Artists–G

Adriaen van Gaesbeeck

Dutch artist active in Leiden and Amsterdam; known for his portraits, religious paintings and genre pieces; born Leiden (1621), died 1650.

• Interior  with a Woman Sewing and Three Children, Adriaen van Gaesbeeck (1621–1650), oil on panel, 52 × 41 cm, Karlsruhe: Kunsthalle. Ref. Sumowski (1983, 1: 507); Griffioen (1988: 440–441); Website, flickr: HEN-Magonza’s photostream  (2016, col.) A young woman seated before an open window plies her needle and thread watching her two young boys whilst a baby slumbers in a wicker basket. One of the boys sheds a tear as he rocks the baby’s cradle; the other plays marbles at the foot of a spiral staircase. In an open room leading off the landing a man in side-profile plays a recorder, right hand uppermost.
• Young Man in a Study (1640–1650), oil on panel, 100 × 76 cm, Adriaen van Gaesbeeck (1621–1650). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. SK-A-113. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2014, col.)  A young lad strikes a pose in his father’s study which is lit by a large window. He leans on a table dangling one of his gloves by a finger – he seems to have lost the other one – holding a hat in against his hip with the other hand. On the table an open book leans against an up-turned lute, lying on a map with an inkwell and a slender recorder of alto or tenor size, the beak, window/labium and seven finger holes clearly visible, the lowermost offset, but the foot out of view behind the book. Behind the lute are a globe and a statue of Aphrodite without her nightie, but just managing to cover her nether parts modestly with a drape. A second globe, more books, a conch, and a roll of paper are on a high shelf and other books and maps are scattered about the room. In the background, a maid descends a spiral staircase carrying a file of papers. On a pillar supporting the stair hangs an oval portrait of a young girl holding a basket of fruit.

Joannes [Jan] Galle – see Martin de Vos

Flemish engraver, publisher and print dealer; although various engravings have been attributed to him, he was probably only their publisher; born and died Antwerp (1600–1676); son of Theodor Galle.

Fernando Gallego

Spanish painter, generally regarded as Hispano-Flemish in style, worked throughout Castile and Extremadura, most notably in Ciudad Rodrigo, Plasencia, Toro, and Zamora; his paintings are confused with those of Francisco Gallego (possibly his older brother) with whom he shared a workshop; most of his output consists of small panels of religious scenes, often used to make up altarpieces, or retablos – a notable exception is Sky of Salamanca, located at the University of Salamanca, a vast ceiling mural which depicts astronomical scenes and constellations probably born in Salamanca (ca 1440), died 1507.

• Coronation of Mary (? 1480), Fernando Gallego (ca 1440–1507). Salamanca: Museo Diocesano. Ref. Website: flickr, groenling’s photostream (2012, col.) Christ crowns Mary, surrounded by musical angels singing and playing a large waisted fiddle, folded trumpets, lute a ? mute cornetto and a small recorder mostly hidden behind the lutenist but the window/labium visible. King David (wearing a crown) plays his harp. Donors hold banners.

Lattanzio Gambara (ca 1530-1574)

Italian painter, frescoist and draughtsman; many of his works are in the turgid Mannerist style, filled with large figures and complicated foreshortening; pupil of Antonio Campi and of Romanino; born and died Brescia (ca 1530–1574).

• Apollo with Putto / Apollo and Orpheus (1557), 107 × 182 cm, Lattanzio Gambara (ca 1530–1574). Brescia: Museo di Santa Giulia. Ref. Begni Redona & Vezzoli (1978: 89, col.); Gianpaolo Capuzzo (pers. comm.); Exhibition, Portland Art Museum, Great Painters in Brescia from the Renaissance to the 18th Century (29 April – 17 September 2006); Website: gallica, identifier ark:/12148/btv1b8427655t (2010, b&w). Apollo reclines in an archway holding his bow and lira da braccio. Beside him a putto (possibly his son, Orpheus) holds a cylindrical pipe, only the upper five finger holes of which are visible (the area where the embouchure hole of a flute or the window/labium of a recorder might be is covered by his hands). Orpheus father is usually said to be Oeagrus, a Thracian king, but, according to another account, it was the god Apollo. Similarly, his mother was Calliope (Muse of epic poetry) or a daughter of Pierus, son of Makednos. Apollo became fond of Orpheus and gave him a little golden lyre and taught him to play it; Orpheus’s mother taught him to make verses for singing.
• Two Muses, fresco, Lattanzio Gambara (ca 1530–1574). Brescia: Palazzetto di via Gabriele Rosa 39, ceiling. Ref. Begni Redona & Vezzoli (1978: 133, col.) Two muses sit opposite one another. The one on the left is fully clothed and holds an alto-sized recorder of ‘choke-bore’ form; that on the right is mostly naked and holds a small harp between her legs, a ? cornetto in her right hand, and a small statuette in her left.

Giuseppe Gambarini

Italian painter who, during his short career, gained prominence in Bologna as a specialist in scenes of working-class domestic life; born and died Bologna (1680–1725).

• Dancing Peasants or A Dance in the Country (1715–1720), oil on canvas, 61.5 × 76.5 cm, Giuseppe Gambarini, (1680–1725). Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, Inv. L144. Ref. State Gallery, Stuttgart (1992: 130, b&w); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A couple dance to music played by a man and a woman both playing tambourines and a second man playing a flared bell duct flute of alto/tenor size the window/labium of which is clear, the outstretched lowermost little finger crooked – though there is no evidence of an offset hole for it.
• Adoration of the Shepherds (ca 1710), Giuseppe Gambarini, (1680-1725). Bologna: Marano di Castenaso, Collezione Francesco Molinari Pradelli. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm, 2003). The Holy Family admire the Child in a crib, above which hover seraphim. In front of the crib and to the right a shepherd on his knees holds his right hand to his heart in wonder; in his left hand he holds a perfectly depicted turned baroque recorder of alto size. In a basket at his feet are some chicks.
• Family Scenes, Giuseppe Gambarini, (1680–1725). Location unknown: offered for sale San Marco, Venice, 21 October 2007, Lot 23. A pendant pair, one depicting a family seated together whilst two children share a meal from a plate which is eyed with interest by their dog; the other depicting a young woman seated with her children at her feet playing with a cat. Beside her, a young man holding what appears to be a tenor-sized recorder gazes at her fondly.

Guy Gambier (20th century), French

Belgian portraitist, poster designer and editor.

• Les joueses de pipeau [The Girl Pipers], oil on canvas, 81 × 65 cm, Guy Gambier (20th century). Location unknown; sold Paris: Palais Galliéra, 4 April 1974 by Laruin, Guilloux & Beffetaud. Ref. Sale Catalogue (1974: no. 32); Paris RIdIM (2000). Two pretty young girls with flowers in their hair play flared-bell pipes, one larger than the other. These seem somewhat fanciful in design and there is no obvious beak or window/labium on either.

James Gamble (1837–1911), English

Designer, sculptor and draughtsman. Pupil of Alfred Stevens, and collaborated on designs for the V&A restaurant and other public buildings. He exhibited in London between 1875 and 1892.

• Decorated piano case, James Gamble (1837–1911). London: Victoria & Albert Museum, left (straight) side of grand piano. Detail. Ref. Schott (1985: title page & 59, b&w); Macmillan (2008: 136). Piano by Robert Wornum & Sons (ca 1870), presented by Sir Henry Cole, the V&A’s first Director, decorated with instruments in the museum’s collection. The panel on the left (straight) side of the piano includes lute, triangle, oboes, shawm, tabor, viol, harp and a renaissance-style tenor recorder with fontanelle and key for the lowermost finger.

Silvestro Ganassi del Fontego

Italian (Venetian) musician and author of two important treatises on instrumental technique, Opera intitulata Fontegara (1535) (for recorder) and Regola Rubertina (1542) and Lettione Seconda (1543) for viola da gamba. He worked as court musician to the Doge of Venice Andrea Gritti, to whom Fontegara is dedicated, but also as a member of an independent company of instrumentalists formed completely or in part by family members, as a virtuoso of the viola da gamba and lute engaged in the ridotti promoted by the noblemen and intellectuals of the city, and as a teacher of music. In addition to all this, he also successfully practised the art of painting. Ganassi was born in Fontego (1492) and died in ? Venice (after 1571).

• Title page: La Fontegara (1535), woodcut, Silvestro Ganassi del Fontego (1492–p. 1653). Published by the author, Venice. Ref. Linde (1991: 49); Fraenkel (1968: pl. 10); Slim (1985: 405, fig. 6); Thomson & Rowland-Jones (1995: 121, fig. 29); Lyndon-Jones (1996: 18–28); Hijmans (1995: 223); Darmstädter & Brown (2006: 53, fig. 8); Website: Lute Iconography LI-661 (2023, b&w.) Shows three near-cylindrical recorders accompanying a singer, whilst a fourth recorder-player is unoccupied; three viols and a lute hang on the wall, and a cornetto and lysarden lie on the window-ledge in front of the music table. Interpreting these illustrations as Virdung/Agricola rather than Ganassi-bore, Rowland-Jones (1994, 1995) has argued that Ganassi’s high-note fingerings are most unlikely to have worked with recorders of the kind depicted in his book. However, Marvin (1978) presented an illustrated and detailed article on making recorders extrapolated from the Fontegara frontispiece, estimating measurements from other details depicted to produce an instrument that worked well with Ganassi’s fingerings. See Loretto (1995). Reiners (1997) has pointed out that certain makers marks are referred to by Ganassi; indeed three of these makers marks are clearly reproduced in Ganassi’s fingering charts. Of these, two are strikingly similar to those associated with the Schnitzer family (all born in Munich and mostly working in Nuremberg), and Rauch of Schrattenbach (a small town 10 miles S of Memmingen, SW of Munich) respectively. The third, a ‘B’, may refer to the Venetian Bassano family. However, none of the surviving recorders bearing these marks or attributed to these makers exhibit the range and fingering characteristics described by Ganassi. Lyndon-Jones (loc. cit.) has suggested that some or all the musicians depicted are members of the Bassano family.

Gaetano Gandolfi

Italian painter, draughtsman, sculptor and etcher; a successful artist, whose oeuvre includes paintings, terracotta sculptures, etchings and a huge number of drawings; born S Matteo della Decima, near Bologna, (1734), died Bologna (1802); brother of Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728–1781).

• Marriage at Cana (1775), oil on canvas, 530 × 679 cm, Gaetano Gandolfi (1734–1802). Bolgona: Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.); Website: Getty Images (2016, col.)  This enormous work was originally painted for the the refectory of the convent of San Salvatore, Bologna. It occupied Gandolfi for some ten years and contains more that 40 figures situated in an elaborate architectural setting. The focus on the composition is the resplendent figure of Christ, whose gesture to the stewards across the table changes the water in the amphorae into wine.  On a balcony above the feast, six musicians play harp, straight trumpet, syrinx, cornetto, cymbals and a duct flute with a beaked mouthpiece and window/labium area visible. There is possibly a single finger hole showing; the right hand is uppermost, but the hand and the rest of the instrument is obscured between the skirt of the woman player. The duct flute could be of tenor size; its head end is cylindrical and fairly wide.

Ubaldo Gandolfi

Italian painter, draughtsman and sculptor; painted frescoes, altarpieces and mythological scenes; his vast output of drawings includes both religious and mythological subjects and studies from the nude model; born San Matteo della Decima, near Bologna (1728), died Ravenna (1781); brother of Gaetano Gandolfi (1734–1802).

• Mercury Lulling Argus to Sleep, ca 1770–1775, oil on canvas, 218.4 × 136.9 cm, Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728–1781). Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, Accession No. 83.1 Ref. Website: North Carolina Museum of art (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Warburg Institute (2016: image 26332, b&w). Commissioned to adorn the walls of the palace of the Marescalchi family in Bologna, this painting originally formed part of a series of six works illustrating classical myths, including the story of Jupiter and Io. Here, Mercury – wearing a winged helmet and ankle bracelets – lulls Argus to sleep by playing his small slender duct flute (flageolet or recorder – only the lower holes are visible before a slight bell flare and, since he is slightly turned away, his lips and the upper part of the instrument are not visible). In one of the companion paintings, Gandolfi represents the imminent dispatch of Argus with a touch of humor, as Mercury gestures for the viewer to be quiet so as not to wake the sleeping giant.
• Mercury about to Behead Argus (ca 1770–1775), oil on canvas, 218.4 × 136.9 cm, Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728–1781). Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, Accession No. 83.2 Ref. Website: North Carolina Museum of Art (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Warburg Institute (2016: image 26360 – b&w). Commissioned to adorn the walls of the palace of the Marescalchi family in Bologna, this painting originally formed part of a series of six works illustrating classical myths, including the story of Jupiter and Io. This work depicts the imminent dispatch of Argus with a touch of humor, as Mercury gestures for the viewer to be quiet so as not to wake the sleeping giant. In the shadows at his feet lie Mercury’s caduceus and a recorder with eight finger holes in line. In one of the companion paintings, Gandolfi depicts Mercury – wearing a winged helmet and ankle bracelets – lulling Argus to sleep by playing his small slender duct flute (flageolet or recorder).

Jean Ganière

French engraver of religious and historic subjects as well as genre pieces; also a printer and editor; born ? 1615, died Paris (1666).

• The Flute Player, hand-coloured engraving 27.2 × 19.0 cm, Jean Ganière (1615?-1666). Washington: Library of Congress, Dayton Miller Flute Collection 0309/X. Ref. Lancaster (2007: 18, fig., col.) Published by engraver, publisher and musician Nicolas Langlois (1640–?). Half-length portrait of a youth in a buttoned jacket over a red blouse, and a brown peaked cap, who plays a cylindrical duct flute, left hand uppermost. The little finger of his lowermost hand is beneath the instrument and no finger hole is visible. This, and the date, suggest that this is a flageolet rather than a recorder. Below, the following doggerel appears:

•  The Flute Player, engraving, 26.5 × 18.8 cm, by Auguste Quesnel after Jean Francois (1803–1866) after Jean Ganière (? 1615–1666). Paris: Bibliothéque Nationale, Département des Estampes, Cliché c 48 183. Ref. Mirimonde (1975: fig. 113); Pottier (1992: 50, pl. 36;  1995: 136, pl. 10); Archiv Moeck; Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Half-length portrait of a youth in a buttoned jacket over a blouse, and a peaked cap, who plays a cylindrical duct flute, left hand uppermost. The little finger of his lowermost hand is beneath the instrument and no finger hole is visible. This, and the date, suggest that this is a flageolet rather than a recorder. Below, the following doggerel appears:

•  Young Woman playing a Flute (1639), engraving, Jean Ganière (? 1615–1666). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w, as Young Man Playing a Flute). A wild-eyed young woman with curly hair and wearing an elaborately embroidered gown plays a broadly conical duct flute. The beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, the player has two holes covered and another five open ones can be seen, so this is probably intended to represent a recorder. However, the little finger of the player’s lowermost (right) hand is held beneath the instrument in the many often adopted by flageolet players. Some verses beneath the picture read:

 Raffaellino del Garbo

Italian artist; trained in Filippino Lippi’s workshop and assisted in Lippi’s great fresco decorations in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome, from 1488-1492; his own paintings and frescoes of religious subjects employed something of Botticelli’s technique of expression and also his palette; born and died Florence (1479–1524/1527).

• Virgin and Child with two Musical Angels, Raffaellino del Garbo (1479–1524/27). Berlin: Gemädegalerie. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001; 2006b: 33, 35, fig. 7, col.) On each side of the Virgin and Child, angels hold musical instruments. The one on the left holds a psaltery of fanciful construction; that on the right holds a syrinx comprising five duct flutes tied together by a leather strap with tassels. Each duct flute has a distinct beak and window/labium. Each of the four on the right has has two finger holes, one at the top and one near the foot. The largest duct flute (on the left) has and additional paired finger hole immediately above the foot. This is a fanciful hybrid instrument. There is a version of this in the National Gallery, London.
• Virgin and Child with two Musical Angels, workshop of Raffaellino del Garbo (1479–1524/27). London: National Gallery, Inv. NG4902. On each side of the Virgin and Child, angels hold musical instruments. The one on the left holds a psaltery of fanciful construction; that on the right holds a syrinx comprising five duct flutes tied together by a leather strap with tassels. Each duct flute has a distinct beak and window/labium. Each of the four on the right has has two finger holes, one at the top and one near the foot. The largest duct flute (on the left) has an additional paired finger hole immediately above the foot. This is a fanciful hybrid instrument. There is a version of this in the Gemädegalerie, Berlin.

John Starkie Gardner

John Starkie Gardner founded a metal works in London, in 1883; their most famous commission was a set of gates for Holyrood Palace, made for King Edward VII; Gardner published articles on armour, silver work, 17th and 18th century ironwork and modern metalworking and became Keeper of Metalwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum; he also wrote extensively on geology and botany; born London (1845), died 1930.

