Delicias quaerum, et juvenila gaudia quaeuis:
Denique me totum VENERE propriumque dicabo.

followed by a Latin dedication to Johannes Welanus by Crispijn de Passe:

Clarissimo simul ac peritissimo viro, D(omi)no Ioanni Welano, picturam et antiquitatu(m) studiosissimo, hosce quatuor vit(a)e human(a)e gradus à Martino Vossio figuratos, à se verrò in Agrippinensi Colonia scalptos et excusos, amiciti(a)e et obseruanti(a)e ergò de-dictat Crispianus Passaeus chalcographus, anno salut.hum.1596.”

Simon Vouet

French painter and draughtsman known for his portraits, and allegorical and religious designs for royal residences and the burgeoning hôtels and châteaux in and around Paris which introduced a new type of illusionist decoration with steep perspective that influenced a generation of decorative painters; born Paris (1590), died Paris (1649).

• Apollo and Marsyas, engraved by Dorigny after Simon Vouet. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Print Collection. Ref. Mirimonde (1975: fig. 57). Apollo (holding his lyre under is arm) and his company look on as a satyr puts a cloak (animal skin) around Marsyas’ shoulders as the latter points questioningly to his instruments on the ground – a syrinx, a small pipe, and a flared bell recorder seen end-on.

Sebastian Vrancx

Flemish playwright, captain in the Civic Guard and painter of peasant scenes, brawls, church interiors, and battle pieces; born Antwerp (1573), died Antwerp (1647).

• Flemish Proverbs, canvas, 118 × 246 cm, Sebastian Vrancx (1573-1647). Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Cat. 1095, Inv. 3301. Leppert (1977: 167). An allegorical scene depicting a country fair in which street musicians play two horns and a bagpipe, and a shady merchant proffers a basket containing seven duct flutes (flageolets or recorders).
• Market Day in Vlaamse (1613), oil on panel, 42 × 55 cm, Sebastian Vrancx (1573-1647). Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Ref. Ref.Centre for Music Documentation (CMD), Madrid (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); ?Author, Kunstschrift 98 (6): 17 (?date). In a busy market a merchant and his wife display their wares on top of a barrel: spectacles, jews harps and small flared-bell duct flutes (flageolets or recorders) with a variable number of finger holes. A caption reads:
  

  A. Hier netten ende trompen ja oock schoon fluitjen,
  heen beter ware men nu hier in landt en vindt.

  B. Wech versiet u Crémere loopt elders stuitjen,
  Daer t’volck noch is hoorende doof en siende blindt.

Hans Vredeman de Vries

Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer; known for his publications on garden design and his books with many examples of ornaments and perspective; born Leeuwarden (1527), died c.1607, possibly in Hamburg.

• Musical Trophies, engraving, Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527-c.1607). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Designs for four trophies of musical instruments, one of which comprises three swags of wind instruments: a swag comprising six flutes and two small duct flutes (possibly recorders); a swag comprising two cornetti, a lysard (tenor cornett) and a folded trumpet; a swag comprising six more-or-less cylindrical recorders each with a flared bell. One of the recorders has a key and fontanelle. Other trophies depict: lutes, cittern, guitar, harp, flute; tromba marina, lyre, shawm, flutes, musical bow, viols; bagpipes, recorder, shawms (some straight, others with curved bells), dulcian.

Goossen van Vreeswyk

Much-travelled Dutch expert on mining who had an extensive knowledge of minerals; he wrote nine alchemical works, which consist of alchemical philosophy, practical instruction and recipes for preparing extracts drawn from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms; many of his works are illustrated with elaborate series of engravings which have a more symbolic and hermetic content; born 1616, died after 1689.

• Title page: Vervolg van ‘t cabinet der mineralen, of de goude son der philosophen … [Continuation of the Cabinet of Minerals] (1675), engraving, Goosen van Vreeswyk (1626 – p.1689).  Ref. Website: International Institute of Social History, KNAW AB S 36. An alchemical treatise published by Johannes Jansonius van Waesberge, Amsterdam, with a series of 17 engravings. A shepherd sits beneath a tree playing his recorder, the offset hole for the lowermost finger clearly visible. Before him are a grape vine, and a dead donkey. Behind him, a sheep grazes on a hillside. Alchemical symbols are attached to the Air (Silver), Sun (Gold), Earth (Potash) and to the flute-player himself (Sulphur). Sulphur was associated in the 17th century with the Expansive force in Nature: Dissolution and Evaporation. This image is derived from Jan Gerritsz. Sweelinck’s Ex morte levamen, published in Cats’ emblem books (1618, 1627).

Willem Vrelant [Guillaume Wyelant, Guillermo Vrelant]

Flemish illuminator; one of the most influential and commercially successful illuminators working in Bruges during the third quarter of the 1400s; his distinctive style of illumination relied on heavy black contours to outline his static figures and is notable for the use of intense primary colors along with gold for drapery highlights; born before 1430, died 1481.

• Book of Hours (ca 1486), illumination, Willem Vrelant (a. 1430-1481). Madrid: Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Library, Lat. Vit-10, Lib. Hor. Zúñiga, f.155v Ref.Centre for Music Documentation (CMD), Madrid (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “An angel holds a duct flute of alto/tenor size just away from his lips. His left hand clutches the upper part of the instrument, with the thumb across from the first and second holes. The right hand is on the instrument, but five finger holes are clearly shown, as well as a perfectly shaped window/labium and beak, together with an incised ring a little before the unflared bell end. There is no offset hole, but if the right hand covers, as seems likely, two finger holes, this is a probable recorder” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Book of Hours, Bruges (ca 1466): Annunciation, illumination, Willem Vrelant (a. 1430-1481). Vienna: Die Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 1987, fol. 44v. Ref. Zanten (1999: 61, pl. 10); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). “In an organ loft above the main scene, three angels play organ, slide trumpet and a tenor size cylindrical pipe which appears to have a window/labium though other details are even less clear in the photo (Zanten, loc. cit.) The instrument has a fairly brief but marked bell flare with wood thickening. It could be a recorder, the trumpet on the left representing Gabriel. The angel holds the duct flute with the right hand uppermost with the fingers in playing position, not clutching; the left arm is not visible” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Gerrit van Vucht

Dutch art dealer and painter who produced a prolific number of very similar still-lifes, of which few were signed and none dated; born ? Rotterdam (ca 1610), died Schiedam (1697).

• Still-life, oil on panel, 22.2 × 25.9 cm, Gerrit van Vucht (ca 1610-1697). Location unknown: auctioned Sotheby’s (Amsterdam), AM0885, Old Master Paintings, 13 May 2003, Lot 10 (sold). Ref. Catalogue, Sotheby’s Sale AM0885 (2003 – Lot 10). On a draped table lies a jumble of objects, including a jug, books, a box, a folder of papers, a hand-written note, a tobacco pipe, and a hand-fluyt. Only the head and upper body of the recorder are visible. Behind the recorder is something dark and vaguely cylindrical which may be a transverse flute. If so, then this is an early example of them appearing together.

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