• Musical Trophy, ironwork, John Starkie Gardner (1844–1930). London: Royal Academy of Music, Accn. 2006.1426. Ref. Photo (b&w) by Suzie Maeder (c.1984), RAM, Inv. 2006.1426. This trophy comprises a well-depicted baroque recorder crossed with a gittern, tied together with ribbons.
• Musical Trophy, ironwork, 17.0 × 12.2 cm, John Starkie Gardner (1844–1930). London: Royal Academy of Music,  Accn. 2006.1424. Ref. Photo (b&w) by Suzie Maeder (c.1984), RAM, Inv. 2006.1424. This trophy comprises a well-depicted baroque recorder crossed with a dancing master’s kit, tied together with ribbons.Musical Trophy, ironwork, London: Royal Academy of Music, stair rail. Ref. Photo (b&w) by Suzie Maeder (c.1984), RAM, Inv. 2006.1424. This trophy comprises a well-depicted baroque recorder crossed with a dancing master’s kit, tied together with ribbons.
• Musical Trophy, ironwork, 17.0 × 12.2 cm, John Starkie Gardner (1844–1930). London: Royal Academy of Music, Accn. 2006.1427. Ref. Photo (b&w) by Suzie Maeder (c.1984), RAM, Inv. 2006.1427. This trophy comprises a well-depicted baroque recorder crossed with a theorbo, tied together with ribbons. The two instruments are not modeled to scale.

Jan-Antoon [Joannes Antonius] Garemijn [Garemyn]

Flemish painter and draughtsman who adopted the graceful Italian style and the mannered drawing-room scenes typical of the French masters Antoine Watteau and François Boucher; born and died Bruges (1712–1799).

• Shepherd and Shepherdess, Jan-Anton Garemyn (1712-1799). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, b&w). A pendant pair: A shepherdess and her dog on a hillside; a shepherd with his dog, seated beneath a tree playing a flared bell pipe, left-hand uppermost, finger holes 3, 5 and 6 exposed; finger hole 7 possibly just visible offset to the player’s right.

Thomas Garner

British engraver and print-maker; much of his work depicts subjects of local interest and portraits of local celebrities; he was employed to engrave several plates for the Art Journal, and it is by these that he is best known; born and died Birmingham (1789–1868).

• Concert (1836), etching & engraving, 21.5 × 27.2 cm, by Thomas Garner (1789–1868) after ? Padovanino II (1588–1648). London: British Museum, Inv. 1861,1214.54. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012, col.); National Gallery, NG3; Langdon & Norwich (1991: 57, b&w, detail). A young woman listens to a group of musicians. A boy sings, another plays an very slender pipe (as thin as a straw), a third plays a cello, a fourth (on whose shoulder the young woman leans) appears to be conducting. The original painting on which this work is based, can be found in the National Gallery, London, where it is attributed to an imitator of Titian. There is another version of it in a private collection in Venice (see below); and there is a woodcut of it by John Linnell (1792–1882) in the Tate Gallery, London, in which the recorder is omitted altogether.

Il Garofalo [Benvenuto Tisi]

Italian painter and frescoist of the Ferrarese school; worked in Rome where he came under the influence of Raphael; from 1550 till his death he was blind; born and died Ferrara (ca 1481–1559). His nickname, Garofalo, may derive from his habit of signing some works with a picture of a carnation (in Italian, garofano).

• Saint Cecilia, Il Garofalo (ca 1481–1559). Rome: Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Alinari Archives, CAL-F-012278-0000, col.) Above St Cecilia, angels play lute and a large harp; at her feet lie a narrow viol, a timbrel, two triangles, and a flared-bell duct flute (flageolet or recorder) on which four finger holes are visible.
• Saints Antonio da Padova, Antonio Abate and Cecilia, oil on panel, 227 × 172 cm, Il Garofalo (ca 1481–1559). Rome: Galleria Nazional d’Arte, Palazzo Barberini, Inv. 1766. Ref. ? Author, Garofalo (? date: 623, plate 21, cat. 100); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm. 2002): Website: Alinari Archives, CAL-F-012278-0000, col.) A tribute to Raphael. From the Church of Santa Maria Nuova di Ferrara, Rome. St Cecilia, holding an organetto, looks up at a heavenly choir which, unlike Raphael’s, is supported with instruments (lute, viol, psaltery). Her organ (about to be dropped, perhaps) rests at a precarious angle on a marble ledge, its pipes in clusters rather than in a row. At her feet on stony ground lie a tambourine (with jingles) with torn skin, the broken scroll of a viol, and two black cylindrical duct flutes (probably recorders) of alto size, the window/labium of one of which is just visible. The latter instrument has six finger holes in line and one little finger hole offset to the player’s right; the other has six finger holes visible after the point where the other instrument crosses it. Garofolo clearly understood Raphael’s symbolism of “marriage abjured and unconsummated”. St Anthony of Padua holds a palm frond and  his book of  psalms; St Anthony Abate holds a dolphin (instead of the usual pig, perhaps) and there is a bell at his feet.
• Virgin and Child in Glory (ca 1535), painting on wood, 39·4 × 26.0 cm, Il Garofalo (ca 1481–1559). Coral Gables: Lowe Art Museum (ex Kress K60). Ref. Catalog of the Holford Collection, Dorchester House (1927: pl. CV); Shapley (1968: 79-80 & fig. 193, b&w); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G192.34[i]; Rasmussen (1999b, 2005). The Madonna floating on cloud banks over a wide landscape was a favorite subject with Garofalo, usually painted in larger size than this. These paintings were probably votive offerings, invoking the Virgin’s protection for a district with its city and outlying villas. Angels on the left play viol and lute, on the right, viol and a flute or recorder.
• Virgin in Glory with Saints, oil on canvas, 61 × 40 cm, studio of Il Garofalo (ca 1481–1559). Rome: Pinacoteca Capitolina, Inv. 192, PC 18. Ref. Mazzariol (1960: fig. 31); Neppi (1959); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G192.34[f]; Rasmussen (1999b); Website: Pinacoteca Capitolina (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Angels at the left play lute, lyre, and a soprano cylindrical recorder with a slight and short bell flare; angels at the right positive organ and and a small harp. The beak of the recorder is rather long; the window/labium is clearly depicted. The fingers of the player’s upper (right) hand cover all their holes. The little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is hidden by the sleeve of the lutenist. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
• Madonna and Child in Glory on Clouds with Saints Jerome and Francis of Assisi and Two Donors from the Suxena Family (1514), oil on panel, 246 × 146 cm, Il Garofalo (1481–1559). Ferrara: Palazzo dei Diamanti, Galleria Nazionale, Inv. 148. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). Originally from the church of Santo Spirito (chapel of the Immaculate Conception), Ferrara. The Virgin and child are seated on a cloud. To their lower left, a group of musical angels play postiive organ, harp and a pipe and tabor (a small window/labium is clear and the instrument is played one-handed, the right hand beating a small drum). On the lower right a second group of angels play lute and an ambiguous slender pipe, very likely a duct flute, held at the rim of the bell flare and thus possibly a reed instrument; though no window/labium is shown; all the fingers of the upper (left) had are covering their holes, but the bell end is in the shadow of the lute. Putti on clouds above the musicians hold tablets reading ‘ALPHA ET O’ and wave olive branches. Notes in part by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

José Andrés Gastón y Balbuena

Mexican artist who illustrated several 18th-century choir books held by the Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán.

• Putti Musicians on an Organ gallery (1760), pen and sanguine ink on parchment, José Andrés Gastón y Balbuena. Location. Tepotzotlán: Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Inv. 10-12518. Ref. University of California, Davis: Project on the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art, PESSCA, Image 5164B (2023, b&w).  Illustration on page 212 of an autograph Cantoral con Credos, Sanctus, y Agnus para distintas festividades dobles y semidobles calligraphed and illuminated by Gastón y Balbuena in 1760. Around an elaborate balcony, putti musicians play ?bassoon, harp, violin, coiled horn, and cello. Scattered about are coiled horns, violin, timpani, cello, harp, harpischord, and four baroque recorders two of which are hanging upside down. This image seems to combine elements of King David (Plate 61/100) and King Ahaziah (Plate 46/100) from Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti engraved and printed by the Klauber Bros (1748), a major resource and inspiration to many of the artists in colonial South America. 

Bernardino Gatti (il Sojaro)

Italian painter whose style was strongly influenced by Correggio although it was blended with Lombard archaisms; he later refined his style to achieve a somewhat weak sentimentality; born Pavia (ca 1495), died Cremona (1576).

• The Ascension of Christ (1549), fresco, Bernardino Gatti (1495–1576). Cremona: Chiesa di San Sigismondo, ceiling. Ref. Marconi, Cenova: postcard (col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) Christ is lifted up to heaven surrounded by a host of cherubim in the shape of a mandorla in the midst of a cloud on which angels are seated and winged putti gambol. One of the angels at the top right of the panel plays lute; at the top left of the panel another angel musician plays psaltery (in the shape of a figure eight), and two more hold cylindrical pipes with slightly flared bells. One of the latter has what appears to be a window/labium and is thus probably a duct flute. The upper part of the second pipe is hidden from view. Below, on earth, the apostles (11 at this stage) gaze up in awe at the departing figure or kneel in prayer.

Paul Gauguin

French painter, print-maker, sculptor and ceramicist; his style developed from Impressionism through a brief cloisonnist phase towards a highly personal brand of Symbolism, which sought to combine and contrast an idealized vision of primitive Polynesian culture with the sceptical pessimism of an educated European; his use of non-naturalistic colour and formal distortion for expressive ends was widely influential on early 20th-century avant-garde artists; born Paris (1848), died Atuona, Marquesas Islands (1903).

• The Flageolet Player on the Cliff (1889), oil on canvas, 73 × 92 cm, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, Inv. 1998.168. “In October 1889, Gauguin left Pont-Aven, the artists’ colony in Brittany where he had developed his revolutionary approach to painting, in favor of the more remote village of Le Pouldu. There he painted this panoramic view of the rugged Atlantic shoreline. The canvas is a powerful application of his ideals, particularly the assertion that the artist should reinterpret nature according to his own imagination. With his bold pairings of near and far, steep and flat, Gauguin merged distant beaches and craggy cliffs into a nearly abstract surface pattern. The image, however, is based upon details of the actual site. Period photographs show that the waves at the upper left do meet the beach in a broad arc, and Gauguin wrote that the sands of Le Pouldu looked rose, not yellow. At the right is a girl with her scythe and a boy playing a Breton instrument known as a flageolet, or flute” (Indianapolis Museum of Art: Highlights of the Collection, 2005). Actually, the instrument has a distinctly flared bell and a pirouette and reed and is far more likely to represent a Breton bombarde, an instrument related to the oboe (NSL).

Giovanni Battista Gaulli [called il Baciccio, Baciccia]

Italian painter; a celebrated artist of the Roman High Baroque; his frescoes, altarpieces, mythological scenes and portraits are distinguished by the warm, glowing colour that reveals his Genoese origins; born Gênes (1639), died Rome (1709).

• Bacchanal, drawing in ink and pencil on plain and coloured paper, 25.1 × 29.4 cm, Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639–1709). Troyes: Musée des Beaux Artes, Inv. 9514. Ref. Joconde Website (1999). A mythological scene against a landscape, with dancing bacchantes and satyrs, food and drink, Silenus, putti, a child, a loving couple, an elephant, a lyre, a syrinx, a timbrel and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder). Not seen.
• Allegory of Justice and Music, 18.2 × 11.9 cm, Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639–1709). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, FP 1929. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999, DÜk – 245). In a valley before a town, a personification of Music sits on the grass whilst Justice holding her shield and scales hovers above her attended by a putto. In her left hand Music picks up a bagpipe; in her left she holds a duct flute (flageolet or recorder), the window/labium and several finger holes of which can be discerned. Beside her is a putto, holding what looks like a crown.

Rudolf Gebhardt

German painter and illustrator; his subjects include landscapes, citiscapes, nudes, portraits, animals and still-lifes; his style was shaped by Neuen Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and closeness to nature; after WW2 he worked as a restorer; born Dresden (Friedrichstadt) (1894), died Dresden (Hellerau) (1985).

• Young Recorder Player (20th century), drawing, Rudolf Gebhardt (1894–1985). Ref. Postcard (? date); Website: Oldthing, No. 40046859, sold (2023). A young boy holds a clearly depicted soprano recorder of simple two-part design with a slightly flared bell. All the boy’s fingers are covering their holes, the lowest offset to his right.

Martin [Martinus, Marten] Joseph [Josephus, Jozef] Geeraerts

Flemish painter of portraits and historical subjects, perhaps best known for his grisailles; born Anvers (1707), died Anvers (1791).

• Putti Playing Flutes and Dancing (1760–1769), oil on canvas (grisaille), 104 × 126 cm, Martin Joseph Geeraerts (1707–1791). Middelburg: Private collection. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 95645 (2014, col.) In a forest clearing, six putti amuse themselves. One plays a clearly depicted hand-fluyt; two dance; one seems to be making a fire; and another trys to pull the wings off the recorder player!
• Tiré du Cabinet de Mr Le Brun, engraving by G. Texler (c.1750–?) after Martin Joseph Geeraerts (1707–1791). Munich: Bayerische Staatsbibilothek. Ref. Oja (1978: 9, item 49). In a domestic interior two musicians play recorder and guitar as part of a music lesson. Not seen.

Hermann Karl Geibel

German draughtsman, sculptor and university professor whose work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics; portraits and depictions of animals predominate in his work; Geibel was not a member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) or any other National Socialist organization, but was put on the Gottbegnadeten list by Adolf Hitler, a 36-page list of artists,  considered crucial to the Nazi state; born Freiburg im Breisgau (1889), died Darmstadt (1972).

• Child with a Recorder , c. 1936–1937, bronze statue, 52 cm high, Hermann Karl Geibel (1889–1972).
  Uknown location. Ref. Website: Kunst im Freien [Outdoor Art] (2017, col.)  A young girl with plaited hair, stands  playing a slender soprano-sized recorder of modern design. The beak, window/labium, slightly flared foot are clearly depicted.

Walter Geikie

Scottish painter and print-maker; deaf and dumb from the age of two, he was an early student of Braidwood who probably encouraged him to take up art; first exhibited in 1815 and contributed to exhibitions in Edinburgh regularly thereafter, becoming an Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1831 and an Academician in 1834; born and died Edinburgh (1795–1837).

• Woman with a Baby on her Knee, a Grandmother Knitting and a Second Child Playing Flute (1830), etching, 17.4 × 15.7 cm (image), Walter Geikie (1795–1837). San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Inv. 1963.30.12362. The ‘flute’ here is clearly a small duct flute, possibly a recorder.

Claude Gellée – see Claude

Benedetto Gennari II

Italian artist who spent much of his career at the English Court in London and later Paris; painter of portraits, mythological scenes, devotional scenes and altarpieces; his portraits display an intriguing eccentricity of style and iconography; born Cento near Ferrara (1633), died Bologna (1715); brother of the painter Cesare Gennari (1637–1688) and nephew of Guercino (1591–1666), with whom he trained.

• Holy Family (1682), oil on canvas, 213.8 × 168.0 cm, Benedetto Gennari II (1633–1715). Birmingham: Museum & Art Gallery, Cat. P1274. Ref. Daniels (1970: 300); Miller (1983: 24–29); Bagni 1986: 97); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). Commissioned by the wife of James Duke of York (later King James II) for the private chapel in St James’ Palace, London. The picture shows Joseph lifting Jesus to feed at Mary’s breast. Above, an angel choir with two singing, sharing a book, one playing a violin, and another playing an alto-size pipe which touches his lips, but is held obliquely, perhaps to enable him to look down at the Holy Family. the pipe, which shows no sings of a window/labium (or the embouchure hole of a flute) is slender and very slightly conical to a stronger bell flare which reveals a wide bore opening. But the mouthpiece end is slightly beaked. The angel has his right hand lowermost. Above the left hand two finger holes are visible and also perhaps two more beneath the right hand, one of which is offset. Bearing in mind the date, place and subject, the artist might have had a recorder in mind rather than flute or flageolet. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
• A Sleeping Shepherd Discovered by Two Women (ca 1681), oil on canvas, 154.2 x 207.3 cm, Benedetto Gennari II (1633–1715). Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Royal Collection, Inv. RCIN 402706. Two women lean over a sleeping shepherd. One, with a smile on her face, points to his groin whilst the other takes a perfectly depicted baroque alto recorder from the sleeper’s hand. In the background a young boy drinks from a bottle. This blatantly erotic work was painted for Charles II (The Merry Monarch), presumably for his ‘apartamento segreto’ at Whitehall. Gennari records copying it for the Duchess of Devonshire.

Abraham Genoels

Flemish baroque painter of portraits and landscapes, and an engraver; in Paris he worked for Charles le Brun and for the Gobelins Manufactory; born and died Antwerp (1640–1723).

• Minerva and the Muses, painting, Abraham Genoels (1640–1723). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). In a clearing beside a pool in the forest Minerva visits the Muses one of whom (? Euterpe) plays a slender pipe, possibly a recorder.

Artemisia Gentileschi (Artemisia Lomi) & Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio Lomi)

Italian painters in a highly individual Caravaggesque style; Orazio was born Pisa (ca 1563) and died London (1639); His daughter Artemisia was born Rome (1593) and died Naples 1653.

• Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the English Crown: The Muses Euterpe and Polyhymnia (ca 1635–1638), ceiling panel, oil on canvas mounted on board, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653) & Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio Lomi, ca 1563–1639). London: Marlborough House, ceiling of the Main Hall, RCIN 408464. Ref. Bissell (1981: fig. 142, b&w; 1999: 271-272, pl. xxv, col., fig. 171, b&w); Garrard (1989: 114–116, fig. 106 & 108, b&w); Lloyd et al. (1979: 162, pl. 3, col.); Lute Iconography, Image LI-3081 (2023, col.) Originally painted for the Queen’s House at Greenwich then removed to Marlborough House, London. Polyhymnia (Muse of sacred hymns, sacred poetry and eloquence) holds a mirror up to Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) who holds a tenor flared-bell recorder, the window/labium clearly depicted. It has been variously argued that the figure of Euterpe was painted by Artemisia Gentileschi (Garrard, loc. cit.) or Orazio Gentileschi (Bissell 1999, loc. cit.)

Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio Lomi)

Italian painter whose works are noted for their harmonious colour, finely handled drapery, and clear contours; follower of the revolutionary baroque painter Caravaggio; active in Florence, Rome, the Marches, Genoa and England; born Pisa (ca 1563), died London (1639); father of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653).

• The Lute Player (ca 1610), oil on canvas, 144 × 130 cm, Orazio Gentileschi (ca 1563–1639). Washington: National Gallery of Art. Ref. Gazette des Beaux-Arts 63: La chronique des Arts 1141 (1964: 50); Moir (1967: fig. 81); Marangoni (1973: fig. 166); Bissell (1981: opp. p. 37, col.); Christiansen (1990: 75); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G2894.90[a] (2002); Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi (2002); Rasmussen (2002, Lute); Web Gallery of Art (2009); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-49 (2023, col.) Depicts a female lutenist tuning her instrument. On a table lie a cornetto, a violin and bow, and what appears to be the foot of a flared-bell recorder, given the offset hole for the little finger of the lower hand.
• The Lute Player (1626), 144 × 130 cm, Orazio Gentileschi (ca 1563–1639). Vaduz: Princely Collections. Ref. Fernau (1958: 130, col.); Lloyd (1979: 162, pl. 3, col.) Depicts a female lutenist playing or tuning. On a table lie a cornetto, a violin, and what appears to be the foot of a flared-bell recorder, given the offset hole for the little finger of the lower hand.
• The Lute Player (1834), mezzotint with some etching, 23.0 × 17.8 cm, by A.M. Huffman (op. 1825–1859) after Orazio Gentileschi (ca 1563–1639). London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.6358. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012, b&w). Depicts a female lutenist playing or tuning. On a table lie a cornetto, a violin, and what appears to be the foot of a flared-bell recorder, given the offset hole for the little finger of the lower hand. Lettered below the image with the title The Light Guitar. Published by Samuel Hollyer.

Giacomo Gentili

Italian ceramicist and decorator, active in Castelli; born 1717, died Castelli (1776). Three generations of the Gentili family specialized in the production and decoration of ceramics, particularly majolica, between c. 1650 – c. 1813.

• Shepherds in a Landscape (c. 1750),  polychrome majolica tile, Giacomo Gentili (1717–1765). Urbino: Palazzo Ducale, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche. Ref. Wikimedia Commons (2014-col.) Admired by a shepherd, a young girl and a friendly cow, a youth  sits astride a grassy hillock beneath a tree playing a flared-bell pipe, almost certainly a recorder. They are surrounded by appreciative animals which include dogs, sheep, goats and cows. A braying donkey seems less impressed. In the distance other countrymen go about their business.
• [Pastoral Scene, glazed majolica tile, Giacomo Gentili (c. 1750). Urbino: Palazzo Ducale. Ref. Website: flickr, Alessio Bacci’s photostream (2017, col.) An old man dozes beside two classical columns. Beside him, a man playing a flared bell pipe (a shawm or recorder) strides towards the bank of a stream. On the far side of the stream two women are doing their washing while a youthful shepherd sleeps watched by a concerned cow. In the background is a farm, a church, and further off is a village.

David Gentleman

One of Britain’s leading artists and designers; his work is wide-ranging and includes lithographs, watercolours and many outstanding designs for postage stamps, symbols, posters and murals; his own books of watercolours and drawings of countries and places around the world reveal a passionate feeling and interest in architecture and landscape; born London, 1930. Artist’s website.

• Cover illustration: The Music Masters (1958), wood-engraving, David Gentleman (op. 1930–). Ref. Bacharach (1958: front cover). A baroque-style recorder with ivory beak and mounts lies across an open book of music surrounded by grass and herbs.

Marguerite Gérard

French painter and printmaker in the Rococo style; intimate domestic life, including scenes of motherhood and childood, musicmaking, female companionship, and domestic pets; more than 300 genre paintings, 80 portraits, and several miniatures have been documented to her; born Grasse (1761), died Paris (1837); aunt of artist Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780-1850).

• Flute Player (c. 1780), oil on panel, 13.5 x 11.0 cm, circle of Marguerite Gérard (1761-1837). Paris: Sotheby’s, Tableaux, Sculptures et Dessins Anciens et du XIXe siècle , Lot 60, 15 June 207. A young woman wearing a green and white slashed blouse, a lace collar and a plumed hat, holds a soprano slender baroque recorder.

Konstantin [Constantin] Gerhardinger (1888–1970)

Prominent German painter active in Cheiemgau who fell foul of the Nazi authorities to such an extent that Hitler himself ordered that Gerhadinger’s name never again be mentioned in a German newspaper or magazine and that his art be forever banned from all exhibition. Goebbels acted accordingly, instructing the Visual Arts Chamber to designate Gerhardinger persona non grata; his subjects included representational landscapes, still-lifes and portraits; born Munich (1888), died Toerwang (1970).

• HJ-Junge [Hitler Youth] (1936), oil on canvas, 82.8 × 60.2 cm, Konstantin Gerhardinger (1888–1970). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen: Pinakothek der Moderne, Inv. 14568. Ref. Faußner (1988: Nr. 577); Munich RIdIM (1999, Mstag – 230); Ehrlich (2021: 42). Half-length portrait of a Hitlerjugend in uniform, complete with swastika arm-bands, who holds an alto recorder of modern design (bell end with slight flare) in his right hand. The recorder had clearly found a “firm home” in the Hitler Youth organization, as an article in the journal Völkische Musikerziehung declared: “… die Blockflöte … hat heute eine feste Heimat auch in der HJ” (Messerschmidt 1936, cited by Ehrlich 2021). Perhaps the faded newspaper clipping in the Munich RIdIM archive of this painting comes from Messerschmidt’s article.

J. Gerhart

• Children Music-making (1779), oil on canvas (en grisaille), 55.88 × 48.26 cm, J. Gerhart (18th century). Location unknown: Auctioned by Christie’s, Important Old Master Paintings, 7 July 1995, Lot. 304 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, col.) A putto conducts two others who play tambourine and a small recorder. The latter is cylindrical with an abruptly flared foot. The first three fingers of the players upper (left) hand and all four fingers of the lower hand are covering their holes and the thumb is perfectly positioned for recorder playing. On the ground is a larger flared-bell pipe the head of which is hidden underneath the recorder player’s left foot; only five inline finger holes are visible, and the bell opening is very much expanded.

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Spinello di Luca Spinelli [Spinello Aretino] & Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was an Italian painter active in Florence and also Paris; collaborated on a number of frescos with other artists; he was active from 1368 until his death in 1415. Spinello di Luca Spinelli was an Italian painter; a leading exponent of the late Giottesque style who painted murals and altarpieces noteworthy for their vigorous narrative sense; he was born and died in Arezzo (ca 1346–ca 1410). Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini was an Italian painter, active in Florence from 1392–1440.

• Coronation of the Virgin; Saints Felicita and Andrew (1401), wood, 275 × 218 cm, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (op. 1368–m. 1415), Spinello di Luca Spinelli (ca 1346?-1410) & Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini (op. 1392–1440). Florence: Galleria della Accademia, Sala del tardo Trecento II, Inv. 8468. Ref. Bonsanti (1987: 90, 76, col.); Website: Web Gallery of Art (2015, col.) From the high altar of the church of Santa Felicita, Florence. In the centre panel, Christ crowns Mary whilst angel musicians are blowing up a storm beneath them on nakers, fiddle, ? gittern, bagpipes and a small pipe (probably a shawm but possibly a duct flute).

Salomon Gessner

Swiss painter, etcher, poet and bookseller; his first sketches from nature, inspired by the pastoral lyrics of Barthold Hinrich Brockes (1680–1747), were published as illustrations to his Idyllen (Zurich, 1756); born and died Zürich (1730–1788).

• Sihl River Forest, pen & ink on paper, 29.0 × 40.5 cm, Salomon Gessner (1730–1788). Munich: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Inv. Z 21082. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2015, Mgs – 242). Two sheep graze on the green banks of the river Sihl. In the middle distance, a boy sits under one of three trees, playing a small pipe (possibly a recorder). In the background cattle graze in a fenced meadow. Not seen.
• Arcadian Landscape (1785), gouache on paper, 27.5 × 39.0 cm, Salomon Gessner (1730–1788).  Location unknown: sold by Sotheby’s (Zurich), Schweizer Kunst, 4 July 2012, Lot 9. A young woman and three youths rest beneath a tree on the banks of a river. In the background, a flock of sheep are crossing the river. To the left, a pillared temple stands in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by water. To the right is a forest. One of the boys plays a slender pipe with a marked foot. His left hand is uppermost and all fingers of this right appear to be covering their holes, so this may well be a recorder. A second boy fishes, and a third reclines.

Ethan Gettman

Contemporary USAmerican artist and graphic designer working in the Boston area.

• A Musical Odyssey (2005), Ethan Gettman (contemporary). Ref. American Recorder, 46(4): front cover (2005, col.) A baroque recorder stands proudly in the middle of a rock-pool at the foot of some cliffs. On the sea-shore behind sit three shadowy, ape-like figures. The reference here is clearly to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001, a Space Odyssey, the recorder replacing the imposing black monolith which provides a connection between the past and the future in that enigmatic adaptation of a short story by revered science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.

Andreas Geyer (18th century), German

• Title unknown (1729), copperplate engraving, 19.0 × 29.3 cm, Andreas Geyer (18th century). Regensburg: Thurn und Taxis Zentralarchiv und Hofbibliothek, Inv. 2 Ex.TT Rat111 45 & 45a. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999, Rttba – 110). A city view of Regensburg, beside the Danube, from on board a ship where Fame, at the bow, plays a trumpet. At the oars are various virtues, the Muses with drums in the rear, two folded trumpets, two violins, cello, harp, lute and one, presumably Euterpe (Muse of music and lyrical poetry), with a ? recorder. Not seen.

Jacques [Jacob] de Gheyn II

Dutch draughtsman, engraver and painter; born Antwerp (1565), died The Hague (1629); father of Jacques de Gheyn III (ca 1596–1641).

• Group of Two Half-figures Singing and One Playing ? Recorder, pen & ink drawing, 6.6 × 5.1 mm, Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, FP 4837. Ref. Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities: Photostudy Collection (2006); RIdM Munich (2009, DÜk 259). Sketch of three children playing music under a wreath or ring-shaped chandeliers. Two of the children sing from note book; the third child has a small duct flute or shawm. Not seen.
• Studies of Heads, Arms, Hands, and a Youth seen from behind (early 17th century), pen and two shades of brown ink, heightened with white, over black chalk, within black ink framing lines, on buff paper, 29.5 × 19.1 cm, Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629). Location unknown: auctioned November 2003, unsold. Ref. Website: Kunstbus (2006). ” … this previously unrecorded sheet of figure studies by de Gheyn, which has been in the possession of the family of the present owners at least since the 18th century and perhaps longer, is one of the most elaborate and important study sheets by the artist to have survived. It consists of no fewer than 29 separate studies: 8 studies of children’s heads; 3 studies of a youth (one half-length, and two of his head), a study of a posed arm and hand, two studies of pairs of hands, and 15 studies of individual hands, three of which hold objects (a quill, a book and a recorder)” (Catalogue, cited by Kunstbus.)

Pier Leone Ghezzi

Italian Rococo painter and caricaturist active in Rome where he was painter to the Papal Court; he specialized in religious themes, decorative fresco cycles, landscapes and theatrical displays; known for his frescoes in the Villa Falconieri of Frascati; born Rome (1674), died Rome (1755).

• The Prodigal Son (ca 1720-1730), oil on canvas, 98.4 × 134.3 cm, Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755). Minneapolis: Institute of Arts, Inv. 71.23. The New Testament parable of the prodigal son is depicted at the moment when the celebration of his return has begun. Instead of stressing the morals of the story – repentance and forgiveness, this is a festive genre scene in which rich colors, warm tonalities and theatrical lighting are combined with the airy, fresh colors of the landscape and female musicians. The latter play tambourine (with jingle rings) and a small duct flute, possibly a recorder.

Ridolfo (Bigordi) Il Ghirlandaio

Italian painter of the Florentine school; born and died Florence (1483–1525); son of the painter, mosaicist and goldsmith Domenico Ghilrandaio (1448/9–1494).

• Adoration of the Shepherds (1510), oil on panel, 148 × 132 cm, Ridolfo Il Ghirlandaio (1483–1525). Budapest: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum. Mary and Joseph kneel before the Christ Child, flanked by two saints. Behind are four shepherds, one of whom also kneels. One of the shepherds, wearing a wreath points out the Child to one of his companions. Stuck in a fold of his cloak the end of a pipe (probably a recorder) can be seen its flared bell and wide opening and the lowermost finger hole clearly depicted. Three angels hover above.

Giorgio Ghisi

Italian engraver and jeweller from Mantua who also worked in Antwerp and in France; as well as prints he made damascened metalwork; he was areproductive engraver, that is one basing his works on paintings by other artists, although he often elaborated backgrounds with landscapes of his own invention, and added lavish foliage; born Mantua (1520), died Mantua (1582); brother of painter and engraver Teodoro Ghisi (1536–1601).

• Hercules victorious over the Lernaean Hydra (ca 1558), print, 35.7 × 21.2 cm, engraving by Giorgio Ghisi (1520–1582) after Giovanni Battista Bertani (1516–1576). Berlin-Grunewald: Galerie Bassenge, 2006, lot 5136 Ref. Bellini & Leach (1983); Borsch et al. (1985: 24); Website: Wikipedia (2007, b&w); Website: LombardiaBeniCulturali (2008, b&w). Having just completed the second of his twelve Labours, Hercules (uncircumcised) leans on his enormous club as he stands triumphantly over the vanquished Leraean Hydra (an ancient serpent-like water beast with many heads) whose guts he has just ripped out. In his other hand he holds the cloth to protect himself from the toxic fumes. A decorative border includes two trophies of musical instruments: that on the left comprises three violas da braccio (with their bows) and three indeterminate curved wind instruments (possibly cornetti); that on the right comprises three viols (with their bows), three indeterminate curved wind instruments (possibly cornetti) and three recorders (two with only the lower body and foot depicted, one with only the head depicted).

Felice Giani

Italian neoclassical painter and designer whose works are known for their energy and intensity; born Sebastiano Curone, Alessandria (ca 1758), died Rome (1823).

• Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, oval, Felice Giani (1758–1823). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2000, b&w). Offered for sale with a pendant, Vertumnus presenting Pomona with Flowers. Mercury sits on a bench playing a conical, flared-bell pipe to a sleeping Argus. A number of finger holes are visible, but the instrument looks more like a small shawm than a recorder.

Antonio Gianlisi, the younger

Italian painter of decorative still-lifes; born 1644, died Cremona (1727).

• Musical Instruments, oil on canvas, Antonio Gianlisi, the younger (1677–1727). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001, col.) On a shell-shaped table lie scattered musical scores, a miniature portrait, an hourglass, a globe, and musical instruments including guitar, theorbo, two lutes, cello, shawm, and a small cylindrical recorder with a flared bell. The window/labium and finger holes of the latter are clearly depicted.

Corrado Giaquinto

Italian Rococo painter working mostly in Naples; his work includes religious subjects, mythology and allegory; born Molfeta (1700), died Naples (1765).

• Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, Corrado Giaquinto (ca 1700–1765). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2000, b&w). Argus drowses beneath a tree, watched by Io (as a heifer) who sits beside him. In the distance, Mercury plays a flared-bell pipe (no details visible) that may represent a recorder.

Grinling Gibbons

British sculptor, widely regarded as England’s foremost wood-carver; known for his decorative work at Blenheim and Hampton Court palaces and at St Paul’s Cathedral; his carved relief work in wood depicts a wide range of ornamental motifs, including flowers, fruits and musical instruments; born Rotterdam (1648), died London (1721).

• Overmantel: Trophy (1692), lime-wood carving, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). Petworth, West Sussex: Petworth House, East wall of the Carved Room. Ref. Balding & Mansell, for the National Trust (1966): postcard (col.); Early Music 2 (1): 24 (1974, b& w); Early Music 10 (1): 73 (1982, b&w); Sayce & Esterley (2000); Recorder Magazine 21(3): 123 (2000); Bridgeman Art Library (2001: image 132278); Rowland-Jones (2005b: 38-39 & fig. 6, b&w); Sayce & Esterly (2000); Lasocki (2006: 14). An elaborate trophy depicting arrows, plants, beads, music manuscript, and musical instruments, including violin, cittern, ? oboes, two baroque recorders (one showing the head, another the body and foot), and identifiable pages from Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.
• Fireplace surround (1699–1700), woodcarving, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). Richmond: Hampton Court Palace, The Music Room. Ref. Lasocki (2006: 14). In 1699/1700 Wren completed the new King’s Apartments for William III, and called in Grinling Gibbons for wood-carving work, including the fireplace surround in what has now been called “The Music Room”. At the upper left of the surround is an exquisitely carved trophy crossing an oboe and a recorder. The latter is pure Hotteterre with the slightly curved-over beak. The wood is not lime (Gibbons’ usual and favourite) probably because that was too delicate near the fire and at waist level, but was originally lime-washed to give a lime-wood effect. In the recent restorations the ugly lime was removed revealing what might be dark oak. The recorder is shown side-on, therefore no finger holes are visible. Note by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)
• Design for a Chimney-piece (1689–1694), Pen and brown ink over graphite under-drawing, with yellow ochre, green-yellow, pink, blue and grey washes, on laid paper, 38.8 ×  23.0 cm, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). London: Sir John Soane’s Museum, SM, volume 110/52. Ref. Website: Sir John Soane’s Museum Drawings (2016, col.) Design for a chimney-piece for Hampton Court, with a reclining cherub on the mantel shelf, beneath a drapery canopy suspended from ribbons entwined with a recorder, sheet music and flowers, and the fire surround with two billing doves in the frieze panel. One of Gibbons’s most elegant compositions. The fire surround would have been in carved stone or marble and the cherub probably in limewood; the glass or porcelain vases would have been real examples and the drapery would probably have been trompe l’oeil carving, again in limewood. The baroque recorder in the trophy is accurately drawn, with the correct number of finger holes and the bottom one properly displaced.
• Carved Panel (1682), limewood, 140 × 107 cm, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). Florence: Palazo Pitti. Ref. Drummer (1685); Sayce & Esterley (2000); Lasocki (2006: 14). This panel was commissioned from Grinling Gibbons by King Charles II as a gift to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and was transported from England on H.M.S. Woolwich. At Leghorn it was delivered to Sir Thomas Dereham, the British Envoy in Florence, for presentation to the Grand Duke (Drummer 1685). It includes carved baroque-style recorders that differ in the width of their bore (Lasocki 2006, loc. cit.) The ribbon in this panel has the raised inscription “G Gibbons Inven(tor)”, the latter letters disappearing behind the ribbon’s curve; ‘inventor’ is a more inclusive term than ‘fecit,’ which might imply that Gibbons executed another’s design.
• Overmantel (1683 or later), woodcarving, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). Watford: Cassiobury House, Inner Library. Ref. Sayce & Esterley (2000); Recorder Magazine 21 (3): 123 (2000); Rowland-Jones (2005b: 38); Lasocki (2006: 14). Includes a recorder and a very accurate representation of a page from Humphry Salter’s The Genteel Companion with the tune Twas Woman Made me Love complete with recorder tablature.
• Trophy, limewood carving, Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721). Stokport: Lyme Park, Salon. Ref. Website: National Trust Images (2007, Image reference 156137, col.) A musical trophy comprising a violin and bow, two oboes, two ?lutes viewed from behind (neck and peg-box only), the foot of a recorder with its characteristic offset hole for the lowermost finger, an open music book, leaves, fruit, flowers, two medallions, and ribbons.

William Gibson

Irish luthier working in Dublin from c.1760–1790, known for his English guittars (citterns). It is uncertain if he was an ancestor of the famous Orville Gibson (1856–1918) who established the Gibson Guitar Company in the USA in 1890s.

• English guittar: rose (c. 1760), gilt metal, William Gibson (fl.1760–1790). ? Amsterdam:  Palm Guitars (2015). Ref. Website: Palm Archives: Tales of a Salesman: William Gibson (2015, col.) At the centre of the rose is a dancing putto holding a sheet of music in one hand and a pipe with a wide bell in the other. Around him are arranged other musical instruments, including four horns, four viols and four pipes, probably recorders.
• English guittar: rose (1772), gilt metal, William Gibson (fl.1760–1790). Edinburgh University: Music Museum, Inv. 0309. At the centre of the rose is a decorative sheath and diaper around which are arranged other musical instruments, two guittars (sic.), two lutes, four horns and four recorders. The latter appear to be of baroque design, in three parts. There is a seemingly identical instrument with the same date in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (see below)
• English guittar: rose (1772), gilt metal, William Gibson (fl.1760–1790). Sydney: Powerhouse Museum, Inv. H7854. Ref. Lea (1996). At the centre of the rose is a decorative sheath and diaper around which are arranged other musical instruments, two guittars (sic.), two lutes, four horns and four recorders. The latter appear to be of baroque design, in three parts. There is a seemingly identical instrument with the same date in the University of Edinburgh Music Museum (see above).
• English guittar: rose (1778), gilt metal, Wiliam Gibson (fl.1760–1790). London: Bonhams, Fine Musical Instruments, 9 July 2007, Lot 28. At the centre of the rose a dancing cherub holds a shawm or straight trumpet, and a book. He is surrounded by musical instruments: two viols two guittars,four horns, and four recorders (rather than ‘clarinets’, pace Bonhams).
• English guittar: rose (1788), gilt metal, Wiliam Gibson (fl.1760-1790). Malmesbury: Restored by Arthur Robb. A central wreath and diaper is surrounded by musical instruments: two viols, two guittars, four horns and four 3-piece baroque recorders. Robb comments that the metal rose is thin and appears to have been [die-]stamped rather than cut.
• Decorated English guittar: rose (18th century), gilt metal, ? William Gibson (fl.1760–1790).  Location: “Will Yeoman’s cittern” (Bergmann). Ref. Fulbourne: Walter Bergmann Slide WB 33 & WB 95 (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2002 & 2005). At the centre of the rose a couple play flute and hurdy-gurdy. Around them are arranged other musical instruments, including four horns, two viols, two guittars, two oboes and two 3-piece baroque recorders.

Aleksander Gierymski

Polish artist; an isolated figure who followed a path leading from naturalistic scenes portraying the life of the Warsaw poor to an individual search in the domain of light and colour, close to but never imitative of Impressionism; born Warsaw (1850), died Rome (1901).

• Der Gänsehirt [The Gooseherd] (ca 1875), Aleksander Gierymski (1850–1901). Ref. Banach (1957). A young girl sits beneath a tree playing a pipe (probably a duct flute), ignored by some foraging geese.

Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Elder

Flemish goldsmith and still life painter who is known for his fruit still lifes, flower pieces, vanitas still lifes and pronk still lifes.; born and died Antwerp (1618–1675); father of still-life painter Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Younger (1651–704).

• Pronk Still-life, oil on canvas, 134.7 × 172.2 cm, Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Elder (1618–1675). Leipzig: Museum der Bildenden Künste, on loan from Der Stifter Wolf-Dietrich Freiherr Speck von Sternburg, Inv. 1627. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-3704 (2034, col.) On a table is a jumble of food (lobster, fruit, oysters, cockles), a rose branch with flowers, an urn and an elaborate metal jug; and propped up by a drinking glass (with a twist of lemon peel) and leaning against a small shelf, is a hand fluyt. The recorder is seen in side profile, the characterisic beak and window/labiuim and several finger holes clearly visible. Seated comfortably on a chair is an archlute with its back to us, a book, and an open music score (illegible). In the background is a windmill and some trees.

Claude Gillot

French draughtsman, print-maker and painter who illustrated religious and other elevated subjects, but specialized in theatre and genre scenes, as well as bacchanals and designs for decorations; his principal source of inspiration was the popular theatre (he is said to have run a puppet theatre, to have written plays and once to have been in charge of sets, machinery and costume for the opera); amongst his pupils was Antoine Watteau; born Langres (1673), died Paris (1722).

• Drummer Beside a Shepherdess in a Landscape, pen and ink, 16.3 × 20.8 cm, Claude Gillot (1673–1722). Paris: Musée de Louvre, Départment des Arts Graphiques, Inv. 26771. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). One of a suite of four sketches. Whilst a man bangs a huge drum beneath a tree, a young woman in a dress and a wide-brimmed hat holds two pipes. If she is seriously considering playing them then they must surely be duct flutes, probably three-holed pipes.
• Design for the Decoration of a Harpsichord (1710s), pen & pen, brush, Indian ink and water-colour on paper, 28.1 × 46.3 cm, Claude Gillot (1673–1722). St Petersberg: Hermitage (ex Stieglitz Museum), Inv. OP-28552. Ref. Exhibition, French Drawings and Paintings from the Hermitage: Poussin to Picasso, Hermitage Rooms, Somserset House London (2001–2002); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “Shows various musical instruments and, at the centre of the bentside, a trophy with a possible duct flute crossed with a viola above it. The finger holes are visible on each side of the occluded section. The instrument is of tenor size and cylindrical, but has an incised decorative ring at the bell end before a very slight flare. What might be a window/labium is very close to the non-beaked opposite end, as the blur suggests an oblique shape (?labium). This is a poor representation of either a recorder or a transverse flute” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

James Gillray

English draughtsman and engraver who engraved over 1500 prints and invented, almost single-handed, the genre of British political caricature; in his lifetime he was feared and admired, but his reputation waned in the strait-laced moral climate that succeeded the Regency; born and died London (1756–1815).

• Elizabethan Shepherd Playing the Recorder (ca 1811), grey and black ink, 23.8 × 21.8 cm, James Gillray (1756–1815). Location unknown: formerly Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Draper Hill Collection (auctioned 2001). Ref.: Witt Library, London; Paris RIdIM (1999). A shepherd in a feathered hat holds a duct flute (almost certainly a recorder) with a strongly flared bell. He plays right hand lowermost, but only four fingers of this hand are visible, closing their holes. The beak is very slender.

Lodovico Gimignani (1643-1679)

Italian painter active in Rome, known principally by his altarpieces and church frescoes; born Rome (1542), died Zagaralo (1679); son of painter Giacinto Gimignani (1611–1681).

• Mercury Lulls Argus to Sleep by Making Music, oil on canvas, Lodovico Gimignani (1643–1679). Location unknown. Ref. Dutch University Institute for Art History, Florence (2011, b&w). Argus dozes uncomfortably on a rock as Mercury plays a long, slender flared bell pipe. No details of a beak or window/labium are visible, but the presence of holes for seven fingers with the lowermost two doubled hints at the possibility that a recorder was intended.

Luca Giordano [Lucas Jordán]

Italian artist, also active in Spain; extremely skilled at copying the styles of other master artists, he worked rapidly enough to be nicknamed Luca Fa Presto (Luca the Quick); born and died Naples (1632–1705).

• Elevation of St Idelfonso (1692-1702), fresco, Luca Giordano (1632–1705). Detail. Toledo: Cathedral, Main Sacristy. Ref. Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Wikimedia commons (2012, col.) “This huge ceiling fresco painting, covering 250 square metres was painted between 1692 and 1702, when Giordano was court painter to Charles II of Spain. Along the length of the painting are several groups of angel musicians. Near the centre an angel holds a bass recorder. The bocal and window/labium are very clear. The player has the first two fingers of his left hand on the body of the instrument, but two fingers are beneath. Below that there are three quite widely-spaced finger holes, followed by the right hand with the first finger presumably on a hole. The other fingers of the right hand point downwards, but the rest of the instrument is hidden in a Baroque cloud.” At the North (far) end a rather feminine looking angel, without wings, holds another bass recorder with a strongly S-shaped bocal, and the window/labium quite near the cap at the top of the instrument. The player has her left hand against the side of the body of the instrument, with the first finger extending towards the window/labium. Two finger holes are then visible lower down, before the edge of a balcony and another Baroque cloud cut off the rest of the instrument.”Another group close to the centre of the composition includes a flying angel in red playing a lute, with another winged angel behind playing a recorder of alto size. The right hand is upper, and all the fingers except the first of the right hand are down, presumably covering holes. The lower part of the body and the bell end are then visible. There is a further bass recorder, again with a strongly curved bocal, with the player’s left hand close to the window/labium. The upper central part of the body is hidden, but five finger holes are shown before the player’s lower right hand. The end is unflared, with a very clear bore opening. Bass recorders often look like dulcians, but I believe that these are all clear examples of recorders.”On a balcony at centre side of the composition a small angel plays a pipe, but with insufficient details for recognition” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Four Women Making Music, oil on canvas, 57.2 × 101.6 cm, Luca Giordano (1632–1705). The Hague: Maritshuis, Cat. 321. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). Two women sing, another plays lute and a third (a Negress) plays a conical pipe (possibly a recorder) of alto size. Currently on loan to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Inv. SK-C-1353.
• Recorder Player in a Garland of Flowers, oil on canvas, 100 × 75 cm, Luca Giordano (1632–1705). Milan: offered for sale by Porro Art Consulting (2005). Ref. Porro Art Consulting Catalogue: Dipinti e Disegni Antichi dal XV al XIX secolo, 6 June 2005, Lot 91a; Website: MutualArt.com (2022, col.) One of a pendant pair with Tambourine Player in a Garland of Flowers (loc. cit., Lot 91b). Head and shoulders portrait of a somewhat portly man holding a cylindrical recorder of alto size, right hand uppermost. His female companion is similarly depicted playing a tambourine with jingle rings. It seems likely that the extensive floral garland was painted by Giuseppe Recco (1634-1695), amongst the best still-life painters of his day.

Giorgione [born Giorgio Barbarelli, also known as Castelfranco Veneto and as Giorgio da Castelfranco]

Italian frescoist and painter of portraits and literary, religious and mythological subjects, who was one of the initiators of a High Renaissance style in Venetian art, a master of poetic mood created through idealized form, colour, and light; born Castelfranco (1477/78), died Venice (1510).

• Singer with a Recorder, oil on canvas, 102 × 78 cm, attributed to Giorgio Giorgione (1476/8–1510). Rome: Galleria Borghese. Ref. Visual Information Access (VIA), Harvard University (2000); Harvard University Fine Arts Library, Visual Collections, 1997.15171; Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image ID AII 135257, col.), as Singer with a Flute) A man in a white shirt and a skull-cap doffs a red hat with his right hand whilst holding a cylindrical duct flute (possibly a recorder) in his left hand. The instrument is of alto-size, and the beak window/labium is readily discerned. Companion piece to The Impassioned Singer, also in the Galleria Borghese. The attribution of these two works is strongly debated. Some scholars think them to be the work of Domenico Capriolo (1494–1528); others assume that they were executed in the period following the death of Giorgione.
• Attributes of Music (c.1498), fresco in monochrome and fine yellow ground, attributed to Giorgione (1477/78–1510).  Castelfranco Veneto: Casa Marta Pellizzari (Giorgione’s birth-place), NE wall, right-hand side. Ref. Zampetti (1968/70: pl. 111, col.); Rossi (1983: 40); Gentili (1999: 8); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm. 1999); Paolo Biordi (pers. com, 2001); Website: akg images (2022, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-278 (2023, col.) A collection of musical instruments including a lute, a viol of curious construction, a heart-shaped hurdy-gurdy, a ? keyed harp, pellet bells, and a case containing at least six duct flutes of different sizes (thus very likely recorders), only the head (including window/labium) visible. Elsewhere on this frieze are depicted Attributes of Astronomy and Attributes of War.
• The Young Flute Player, oil on canvas, circle of Giorgione (1477/8–1510). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001, b&w). A young man in a turban-like hat with a bow holds a small duct flute (flageolet or recorder) in his right hand. The beak and window/labium of the instrument are clearly depicted and two or three finger holes can be seen beneath his hand, but the end of the instrument is out of view. Auctioned 25 May 1993, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)

Giotto (de Bondone)

Italian painter and designer whose reputation was unrivalled as the best painter and as an innovator superior to all his predecessors; the first post-Classical artist whose fame extended beyond his lifetime and native city; born ? Vespignano, near Florence (1267–1275), died Florence (1337).

• Baroncelli Polyptych: Coronation of the Virgin (ca 1325–335), tempera on panel, Giotto (1267/75–1337) & Workshop. Florence: Basilica di Santa Croce. Ref. Burckhardt & Humfrey (1988: 49, pl. 32, col.) A concert of musical angels surround the crowning of the Virgin. Although this work depicts an extensive instrumentarium there are no recorders! This possibly provides negative evidence for the existence of the recorder in Italy at this time, but see below. This is generally considered to be a work of Giotto’s collaborators, possibly Taddeo Gaddi (ca 1300–ca 1366).
• Untitled fresco, (ca 1305–1306), ? follower of Giotto (1267/75–1337). Padua: Cappella degli Scrovegni, upper part of the triumphal arch (apse). Ref. Hérubel (1967); Liesbeth van der Sluis (pers. comm., 2001). In the middle on a golden throne sits God with angels on either side of him. To the left and right are two groups of angels (some of which play music on psaltery and perhaps a lute. On the far right three little angels play slightly flared pipes: two play double-pipes, and the other a slightly obscured single pipe held in one hand. Although these pipes may be duct flutes they do not appear to be recorders; indeed they might just as well represent small shawms or trumpets.
• The Virgin’s Wedding Procession (ca 1305–1306), fresco, Giotto di Bondone (1267/75–1337). Padua: Cappella degli Scrovegni. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Images BEN 65205, 67134, 102754, col.); Beck (1999: 7–24); Early Music 27 (1): front cover, detail, col. Three musicians play an oval fiddle and two fanciful wind instruments. One of the latter is cylindrical and might be thought to represent a pipe of some kind. However, both winds were originally depicted as trumpets before they were painted over by the artist (Beck, loc. cit.), and the manner in which they are held and the inflated cheeks of the players are clearly more suited to brass.
• St Francis in Glory (ca 1334), scene from a fresco cycle, school of Giotto di Bondone (1267/75–1337). Assisi: Basilica Papale di San Francesco, Basilica Inferiore. Ref. Brown (1985: 212–213, fig. 167, b&w); Lasocki (2023: 37-8). According to Brown (loc. cit.), “… two angels play pipe and tabor (or shawm or recorder)”, but his reproduction is far too small to confirm this. St Francis, enthroned, is surrounded by angels a number of whom play musical instruments. Four play straight trumpets, two on each side. And one angel on each side plays a short pipe with a flared bell. Although the pipes could be small shawms, the players’ fingers are deployed perfectly for recorder playing with all four fingers of their lowermost hands covering their holes. I see no pipe and tabor here, but there is a cymbal player beside each piper.

Giovanello d’Italia (op. 1504–1531), Italian

• Ascension, attributed to Giovanello d’Italia (op 1504–1531). Syracuse: Galleria Regionale del Palazzo Bellomo. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Originally from Messina. The attribution is doubtful. On either side of Christ, angels play slender flared-bell pipes. No beak or window/labium is shown on either, but the mouthpiece rests on the lips of the player. The pipe on the left is played right hand uppermost beneath which three finger holes clearly visible; the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is on the side of the instrument and the lower-most hole is offset. The pipe on the right is held one-handed, two finger holes visible above the hand and three finger holes visible below. These may be intended to represent recorders. Another angel plays a large fiddle.

Girolamo da Santa Croce

Italian sculptor and painter of religious subjects; a member of a large family of artists, and a student of Gentile Bellini, he worked mainly for provincial churches in the Veneto and later in Istria and Dalmatia; born Santa Croce, near Bergamo (1480–1485), died Venice (1556); father of painter Francesco di Girolamo and grandfather of Pietro Paolo.

• St Thomas à Becket Enthroned with Two Other Saints, Girolamo da Santa Croce (1480/85–1556). Detail.  Venice: Chiesa di San Silvestro. Ref. Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G459.38Th; Rasmussen (1999b). St Thomas sits enthroned between two saints. Winged putti and cherubim flutter overhead. On the steps leading up to the throne three musical angels play fiddle, lute and a soprano-sized recorder, all fingers covering their holes.
• Nativity, oil tempera on poplar panel, 57.5 × 74.0 cm, Girolamo da Santa Croce (1480/85–1556). Prague: Národní Gallerie. Ref. Pujmanová & Přibyl (2008: 284–286, pl., b&w). Watched by an ox and an ass, Mary and Joseph kneel on each side of the Holy Child who is tended by two putti. Standing on the beams of the barn above, three putti sing in praise of God beneath the star of Bethlehem, and more putti are arriving on the roof, bearing objects symbolising the martyrdom of Christ: a crown of thorns, a sponge, a cross, a scourge, a spear and a ladder. on the right the Three Kings arrive on their steeds. And on the left, a shepherd sits holding a perfectly depicted alto recorder, the beak, window/labium, finger holes and flared bell clearly depicted.
• Adoration of the Three Kings (1525–1530), oil on panel, 67.7 × 81.2 cm, Girolamo da Santa Croce (1480/85–1556). Detail. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 37.261. Three wise men, or magi, from the East are described in the Gospels as having seen a new star and journeyed to pay tribute to the child marked as divine by the heavens. The wise men were often depicted as kings, and, by the Renaissance, the youngest was frequently depicted as an African, here holding a gold vessel containing myrrh, a precious resin from Arabia and Africa used for perfume. His portrayal reflects both the ethnic diversity encountered by Renaissance painters in a port like Venice, frequented by African traders, and also the concept of Christ’s promise of salvation for all people. The splendor of the kings contrasts with the simplicity of the Holy Family. Winged putti sing the words inscribed on the scroll “Glory to God in Heaven and Peace to Men on Earth,” accompanied by others playing rebec and two flared-bell pipes, possibly recorders.

Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts = Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts

Nicolaes de Giselaer

Dutch artist; born Dordrecht (1583), died ? Utrecht (1645).

• Interior with Four Musicians oil on canvas, 39 × 65 cm, Nicolaes de Giselaer (1583–1645). Groningen: Groninger Museum, Inv. 1931-105. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 23019 (2010, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1265 (2023, col.) Four men sing and play theorbo, violin and a slender, soprano- or alto-sized pipe, the window/labium of which is clearly visible and all fingers seem to be in play, so this is probably a recorder.

Steven Gjertson

Contemporary American artist and a member of the first cohesive group of Classical Realists that studied in the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis; has established a considerable reputation for elegant floral still lifes and plein air landscapes; much of his current work is figurative, either intimate genre paintings of his family and friends or more complicated works with biblical themes or symbolic treatments of contemporary issues; he is the author of many articles and essays on art; his work has appeared on the cover of numerous books and periodicals; born Minneapolis (1949).

• The Recorder Lesson (1981), oil on canvas, 70.0 × 55.9 cm, Steven Gjertson (1949–). Private Collection: David and Sharon Jasper. Ref. LeSueur (1993, col.); Recorder & Music 13 (3): front cover (1993, col.); American Society of Classical Realism (1993); Website: Stephen Gjertson Galleries (2009). Seated on an ornate lounge chair, a young girl practices on a modern, keyed tenor recorder, assisted by her mother who leans over her shoulder. This is one of Gjertson’s most familiar paintings. It was commissioned by someone who wanted a small painting with a musical theme using the artist’s Victorian sofa and this particular Oriental vase. As in all of Gjertson’s work, there is an emphasis on beautiful and expressive line. The painting’s tightly-woven design is unified by the interplay of flowing lines between the figures and the sofa.
• The Recorder Lesson, Study (1980), pencil, 68.6 × 55.9 cm, Steven Gjertson (1949–). Private Collection: David and Sharon Jasper. Ref. Website: Stephen Gjertson Galleries (2009). Seated on an ornate lounge chair, a young girl practices on a modern, keyed tenor recorder, assisted by her mother who leans over her shoulder. See above.

E.-J. Glairon-Mondet

French engraver active in Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries who provided several plates for the Galerie du Palais Royal …, a collection of 355 etchings and engravings of paintings in the collection of the Duc d’Orléans, a cousin of Louis XVI, who died during the French Revolution; he also etched or engraved paintings by Lagrenée (probably Louis-Jean-François, the elder, 1725–1805), Philibert-Louis Debucourt (1755–1832), Dietrich (possibly Christian-Wilhelm-Ernst Dietrich, 1712–1774), and Jan le Ducq (1629/30–1676). Glairon-Mondet also provided etchings or engravings for a deluxe edition of the Oeuvres de Racine, published by Pierre Didot.

• Le Fluteur [Recorder Player] (1786), engraving, 41.9 & 29.0 cm, by by E.-J. Glairon-Mondet (op. 1786–1801/05) after Caravaggio (1573–1610). Galerie du Palais Royal, gravée d’après les Tableaux des differentes Ecoles qui la composent: avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres & une description historique de chaque tableau, par Mr. l’abbé de Fontenai Dedièe à S. A. S. Monseigneur le duc d’Orléans, premier prince du sang, par J. Couché, Paris, Chez J. Couché … Vol. I (1786), ‘Ecole de Lombardie’ under ‘Michel-ange Amerigi dit Le Caravage’, no. 3 in index at front of Vol. I. Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Collection, 0073/V; London, British Museum, Inv. 1855,0609.359. Ref. Advertisement for Sydney Society of Recorder Players (ca 1975); Lancaster (2007: 22, fig.) A melancholy young man holds a cylindrical soprano recorder, right hand uppermost. His torso is turned to the right, but he gazes directly at the viewer. His expression seems mournful or melancholy. His eyes are large, his hair is long, and the light coming from the right creates strong light and dark contrasts in his face, hair, and hands. From a three-volume folio of etchings and engravings after paintings in the collection in the Palais Royal of the Duc d’Orleans, the cousin of Louis XVI, who was guillotined in 1793. The collection was dispersed in 1798, at which time the painting was thought to have been by Caravaggio. Although the original painting on which the Miller print was based has yet to be traced, the etching is somewhat reminiscent of an anonymous painting entitled Boy with a Flageolet in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Accn. WA1851.12), now thought to be by a Northern Italian artist but formerly attributed to Caravaggio, amongst others. However, the boy in the painting wears a hat and different clothing; his face is angled slightly differently, and he does not look directly at the viewer as does the boy in the print. The fingers on the upper hand are also placed slightly differently.

Johannes [or Jan] ‘Polidoro’ [Polidor, Polidoor or Polydore] Glauber

Dutch painter, draughtsman and print-maker of German descent; copied Italian paintings for the Amsterdam art dealer Gerrit Uylenburgh; travelled extensively in Italy where he became a member of the third generation of Dutch Italianates in Rome, receiving the nickname ‘Polidor’ in recognition of his artistic debt to the landscapes of Polidoro da Caravaggio; born Utrecht (1646), died Schoonhoven, near Gouda (1726).

• Landscape with Shepherd and Flute Player, oil on canvas, 195 × 249 cm, Johannes Glauber (1646–1726). Paris: Musée de Louvre, Inv. 1301. Ref. Website: Joconde (1999). Beside a rough road leading through a clearing amongst wooded hills a young man plays to his girlfriend on his pipe, probably a duct flute (possibly a recorder). On the hillside opposite sits a shepherd minding his flock. Along the path walks a young woman carrying a bundle on her head. The figures have been attributed to Gérard de Lairesse.
• Ideal Landscape with Waterfall, Johannes Glauber (1646–1726). Brunswick: Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Inv. No. 400. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “Most of the picture is of craggy mountains, but there is one flat area, a green meadow by a torrent, where a shepherd with six sheep, sits piping on what is probably a duct flute. The position is alright for a recorder – no puffed cheeks, left-hand lower near the bell; and the instrument seems to be of alto size” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• The Invention of Music (ca 1820–1825), etching & engraving, 23.0 × 15.2 cm, Samuel Amsler after Johannes Glauber (1646–1726). London: British Museum, Inv. 1999,0627.29. Beside a hut in the forest a bare-chested young man playing slender pipe (possibly a duct flute) is embraced by his plump female companion who wears nothing but a very short skirt. She points to a bird on a tree-branch above her.  Between them, an infant sleeps in a rustic cradle. Mysteriously, a caption below reads “Die Erfinderin der Musik”.

Johann Georg Glückher [Glyckher]

German baroque painter; born Rottweil (1653), died 1723.

• Title Page: Laurentius von Schnifis’ Mirantisches Flötlein (1682), engraving by Melchior Küsell (1626–1684) after Johann Georg Glückher (1653–1723). Ref. Archiv Moeck. Schnifis was an eminent late baroque preacher, lyric poet and storyteller who wrote religious works in the tradition of baroque emblematic literature and pastoral romances, influenced by popular literature. In this illustration, Christ hangs on the cross (made from an upside-down anchor) at the prow of a boat with female passenger sitting aft. In the distance a city burns. In the foreground a shepherd with his dog and sheep sits beneath a tree playing a duct flute with quite enough finger holes to represent a recorder.  He has a second pipe beside him. An accompanying verse describes the illustration more fully:

Die Stadt dort in dem Brand
Zeigt an den ersten Stand
Der Buß wo man berennt
Von Trübsal wird gebrennt.
Die Magd so nach dem Port
Mit Christo säglet fort
Und nach dem Land begehrt
Den Hoffnungs-Stand erklärt.
Die Stadt so an dem Meer
Von allem Unglück ferr
Zeigt an das Freuden-Land
Der Buß im dritten Stand.
Der Hirt so auff der Erd
Auffpfeifft der Wullen-Herd
Und nennet sich Mirant
Den Schreiber macht bekandt.

Other editions were published in Frankfurt in 1694 and 1695.

Simon Glücklich

Polish-born artist who lived and worked in Vienna from 1917; initially he devoted himself to genre painting before turning his attention to the depiction of mythological scenes, landscape and still-lifes; later he become an outstanding painter of nude studies and portraits of upper class and corporate subjects; born Bielitz (1863), died Munich (1943); son of decorative painter Leo Glücklich.

• Evening Song, painting, Simon Glücklich (1863–1943). Ref. Website: I am a child: Children in art history (2012, col.) A boy sits on a grassy fiver bank playing a slender recorder with a clearly depicted window/labium, holes enough for seven fingers, and a prominently flared foot.

Friedrich Christian Glume

German sculptor to Frederich the Great; created works for the Hermenatlanten, Sanssouci and the Marstalls; born 1714, died 1752; brother of the sculptor Carl Philipp Glume (1724–1776).

• Mercury and Argus (1742), stone relief, Friedrich Christian Glume (1714–1752). Berlin: Märkisches Museum. Ref. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (DISKUS-Objekt-Dokument 00070688,T, b&w). One of three reliefs originally from the gable of the Berlin Opera House. Watched by Io (as a heifer), Argus is lulled asleep by Mercury who plays a flared-bell pipe. Although no beak or window/labium can be seen, three fingers of the player’s top (right) hand and all four of the lower hand cover their holes, indicating that the instrument might represent a recorder.

Imero Gobbato

Contemporary Italian-born neo-impressionistic painter, etcher, engraver, book illustrator, yacht designer, musician (piano, guitar, violin, accordion and recorder); lived and worked in Argentina, Guatemala, Italy, Florida, California, Connecticut and finally in Camden, Maine (USA) where he remained from 1965; born Milan (1923); died Penobscot Bay (2010).

• Beany and his New Recorder by Carol Panter, Four Winds, New York  (1972) – an illustrated children’s story in which the recorder figures prominently:
  • Dust jacket, coloured print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). In a forest, beside a stream, Beany sits playing his recorder to his cat, Pomponio.
  • Frontispiece, coloured print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). A bass viol leans against a chair on which lies an alto-sized neo-baroque recorder. Scattered around the chair are an instrument case, a tambourine, a psaltery and some sheet music. Behind the viol is a music stand from which a triangle is suspended.
  • Page 13, b&w print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). As Beany Parker practices in the laundry his father interrupts him to compliment him on his recorder playing and offers to buy him a better instrument. Meanwhile, the family cat, Pomponino, climbs in and out of pile of folded ironing.
  • Page ?, b&w print, Beany pensively holds his new recorder in his right hand while looking for “one of his favorite places to sit, a smooth flat rock that jutted out of the trees.” Beany recognizes that this “fine forest seat for a boy and a cat ” would enhance his practice sessions and nurture his musical abilities. The cat is walking across the rock, his tail held high.
  • Pages 20–21, b&w print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). The Parker family play some music by Handel on harpsichord, viol and two recorders. Their cat, Pomponino dozes underneath the harpsichord: “The music of Handel made him yawn.”
  • Pages 30–31, coloured print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). Underneath a spreading tree in the forest, Beany plays music by Bach on his recorder in an attempt to get a bird to join in. Perhaps the presence of Pompanino, the family cat, sitting beside Beany has something to do with it.
  • Pages 32–33, coloured print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). During some family music-making after dinner, it dawns on Beany that Pompanino the cat might indeed be the reason that the forest birds are not responding to his recorder playing. We see Beany holding his recorder, his father with a viol, and his brother at the harpsichord.
  • Pages 38–39, coloured print, Imero Gobbato (1923–2010). Beany sits comfortably on his rock in the forest and plays some Scarlatti which frightens Pompanino away. Perhaps this time there will be bird-song.

Tom Godin

Contemporary Canadian artist. Artist’s web-site.

• [Tweety Bird] (2002), drawing, Tom Godin (contemporary). Illustration to This is a recorder (2003), an article recounting an experiment using a recorder to simulate a Pygmy Owl call. In this drawing, a pygmy owl plays a recorder.

Hugo van der Goes

Flemish painter of altarpieces and panels for public buildings; entered a monastery where he suffered mental collapse; active in Ghent and in the Roode Clooster near Brussels; born in Ghent (ca 1440), died Roode Clooster (1482).

• Adoration of the Shepherds (ca 1480), oak panel, 97 × 245 cm, follower of Hugo van der Goes (ca 1440–1482). Detail. Berlin: Gemäldegalerie, 1622A. Ref. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (1968: 51, pl. 29, b&w); Archiv Moeck (detail); Bock (1986: 146-147, pl., col.); Recorder Magazine 22 (4): front cover (2002, detail, col.); Kren & McKendick (2003: 167 & fig. 58, b&w). Two shepherds run towards the crib, falling over each other in their haste. Behind them a shepherd claps his hands to accompany his companion who plays on a small flared-bell recorder with what appears to be a metal-sheathed beak. This is an old copy of a lost original, which was also copied by Gerard David in a painting in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
• Adoration of the Shepherds (ca 1480), panel, Hugo van der Goes (ca 1440–1482). Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. Ref. Boragno (1998: 14, b&w). As Mary and Joseph kneel beside the crib surrounded by angels, two shepherds rush in from the left. In the background another shepherd plays a cylindrical recorder with what appears to be a metal-sheathed beak, the flared-bell, window and a number of finger holes clearly shown. A fourth shepherd claps his hands as an accompaniment.
• Adoration of the Shepherds, tempera on panel, 32.5 × 32.5 cm, follower of, Hugo van der Goes (ca 1440–1482). Salisbury: Wilton House, Little Ante Room on the south wall, No. 309.  Ref. Kren & McKendick (2003: 166–167 & fig. 31, col.); Bridgeman Images WLN1942 (2016, col.); Christina Rowland (pers. comm. 2016). A condensed version of the Berlin Adoration (see above). “In its top right corner there is a vignette which shows the Annunciation to the Shepherds, who stand on a hillside with their flock grazing below. Then under this and being part of the main picture on the right-hand side are an ass and an ox, and an aged shepherd in a red robe praying at the crib.   On the lower left side are two praying winged putti, and above them two shepherds, the younger praying, the older one with his right arm round his companion’s shoulder holding a shepherd’s hat.   Stuck into the hat the upper part of a pipe protrudes, distinguishable only by the recorder-like shape of the mouth-piece end (no finger holes are visible).  A very similar painting was auctioned by Bonhams, London (Old Master Paintings, 8 December 2010, Lot 27) but lacks the recorder.

Hans-Peter Goettsche

Contemporary German sculptor working in Berlin-Koepenick.

• Recorder Player (1927), sculptor, Hans-Peter Goettsche (20-21st century). Berlin: Deutsche Akademie der Kunste. Ref. Walter Bergman (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2003, b&w). A girl plays a highly stylised recorder.

Jacob Gole

Dutch mezzotint engraver and print-maker; he was pupil of Cornelius Dusart (1660–1704); born Amsterdam (c. 1660), died 1737.

• Monk with a Recorder (1724), print, 18.4 × 23.4 cm, Jacob Gole (c. 1660–1737) after Cornelis Dusart f. (1660-1704). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-2003-124. This print is comes from a 50-part series on the subject of the abuses of the Catholic clergy. A rather leery-looking monk standing, appears to be counting on the fingers of his left hand. Tucked in a loop on the shoulder of his cowl is a baroque recorder of alto-size.

Chris Gollon

Contemporary English artist whose works range from classic surrealism to his own concepts in cubism; other influences include the German painters of the twenties and thirties as well as an interest in film, especially the work of Italian film director, Federico Fellini; born London (1953). Web Page.

• Wall of Death (1999), mixed media on panel, 122 × 91 cm, Chris Gollon (1953–). Private Collection. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image ID IAP 138432). A surrealistic depiction of a fairground “wall of death” ride in which a woman becomes gruesomely twisted and distorted and a cloaked figure plays a conical recorder which has become curved like a cornetto, although a tiny window/labium is clearly visible.
• Is it Time? (1999), 122 × 91 cm, mixed media on panel, Chris Gollon (1953–). Private Collection. An apocalyptic vision. As world’s collide, a man on all fours points at the horizon, bare-arsed. A woman kneels beside him, praying. A cloaked figure plays a conical recorder which has become curved like a cornetto, though a tiny window/labium is clearly visible. Above, another woman stands upside down and a skeletal figure hangs from a fish-hook.

Hendrick [Hendrik] Goltzius [Gols, Goltius, Goltz, Golzius]

Dutch draughtsman, printmaker, print publisher and painter; his ability to emulate the style and technique of different artists and to adapt to current trends earned him distinction as a ‘Proteus of changing shapes’; born Mülbrecht [now Bracht-am-Niederrhein] (1558), died Haarlem (1617)

• Contest between Apollo and Pan or The Judgment of Midas (1590), Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 3: 140.43); Munich RIdIM (1999). Apollo plays the violin (or viola), Pan plays a small recorder; Terpschore accompanies him on her lute.
• Contest between Apollo and Pan or The Judgment of Midas, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 3: 40 S1); Munich RIdIM (1999). Apollo plays the violin (or viola), Pan plays a small recorder; Terpschore accompanies him on her lute.
• Woman with a Recorder, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 3: 213c); Munich RIdIM (1999).
• Mercury and Argus (1580–1590), engraving, 82 × 63 mm, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). New York: C. & J. Goodfriend (2005); Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-10.131. Ref. Bartsch(1854–1870, 3: 47.157); Strauss (1975: 172); Munich RIdIM (1999); Rowland-Jones (2000c: fig. 6). Monogrammed “HG.f.”. Argus with his staff is falling asleep. Mercury (with a winged helmet) seated by him plays a cylindrical recorder with a very slight flare at the bell, right hand lowermost, little finger covering a hole. No finger holes or window/labium are shown, but there is a clear beaked mouthpiece, and the playing position is perfect for a recorder. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
• Mercury and Argus, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 3: 105.17). Argus watches suspiciously as Mercury plays a pipe ? with a pirouette and no sign of windway/labium, but there is only a slight bell-flare to a moulded ring. The right hand is lowermost with the little finger on. No finger holes are visible. A caption below quotes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1:

  Fallaci cantus modulamine deperit Argus, In somnem sopit fistula blanda virum.

• Mercury, Argus and Io (? 17th century), Anonymous (? 17th century), after Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Blanker et al. (1999: pl. 46, b&w.) Mercury, as a peasant, plays a narrowly cylindrical recorder.
• Mercury Putting Argus to Sleep (1589), engraving on laid paper, 23.2 × 29.5 cm, after Hendrik Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-1882-A-6359; Washington: National Gallery of Art. Ref. Weslyan University: Davison Art Center (2003); Strauss & Field (1978, 3: 355). Plate 17 from the series of 52 plates illustrating Ovid’s Metamorphoses, engraved in the workshop of Goltzius. Mercury, as a peasant, sits on a rock playing a narrowly cylindrical pipe with a more or less abrupt bell flare. The arrangement of his fingers and thumb are perfect for recorder playing, and the little finger of his lowermost (right) hand is covering its hole. Argus sits beneath a tree, listening, his dog beside him. Between Argus and Mercury, stands Io (as a heifer). A caption below quotes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1:

• The Virgin and Child with Music-making Angels and the Annunciation to the Shepherds Beyond, oil on canvas, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001, col.) Auctioned 9 July 1999, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.) The Virgin lifts the covers from the sleeping Christ-child who is serenaded by putti playing cittern and a slender duct flute (probably a recorder), though the details are obscure.
• Woman with a Flute and a Musical Trophy (1598–1602), engraving on paper, 4.6 × 4.6 cm, Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-10.287. Depicts two sides of a medallion: one side with a portrait of a woman holding a small duct flute, possibly a recorder; the other side with a trophy comprising a music book, violin, bagpipe, shawm, and two ? flutes. Each side has a caption (both reversed) in Dutch: that with the trophy reads IS VRV RECHT OM VOEGHEN GOET; that with the portrait reads: t’ydel berooyt. One of a pair of medallions, the other has a portrait of a bagpipe player on one side; the reverse side is unknown. They complemented each other and together they also had an entertaining function: the verses rhyme and the whole is full of erotic allusions. Flutes and bagpipes were symbols of the male genitals.

Francisco Gomar

Spanish sculptor documented in Zarragoza (1445) and Tarragona (1479); brother of Antonio Gomar, also a sculptor.

• Recorder Player (1478-9), carved cheek of carved oak choir stall, Francisco Gomar (op. 1445–1479). Tarragona: Catedral Basilica Metropolitana y Primada de Santa María, choir stall beneath the organ. Ref. Website, flickr: Wilifried Praet’s photostream (2015); Lasocki (2023: 43). The scrolls on the armrests in the whole ensemble are beautifully decorated with floral, mythological and animal motifs. In one of them, a stooped man wearing a snood, cape and large boots plays a pipe with a beak and beaded foot. The instrument’s body has suffered some damage but the instrument is highly suggestive of the Dordrecht Recorder. The stalls of the choir  date from the era of Archbishop Pere de Urrea (1445–1489).

Thomas Sword Good

English artist who specialized in small highly finished oil paintings which usually showed one or two figures, often seated, in interiors; portrayed friends or professional models but introduced studio props and contrived incidents as a means of creating narrative interest; born and died Berwick-upon-Tweed (1789–1872).

• The Power of Music (1823), oil on panel, 33.1 × 50.5 cm, Thomas Sword Good (1789–1872). Newcastle upon Tyne: Laing Art Gallery, TWCMS:B6671. Ref. Archiv Moeck; Macmillan (2008: 135). An old man dances, waving his cane in the air to the music of a woman playing the cello and a young man playing a baroque-style recorder. A tambourine with jingle rings leans against a chair in the foreground. A parrot in a cage stands in a corner in the background.
• The Power of Music (1830), mixed method mezzotint, 48.6 × 39.4 cm, by W. Morrison (a. 1829–p. 1838) after Thomas Sword Good (1789–1872). London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.4617 & 2010,7081.7486. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012, b&w). An old man dances, waving his cane in the air to the music of a woman playing the cello and a young man playing a baroque-style recorder. A tambourine with jingle rings leans against a chair in the foreground. A parrot in a cage stands in a corner in the background.

R.C. Gorman

Prolific Native American artist who has practically become an institution of his own; dubbed by the New York Times as “The Picasso of American Indian Art,” he is most famous for his oil pastels, lithographs, silkscreens, and drawings of Navajo women. Gorman also sculpts, working first in clay and then sending his work for bronze casting in Tesuque, NM; born Navajo reservation, near Chinle, Arizona; lived and worked in Taos, New Mexico where he owned the Navajo Gallery; born Chinle, Arizona (1931), died Albuquerque (2005).

• The Flute Player (2000), oil pastel drawing, 109 × 120 cm, R.C. Goorman (1931-2005). Taos: Navajo Gallery. Ref. Website: flautotaverso.it (2003, col.) A Pueblo Indian woman plays a duct flute. Whilst this probably represents the American Indian flute, the absence of the external block and the fact that the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand is raised above the instrument as if poised above a hole makes this seem very much like a recorder. This work is currently offered for sale at US $17,000.

Jan Gossaert or Jenni Gossart, also called Jan Malbodius = Jan Mabuse

Pam Gossner

Contemporary USAmerican pastel painter working in Chatham, New Jersey. Artist’s web-site.

• Santa Fe Window with Recorder (2007), pastel, Pam Gossner (contemporary). Ref. American Recorder 48 (4): front cover (2007). On a ledge beneath a window with blue drapes is a vase of dried flowers and some lotus fruit, a baroque-style recorder and a closed music score.

Thomas Cooper Gotch

English painter of portraits, landscape and allegorical and realistic works; best known for his pictures of children in a highly decorative and often Symbolist fashion; born Kettering (1854), died Newlyn (1931).

• A Woodlander or Piping to the Never Never Land, watercolour on paper, 17.2 × 12.1 cm, Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854–1931). London: Mallett Antiques. Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image MAL85981, col.) A man playing the pipe is seen side-profile in silhouette against a background of trees. The pipe has a flared bell but no other features. The player’s hand and finger positions seem to suggest that a recorder was intended.

Gottfried Bernhard Götz [Göz; Goez; Goetz]

Moravian painter and engraver, active in southern Germany; born Velehrad, Moravia (1708), died Augsburg (1774).

• Apollo and the Muses, grey sketch with white tint, 13.5 × 18.5 cm, Gottfried Bernhard Götz (1708–1774). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Inv. 31960. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999, Mgs-246). Apollo and the Muses make music on Mt Helicon. Apollo is sits in the middle of a rock and plays on a lyre. Behind him are Pegasus and the Hippocrene Spring. To the right of Apollo two of the Muses play flute and harp, and below him a third is singing from sheet music accompanied by a fourth on lute. One of the Muses with her back to the viewer, plays on a violin. Below, another Muse plays harp and two more play recorders; another plays triangle (with rings).
• Musicians (ca 1751), detail from a fresco, Gottfried Bernhard Götz (1708–1774). Donanwörth: Château de Leithem. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). Beneath some trees, a man plays a violin accompanied by a young woman on a lute and an older woman holding a turned, flared-bell recorder (left hand lowermost).

Jakob Götzenberger

German artist, one of three who painted the frescoes of the Great Hall of the University of Bonn; later, he was appointed court painter and Director of the gallery at Mannheim, a position he resigned from due to personal misconduct; he then lived in England, where he worked as a portrait painter and frescoist, providing murals at Bridgewater House and Northumberland House; born Heidelberg (1802), died Darmstadt (1866).

• Virgin in Glory (1820-1866), pencil on paper, 41.7 × 57.0 cm, Jakob Götzenberger (1802–1866). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Inv. Z 770. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002, HDkm – 121); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The Virgin in glory is surrounded by angels; beside her is Joan of Arc; at their feet are two musical angels with duct flute and a psaltery.
• Faunetto con tibia [Faun with a Pipe], pencil on paper, 18.6 × 15 cm, Jakob Götzenberger (1802–1866). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Inv. Z 3012. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002, HDkm – 128); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A standing bacchante, wearing a wreath and with a lion-skin over one arm, holds a duct flute.

Gottfried-Bernhard Götz & Joseph Anton Feuchtmeyer

Gottfried-Bernhard Götz was a German rococco painter and engraver; born Velehrad, Czech Republic (1708), died  Augsburg, Germany (1774).

Joseph Anton Feuchtmeyer was a German painter and sculptor; born 1696, died 1770.

• Angel Concert (1749), fresco, Gottfried Bernhard Götz (1708–1774) & Joseph Anton Feuchtmeyer (1696–1770). Birnau: Klosterkirche, ceiling. Ref. Wagner (1961: 149, pl.); Walter Bergmann (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2003, b&w). Gabriel descends from the heavens surrounded by angel musicians in groups who sing and play trumpets, kettle drums, violins, cello, transverse flute, horns, lute, and a group of four putti sing and play two well-depicted baroque recorders.

Gottfried-Bernhard Götz & Johann Chrysostomus Winck

Gottfried-Bernhard Götz was a German rococco painter and engraver; born Velehrad, Czech Republic (1708), died  Augsburg, Germany (1774).  Johann Chrysostomus Winck was a German artist; born Eichstätt (1725), died Eichstätt (1795).

• Laetitia [Happiness] (1757), book illustration, Gottfried Bernhard Goetz (1708-–744) & Johann Chrysostomus Winck (1725–1795). Augsburg: Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Inv. G 5272. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999, Ask – 266). Includes a pipe (oboe or recorder), and a lute. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999; 2002).

Anton [Antoine] Goubau [Goubeau] I

Flemish painter active in Italy; known primarily as a painter of market scenes situated in Roman or Mediterranean settings and often decorated with many tiny figures; apart from townscapes, he also made a number of religious compositions, mostly intended for churches in Antwerp; born and died Antwerp (1616–1698).

• Lunch in the Country – A Concert Scene, Anton Goubau (1616–1698). Rome: Galleria Corsini, Picture Gallery. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Four men, one seated singing, with music, and (? music) books. One carries a lute. A man at the left holds a cylindrical pipe, probably of tenor size though the head and foot are both hidden, but five finger holes can be seen. Another man, standing behind a table, has his left hand on another pipe, but the lute hides one end and a book the other. Three finger holes are seen to the left of his hand, two to the right. Recorders seem quite likely in both cases.

Gilliam van der Gouwen

Dutch engraver and mapmaker, active in Anvers and Amsterdam, 1669-1713.

• Musica dis curae est, engraving after Philipp Tidemann (1657–1705), by Gilliam van der Gouwen (op. 1669–1713). Ref. Archiv Moeck. Apollo, strumming his lyre, is surrounded by musicians playing viol, vielle, flute, and a columnar bass recorder. The winged horse, Pegasus, gallops in the clouds above, where the gods disport themselves.

Francicso (José) de Goya [y Lucientes)

Spanish painter, draughtsman and print-maker; considered by some to be the Father of Modern Art; the most important Spanish artist of the last quarter of the 18th and first quarter of the 19th centuries, he served three generations of Spanish kings; stylistically his work spans the period from the late Rococo to Romanticism and, at the last, anticipates Impressionism; his work includes some 700 paintings, 900 drawings and almost 300 prints; born Fuendetodos (1746), died Bordeaux (1828).

• La Poesía y los poetas [Poetry and Poets] (1804–1805), oil on canvas, 298 × 326 cm, Francisco de Goya (1746–1828). Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, NM 5592. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Website: Pinterest (2016, col.) The laurel-wreathed figure of Poetry sits on the slopes of Mt Helicon around which three putti fly. One putto holds a French horn, one a pair of cymbals, and a third a cylindrical soprano duct flute held up in his right hand. The window/labium is shown by a black rectangular mark, and beneath the clutching hand are three finger holes in line. It is uncertain whether there are six or seven finger holes. Higher on the slopes, the other Muses are seated and, at the very summit, Pegasus is taking to the skies. Lower down, three poets, said to represent Homer (blind, on the left), and two others dressed in white and gray respectively who may be Virgil and Dante, or Ovid or Horace. Whoever they are, they seem to have let loose a snake which is hiding itself under Poetry’s skirts. At the very bottom, the Hippocrene spring tumbles over the rocks onto the forested plain below.

Alban Graf

Designer of the woodcuts for the first seven of the first edition of the 12-volume Margarita Philosophica (1503); he attended the University of Basel and thus could read and understand the text while preparing his illustrations.

• Typus Musice (1503), woodcut, Alban Graf (15-16th century).  Washington: Smithsonian Libraries, AE3 R34X. From Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosophica [Pearl of Knowledge], published by Johannes Schottus, Freiburg im Breisgau. A female personification of Music holds a manuscript surrounded by musicians singing and playing organ, harp, lute, and a flared-bell pipe, probably a recorder. And Pythagorus (the old bearded man) holds a pair of scales, exploring the relationship to the weight of hammers and the pitch sounded when they are struck.
• Typus Musice (1505), coloured woodcut, Alban Graf (15-16th century). From Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosopica [Pearl of Knowledge], published 1505. Ghent: University Library. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-3738 (2024, col.) An identical composition to the above, but very differently executed.

Carl [Charles Grav] von Graimberg [Graf Charles de Graimberg] (1774–1865), German

• Sheet with twelve vignettes of the [Schloss] Otthenrichsbau (1819), ink and pencil on paper, 18.2 × 42.1 cm, Carl von Graimberg (1774–1865). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Inv. Z 605. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002, HDkm – 133); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Trophies with musical instruments, including folded trumpet and kettle drums; trombone, harp and fiddle; shawm, cornetto, and folded trumpet; recorder, sordun and syrinx; sordun, cornetto and music book; recorder; hurdy-gurdy, shawm, lute and recorder; pipe and tabor; recorder, cornetto and flute; shawm, cornetto and zither; recorder, ?sordun and bagpipe.
• Sheet with 19 vignettes of the [Schloss] Otthenrichsbau (1820), ink and pencil on paper, 40.4 × 53.1 cm, Carl von Graimberg (1774–1865). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Inv. Z 5574. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002, HDkm – 134); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Trophies with musical instruments, including hurdy-gurdy, shawm, lute and recorder; recorder, ? sordun and bagpipe.

Antiveduto Gramatica [Grammatica, della Grammatica]

Italian artist born in an inn, an inconvenience that had been foreseen (‘antiveduto’) by his father and led to his unusual name; a painter of small-scale works, mainly on copper, his prolific production of devotional paintings, portraits and copies of portraits won him swift success; his early portraits included highly popular copies of a series of Famous Men then at the Villa Medici; born ? Rome (1571), died Rome (1626).

• St Cecilia (1610–1612), oil on canvas, 100 × 126 cm, Antiveduto Gramatica (1571–1626). Lisbon: Museo Nazionale de Arte Antigua. Ref. Spear (1971: 108); Rasmussen (1999–2004, Lute); Angelo Zaniol (2003, pers. comm.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-70 (2023, col.) “The Saint sings, angels play harp and lute, and there are a violin, little lute, recorder and tambourine (the tambourine of his Turin painting) on a table in front of them” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) The recorder is slender with a slightly flared bell; the window/labium and all seven finger holes in-line are visible. There is another version in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, with a slightly different arrangement of instruments and the players dressed differently.
• St Cecilia (1620–1625), oil on canvas, 91 × 120 cm, Antiveduto Gramatica (1571–1626). Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Inv.-Nr. GG_249. Ref. Website: Flute Iconography LI-68 (2023, col.) The Saint sings, angels play harp and lute, and there are a violin, mandora, recorder and tambourine (the tambourine of his Turin painting) on a table in front of them. The recorder is slender with a slightly flared bell; the window/labium and the three lowermost finger holes in-line are visible. There is another version in the Museo de Arte Antigua, Lisbon, with a slightly different arrangement of instruments and the players dressed differently
• The Lute Player (fragment of a Music Party) (ca 1615), oil on canvas, 119 × 85 cm, Antiveduto Gramatica (1571–1626). Turin: Galleria Sabauda. Ref. Gabrielli (1971: 368, pl. 139);  Golzio (1968: 1353); Moir (1967: fig. 115); Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MCG) 13: tab 14; Pisetzky (1966: 14); Rasmussen (1999–2004, Lute); Sartori (1964, 1: pl. opp. p. 96, col.); Spear (1971: no. 33); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.C178.90[i]). “He plays an archlute or small chitarrone. On the table in front of him a guitar, recorder (?-very partly visible) and tambourine” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) I don’t think there is a recorder in this fragment which depicts a theorbo player seated at a table on which are placed a guitar, an open music book, a tambourine (with two rows of jingle rings and two small indistinct objects, possibly cornetto mouthpieces. However, a copy of the complete painting (location unknown) shows the missing portion at the left, with a youth playing a harpsichord and a man playing a flute (Spear 1971: fig. 25; Christansen 26–27 & fig. 13, b&w) and, from beneath the tambourine we can see what looks like the flared foot and lower body of a small pipe, probably a duct flute (possibly a recorder) with five finger holes visible, the remainder of the instrument hidden under the tambourine.
• Euterpe, Antiveduto Gramatica (1571–1626). Turin: Palazzo Chiablese. Ref. Papi (1995); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). A very buxom Euterpe (Muse of music and lyrical poetry) holds a cornetto and a flared-bell recorder in her left hand. With her right hand she withdraws two flared-bell pipes from a cylindrical container at her side.
• Euterpe, Antiveduto Gramatica (1571–1626). Turin: Circolo Ufficiali di Presidio, già nelle Collezioni ducali del Castello del Valentino. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2004). Standing in front of an organ, Euterpe (Muse of music and lyrical poetry) looks at us over her shoulder holding in her right hand a transverse flute and a slender cylindrical duct flute and in her left hand (held against her hip) a larger flared-bell duct flute. Only six holes are visible on the smaller of the duct flutes (though another may be hidden beneath her thumb), the window/labium is crudely fashioned in the manner of a folk instrument, and the beak is very short. Thus it might represent a flageolet rather than a recorder as such. It is possible that the longer instrument represents a recorder, though only the four lowermost holes (in-line) are visible, details of the window/labium are occluded, and the beak seems rather short.

Louis Grandet (2nd half of 17th century)

• Massacre of Orpheus, oil on canvas, 225 × 410 cm, Louis Grandet (2nd half of 17th century). Verona: Museo del Castelvecchio, Inv. 5885-1B609. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) There are various accounts of the death of Orpheus. Ovid recounts that the Ciconian women, Dionysus’ followers, spurned by Orpheus, who had forsworn the love of women after the death of Eurydice and had taken only youths as his lovers, first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the women tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies. In this painting, Orpheus is set upon by the women amidst much noisy music and dancing. An alto recorder joins in at right centre. The instrument is narrow, but has a clearly shown window/labium. The player’s left hand is uppermost, with fingers poised, and six finger holes are showing – the seventh is covered, though the little finger hole is not offset. There is an extensive but gentle bell flare.

Niccolás Granello [Granelo]

Italian painter active in Spain; his only surviving work is in the Escorial where, with his half-brother, he decorated the vaults of the chapter rooms and the sacristy (1581–1584); born Genoa (ca 1550), died Escorial (1593).

• Allegory of Music, ceiling fresco, Niccolás Granello (ca 1550–1593). San Lorenzo: El Escorial, Library. Ref. Centre for Music Documentation (CMD), Madrid (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). An angel or boy holds up what could be an alto recorder. It is held by two hands close together, probably covering only one finger hole, but three equally spaced finger holes are shown before the rest of the instrument is obscured by an arch at the side of the vault. The beak and window/labium are perfectly painted, with two incised rings close together, just above the window/labium” (Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Blasco de Grañen [Master of Lanaja]

Spanish artist identified as the Master of Lanaja, named after his Madonna painting from the village Lanaja in Huesca province (Aragon); one of a number of interesting 15th century artists whose work is characterised by more effective representation than the images of the Italo-Gothic style, with their decidedly decorative flavour; active 1422–1459.

• Altarpiece, central panel: Virgin and Angels Playing Musical Instruments and Donor (1438), tempera on wood, 167 × 107 cm, Blasco de Grañen (op. 1422–1459). Madrid: Museo Lázaro Galdeano. Ref. Ballester (1990: 162–163 & pl. 75); Pérez Sanchez et al. (1995, 1); Post (1930, 2: 333); Rowland-Jones (1997: 14); Sartarelli (1997: 34–46, fig. 5); Ducay (2007b: pp. 18–23 & figs. 5–6, b&w); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). From the village of Lanaja in Huesca province. The name of the donor, Sperandeu de Fé, and the date of the commission can be read on the panel at the foot of the painting, between a priest and an angel holding the shield of the donor. The Virgin, holding a spray of lilies, enthroned with the Christ Child on her lap, a golden orb in his hand, is surrounded by angel musicians who play rebec, gittern, harp, and a cylindrical recorder with all fingers of the lower (right) hand covering their holes. Behind, an angel in a pulpit reads or sings from an open book. The double holes for the lowermost finger of the are clearly visible on the recorder. Their use in these paintings by Blasco de Grañen some 50–60 years after Serra’s original is striking.
• Altarpiece, central panel: Virgin and Angels Playing Musical Instruments (ca 1450), oil on wood, Blasco de Grañen (op. 1422–1459). Saragossa: Museo Ibercaja Camón Aznar. Ref. Wilfried Praet (2010); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2594 (2023, col.) Depicts the Virgin enthroned with the Christ Child on her lap, a bird in his hand, surrounded by angel musicians who sing and play gittern, harp, lute, and a cylindrical recorder. The latter is clearly depicted with window/labium, and paired finger holes for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand clearly visible. The recorder-playing angel is very similar to that depicted 60 years earlier by Pere Serra (ca 1357–1409), and copied by Catalan artists for some 20 years after his original. Its use in these paintings by Blasco de Grañen some 50–60 years after Serra’s original is striking.
• Virgin and Child with Angels, painting on wood, circle of Blasco de Grañen (op. 1422–1459). Barcelona: Private Collection. Ref. Ballester (1990: 130–131, pl. 12). The Virgin and Child are surrounded by six angels, four of whom play instruments: two on the left play harp and gittern, and two on the right play lute and a cylindrical recorder. The musicians and their instruments are more or less identical with the Saragossa altarpiece.

William James Grant

English artist who painted sacred and historical subjects and drew illustrations to poetry; born Hackney (1829), died 1866.

• (19th century). Ref. MacMillan (1983: 495). “A recorder is clearly shown … The instrument illustrated here is a baroque type of recorder with ivory mounts: however, it appears to have eight tone holes, together with a thumb hole” (MacMillan, loc. cit.) Not seen; no location given.

Emilio Grau-Sala

Spanish artist; born Barcelona (1911), died 1975; father of the painter Julián Grau Santos (1937–).

• Boy with a Pipe, Emilio Grau-Sala (1911–1975). Location unknown: Auctioned 12 May 1994 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, col.) In a forest surrounded by trees and fallen leaves, a boy in red shorts, a striped shirt and a blue cap plays a narrowly conical pipe. The instrument has far too many finger holes and it is not clear if it has a reed or window/labium. It could be meant to represent a recorder.

Francine Gravel

Contemporary Canadian painter and print-maker living and working in Kelowna, British Columbia, also a poet; her work employs music as a recurrent theme and adorns coins CD covers, concert programmes, book and magazine covers; born Montreal (1994). Artists Home Page.

• Quatre Saisons, mixed media, 25.4 × 25.4 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Edmonton, Alberta: Scott Gallery. Children play violin, recorder, cello and flute. The recorder is stylised, and slightly flared; the window/labium is clearly depicted and the fingers are in recorder playing position, the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand extended and covering its hole.
• Pavane pour une nuit paisible (1977), oil on linen canvas, 25.4 × 30.5 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Studio, Francine Gravel (2006). Children play lute and two recorders. The recorders are stylised, and cylindrical; in each the window/labium is clearly depicted and the fingers are in recorder playing position, the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand extended and covering its hole.
• Dans un rêve (1996), oil on linen canvas, 40.6 × 45.7 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Studio, Francine Gravel (2006). A child sleeps her head resting on her crossed arms on a book on a table on which are a vase of flowers and a small, cylindrical duct flute. The latter, viewed laterally, is possibly a recorder, though only six finger holes can be seen: the lowermost may be hidden from view.
• A Celebration of Music oil on linen canvas, 50.8 × 61.0 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref: Phone Directory, Telus Edmonton Area (1997-1998: front cover, col.) “Music is, and has been, an important source of my inspiration for many years. The project for the creation of A Celebration of Music has further explored my love for music as well as my feeling for Edmonton as a place. For Edmonton is the city where my career as an artist began to blossom, and this is reflected in my choice of the season for this painting. Spring, as well as youth, are symbols of hope and renewal, both present in the work. This hope and renewal are also commemorated this year in the opening of the Francis Winspear Center for Music. The open frame suggests a future that can expand beyond its limits; and, at the same time, it symbolizes the richness and dreams of the past as they have contributed to the present. In this we all share.” Against the backdrop of houses musicians play violin, two flutes, double bass and recorder. The window/labium and finger holes of the latter are clearly enough depicted.
• Aubade au point du jour (1996), 71.2 × 91.4 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Studio, Francine Gravel (2006). Against a background of houses illuminated by the rising sun, musicians play three violins, recorder, cello (or double bass) and oboe. The recorder is cylindrical, the window/labium clearly depicted and all fingers covering their holes.
• Allegro, Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref. Allegro, Magazine of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (1993: cover, col.) A musician in a turban plays a cylindrical recorder, the window/labium clearly depicted and the fingers held perfectly for recorder playing. Behind, are clowns and acrobats.
• The Garden (2001), oil on linen, 101.6 × 137.2 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2006). In a garden opening onto fields jungle animals listen to a young man playing a conical recorder. The window/labium of the latter is clearly visible and the fingers are deployed as for recorder-playing. A small girl sits in a tree playing the violin.
• Panorama Symphonique (1997), 152.4 × 243.8 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Studio, Francine Gravel (2006). At the entrance to a church, musicians play four cylindrical recorders, lute, two flutes, violin and oboe. In the background a woman dances with a clown. A town is seen in the background.
• Concierto Pastorale, Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref. CD Cover: Timothy Hutchins (flute), CBC Vancouver Orchestral [Mario Bernard], CBC 5171. Musicans play recorder and flute, the window/labium of the former clearly depicted and the fingers deployed as for recorder-playing. Behind them a man leads a horse, and another musician stands holding a violin.
• Whence the Music (1998), Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref. Programme Cover: National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Musicians sing and play cello, violin, viola, flute and recorder, the window/labium of the latter clearly depicted.
• Recorder Quintet (2001-2002), Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref. CD cover, Celebration!, Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. Musicians play double bass, cello, viola, violin and recorder. The latter is viewed in side profile, the fingers deployed as for recorder-playing and the double holes for the lowermost finger clearly depicted.
• Musique de Tzigane [Gypsy Music], oil on linen, 50.8 × 15.2 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2006). A young woman plays violin accompanied by a young man on recorder, the window/labium of the latter clearly depicted.
• Les Sons d’une Cité [Sounds of the City], oil on linen, 76.2 × 101.6 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2006). Against a backdrop of trees and town-houses, musicians play four recorders, and two violins. A girl admires a blue daisy flower.
• Winter Serenade, mixed media, 25.4 × 25.4 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2006). Rugged up against the cold evening, a girl and a boy play recorder and violin, the cylindrical recorder clearly depicted. In the background are snow-covered town-houses.
• Small Ensemble, 61.0 × 40.6 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2006). A girl in a mask plays a recorder, the window/labium, and paired holes for the two lower-most fingers clearly depicted. Behind her, other children play flute and three oboes.
• Musique sous les Etoiles [Music of the Stars], poster, 99.1 × 63.5 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Ref. Website: The Art Ark (2006). A girl plays a cylindrical recorder accompanied by a boy who plays lute. Behind them, two girls dance surrounded by trees and town-houses. In the background the sun sets over the water.
• Song for Winter Solstice, oil on linen, 35.6 × 27.9 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2014). On a wintry, moonlit night, two girls play violin and a cylindrical recorder.
• One Summer Night’s Music, oil on linen, 50.8 × 40.6 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2014). On a moonlit summer’s night a girl in a red dress plays a violin to an accompaniment provided by her friends on flute, violin and a slender cylindrical pipe. The latter is played with  fingers of both hands perfectly depicted for recorder-playing.
• Musique pour danser, oil on linen, 61.0 × 45.7 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2014). A group of young people dance to music provided by a young woman playing a guitar and another playing a conical pipe with fingers of both hands perfectly depicted for recorder-playing.
• Rainbow Celebration, oil on linen, 91.4 × 61.0, Francine Gravel (1944–). Kelowna: Hambleton Galleries (2014). A couple and a young woman dance exuberantly beneath a rainbow to music provided by a young woman playing a flute, another a double bass and a young man playing a conical pipe with fingers of both hands perfectly depicted for recorder-playing.
• Heralds of Spring, 101 × 152 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–). A boy plays a lute, a girl plays an oboe (or shawm), and another girl plays a recorder, the window/labium clearly visible and the fingers of both hands perfectly depicted for recorder-playing.
• CD cover, The Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra: Recorder Quintet  (2001–2002), Francine Gravel (1944–). A boy plays an alto-sized recorder accompanied by violin, viola, cello and double bass.
• Spring Constellation (2015), oil on linen, 76 x 62 cm, Francine Gravel (1944–).  A girl plays an alto-sized recorder to three birds whilst a flock of fairies flutter about some large coloured balloons.

Pieter (Fransz.) de Grebber

Dutch painter, amateur poet and composer; a pioneer among the Haarlem Classicists; painted portraits and genre scenes in the tradition of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, but most of his subjects are religious scenes; born and died Haarlem (ca 1600–1652/54); son of the painter and art dealer Frans Pietersz. de Grebber (1573–1643),

• Allegory of Marriage, drawing in ink and pencil on white and coloured paper, 26.5 × 43 cm, Pieter de Grebber (ca 1600–1652/54). Rennes: Musée des Beaux-Artes, Inv. 794.1.3377. Ref. Joconde Website (1999). A man and a woman, Cupid, playful putti, sheep, a leafy crown, a vase or chalice, baskets, trees, birds, a duct flute (flageolet or recorder). Not seen.
• Shepherd Couple in a Landscape, canvas, 116 × 155 cm, Pieter de Grebber (ca 1600 – 1652/4). Amsterdam , Old Master Paintings, 30 November 2010, Lot 75 (sold); formerly Wiesbaden: Gemäldegalerie, Inv./cat.nr Nachtrag 1939, no. 625. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 2455 (2010, b&w). A young woman and a young lad sit on a hillside. He leans slightly over her with a pipe held in his fist pointed towards her ankles. The pipe has a flared bell, and seven finger holes are visible with the lowermost offset, so this is very likely a recorder. Behind the lad is a goat; beside the woman is a sleeping dog. The young woman’s flowing dress seems most unlikely attire for a shepherdess. This painting was returned to the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer in 2010.

Doménicos Theotocópoulos, called ‘El Greco’

Greek painter who studied with Titian in Venice before settling in Spain, famous for his highly individual dramatic and expressionistic style; active in Candia (Crete), Venice, Rome and Toledo; born Iráklion, Crete – then a possession of the Republic of Venice (1541), died Toledo (1614).

• Annunciation (1597–1600), oil on canvas, 315 × 174 cm, El Greco (1541–1614). Villanueva y Geltrú, Spain: Museu Victor Balaguer. Ref. Troutman (1984: 29–30, pl. 22, col.); Early Music 20(4): front cover (1992, col.); Recorder Magazine, September: front cover (1994, col.); Rowland-Jones (1994: 75–78); Thomson & Rowland-Jones (1995: 42, detail); Website: gallica (2012, b&w, detail). Illustrates a passage from the New Testament (Luke I, 26-38) that tells of the annunciation of the Virgin’s motherhood by the Archangel Gabriel and the incarnation of Christ in Mary by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. The burning bush, which appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and burned without being consumed by the fire, symbolizes the virginity and purity of Mary. On the left, on a stand, is the book the Virgin was reading with Gabriel appeared, along with the sewing basket, an allusion to the veil of the Temple that Mary was sewing at that time, according to the Armenian Gospel of Childhood. Above, a host of musical angels sing and play cello, virginals, harp, lute; one (who seems to have lost his part whilst all about are playing theirs) holds a flared-bell recorder.
• Annunciation (1596–1600), oil on canvas, 114 × 67 cm, El Greco (1541-1614). Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. 171. Ref. Heinemann (1969: pl. 286, col.); Rowland-Jones (1995: 80; pers. comm., 2001). Depicts the Virgin’s reception of the Holy Ghost.(see above). “This version has a slightly stronger bell and bore flare than the one in the Prado, and shows no paired little finger holes” (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2001).
• Annunciation (1596–1600), oil on canvas, 315 × 174 cm, El Greco (1541-1614). Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, Inv. 3888. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “The Prado version of this picture (3888), which it seems El Greco painted several times, is much the same as the smaller one in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. The angel at top centre left holds his recorder vertically. It has paired little finger holes and a medium bell flare and is probably of soprano size” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Annunciation (1596–1600), oil on canvas, 113.5 × 66.0 cm, El Greco (1541–1614). Bilbao: Museo de Belles Artes, Inv. Ref.Bolinger (2010, col.)  Although the canvas is much smaller, this picture seems to be more or less identical to the Prado version.
• Immaculate Conception (1606–1613), oil on canvas, 348.0 × 174.5 cm, El Greco (1541–1614). Toledo: Museo de Santa Cruz, Inv. No.1277. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers.com., 2001). Painted for the High Altar of the Chapel of Oballe, San Vicente, Toledo, begun 1607, finished 1613, this painting represents the Immaculate Conception, although it has often been referred to as an Assumption. “The angel’s recorder this time has something like ten small holes in line, all below the player’s hands. A string bass nearby is also rather sketchily painted” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
• Immaculate Conception (1607–1613), oil on canvas, 108 × 82 cm, El Greco (1541–1614). Madrid: Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Inv. 170. Ref. Heinemann (1969: pl. 285, col.); Rowland-Jones (1994: 75–78, fig. 2, detail, b&w; pers. comm. 2001). “This picture appears in other versions. The recorder held by the angel is of soprano size and the four lowest finger holes are showing, the bottom one slightly offset and not far from the slightly flared bell. The angel’s hands hide the other finger holes, but the window/labium and beak are very clear” (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2001).
• Immaculate Conception (1607–1610), oil on canvas, 323 × 167 cm, El Greco (1541–1614). Toledo: Museo de Santo Cruz. Ref. Troutman (1984: 34, pl. 44, col.); Rowland-Jones (1995: 80). The Virgin is surrounded by angels singing and playing instruments, amongst them a flared-bell recorder.
• The Martyrdom of St Maurice and his Legions, (1579/80–82), oil on canvas, 448 × 301 cm, El Greco (1541-1614). Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Chapter House. Ref. Troutman (1984: 27, pl. 14, col.) The subject, the martyrdom of the soldier Saint with his legions for his refusal to worship the pagan gods, expresses the conviction of faith that inspired the crusade. Above the main scene on the battlefield angels hover, including a group of musical angels singing and playing cello, lute, and an ambiguous pipe (possibly a recorder).
• Angelic Concert (1608), oil on canvas, 112 × 205 cm, oil on canvas, El Greco (1541–1614). Athens: National Gallery of Athens, Accn. Π.152. Ref. Website: Wikipedia (2005, col.) Six musical angels sing and play harp, bass viol and a slender pipe (probably a duct flute, possibly a recorder, though no details are visible. This is possibly the last work painted by El Greco.

Stammatico Greco

Italian painter of the 15th century. The frescoes in the Lady Chapel of the church of St Benedict of Subiaco are attributed to Stammatico Greco.

• Assumption, Stammatico Greco (15th century). Subiaco: Monastero Benedettini di Subiaco. Ref. Lonardo (2016). Mary is seated with Christ in a mandorla on a throne surrounded by musical angels who play rebec, pipe and tabor, double-flute (on left) and shawm, double-flute and gittern (on right).  There are no recorders here. There is a copy of this by Johann Anton Alban Ramboux (1790–1866) in the Kunstamuseum, Düsseldorf.
• Assumption (1805/1806), ink & watercolour on paper, 36 × 47 cm, Johann Anton Alban Ramboux (1790–1866) after Stammatico Greco (15th century). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, Inv. M 115, SV 132, Nr. 248. Ref. RIdM Munich (2009, DÜk 402). According to RIdM Munich (loc. cit.), Mary is seated with Christ in a mandorla on a throne surrounded by angels who play, from left to right: mandora [sic.], small drum, double-flute or shawm, lute, another double-flute or shawm, recorder or shawm. A copy of the original in the Monastero di San Benedetto, Subiaco. Not seen.

Edwin L. Green

USAmerican painter in oil and watercolour, living and working in Toano, Virginia; his subjects include landscapes, architecture and portraits. Artist’s web-site.

• Baroque Recorder, print, Edwin L. Green (contemporary). Artist’s website (2015, col.) One of a series of ‘Williamsburg Prints’. A man in period dress (presumably a member of a Colonial Wiiliamsburg re-enactment group) sits leaning against a wall and plays a slender pipe (probably a recorder, given the tile) apparently made in two parts with a narrow ivory ferrule.

Thomas Greeting

English royal violinist who supplemented his income by teaching music to amateurs; he published The Pleasant Companion, or new Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet; Pepys engaged him to teach his wife an ‘art that would be easy and pleasant for her’ (1 March 1666–1667); in the following year Greeting sent the Duke of Buckingham’s musicians to Pepys’s house to play dance music; active 1661-1682.

• Title page: The Pleasant Companion or New Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet, (1675), Thomas Greeting (op. 1661–1682). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library; Oxford: Bodleian Library. Ref. Greeting (2010, reproduction); Website: Here of a Sunday Morning (2016); . Welch (1811/1961: 61) notes that the The Pleasant Companion was published as early as 1661. A gentleman sits at a table playing a small flageolet (the lowermost little finger is positioned underneath the instrument). On the table lie a music book and a second, larger, one-piece, turned, flageolet with 4 holes above and 2 below, the latter out of view. A small viol hangs on the wall.
• Title page: The Pleasant Companion or New Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet, (1680), Thomas Greeting (op. 1661–1682). Ref. Website: Library of Congress (2002). Welch (1811/1961: 61) notes that the The Pleasant Companion was published as early as 1661. A gentleman sits at a table playing a small flageolet (the lowermost little finger is positioned underneath the instrument). On the table lie a music book and a second, larger, one-piece, turned, flageolet with 4 holes above and 2 below, the latter out of view. A small viol hangs on the wall.
• Title page: The Pleasant Companion (1682), Thomas Greeting (op. 1661–1682). London: Library, British Museum. Ref. Welch (1911/1961: 50, fig. 21); Remnant (1981: 114, pl. 95, b&w). Welch (loc. cit. 61) notes that The Pleasant Companion was published as early as 1661. A gentleman sits at a table playing a small flageolet (the lowermost little finger is positioned underneath the instrument). On the table lie a music book and a second, larger, one-piece, turned, flageolet with 4 holes above and 2 below, the latter out of view. A small viol hangs on the wall.

Gregorio di Cecco (di Lucca) [Gregorio da Siena

Italian painter of the Sienese School; painted book covers for biccherne (Sienese official records) and altarpieces; born Siena (? 1389–1395), died Siena (1424).

• Polyptych, central panel: Madonna of Humility with Music-making Angels / Virgo lactans (1423), painting, Gegoria di Cecco di Lucca (? 1389/95–1424). Siena: Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Servi, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, No. 49. Ref. Disertori (1978: fig. ?); Brown (1985: #215); Paris RIdIM; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2773 (2023, col.). Three musical angels on each side of the Virgin and Child, at left play (in order, downwards) nakers, lute and porcine psaltery, and at the right harp, fiddle and an ambiguous pipe, possibly a recorder. The latter is played left hand uppermost and is cylindrical; the bell end hidden by the Virgin’s mantle; it is of soprano size. The wrists of both hands are held low, with two finger holes showing above the right hand, and two above the left. Two fingers of the left hand and possibly one of the right hand appear to cover their holes. No window/labium is evident. The players lips and cheeks are relaxed.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

French draughtsman and painter of genre scenes, historical, mythological and allegorical themes and portraits; bust-length têtes d’expression were a favourite subject of Greuze which were widely sought after by his contemporaries; born Tournus, Saône-et-Loire (1725), died Louvre (1805).

• Girl with Flute by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805). Ref. Website: Corbis Images MA03439A (2009). A young girl in side profile plays a pipe with the characteristic beak of a recorder, the window/labium clearly visible.

Fritz Griebel

German painter, book illustrator, silhouette maker and tapestry maker; at the end of World War II, he became the first director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, at which post he remained until 1957; concurrently, he was professor of Painting and the Graphic Arts at the Academy; musical instruments appear frequently in his work; born Unfinden (1899), died Heroldsberg) (1976).

• Junge mit Flöte [Youth with a Flute] (1933), oil on canvas, 65 × 47 cm, Fritz Griebel (1899–1976). Igensdorf : Collection of Jutta und Peter Griebel. Ref. Griebel & Griebel (2016, col.) A fair-haired young boy wearing a dressing gown and seated in a chair holds a red duct flute, the window/labium clearly visble but no finger holes depicted. The beak of the latter has a flattened appearance and the instrument may represent a tin whistle rather than a recorder.
• Flora (1930s), oil on canvas, 92 × 50 cm, Fritz Griebel (1899–1976). Igensdorf : Collection of Jutta und Peter Griebel. Ref. Griebel & Griebel (2016, col.). “The female figure in the foreground, whose upper body is naked, takes up almost the whole of the picture. The figure is seen from the front. In her left hand she holds a green sash which is wrapped around her hips and her arm is slightly bent. The right arm is stretched out too. The shape of the face reminds the viewer of ancient sculptures (700-500 BC). This is expressed in the eyebrows which, describing a perfect arc, rise from the root of the nose, and in the rather prominent eyes and the delicately modelled lips, formed to express the so-called Archaic smile. Griebel used similar facial features in his silhouettes. The figure’s facial expression is introspective. She wears a red necklace with a golden locket. White and yellow flowers float around her head. They indicate that the female figure is an embodiment of Spring, whose attribute is a crown of flowers. To her right, a boy is floating in the air, trying to banish the winter by playing his aulos.” In fact the “aulos” referred to by the Griebels is in fact not a double pipe and thus more likely represents a stylized recorder. Behind the central figure and to her left is a small viol or violin.
• Hausmusik (1952), pen & ink sketch, Fritz Griebel (1899–1976). Ref. Archiv Moeck. A young boy and girl, depicted in profile, play stylised recorders.

Elo Grieguez

Contemporary Spanish painter whose work includes figurative art, landscapes and botanical subjects; active 1990-2012 et suiv. Artist’s web-site.

• Troubadour with a Recorder, oil on canvas, 41 × 33 cm, Elo Grieguez (op. 1999–) A troubadour stands before a window holding an anachronous baroque alto recorder with ivory beak, mounts and foot. One of a series depicting troubadors with various instruments including harp, mandolin and oboe.

Jaccques de Grief = Jaccques de Claeuw

De Grieksche A (18th century), Netherlands

Wouter van Eenhorn was the founder, owner or co-owner of at least five different potteries, and in 1658 he purchased the brewery De Grieksche A (the Greek A Factory). Little is known of his own work; the initials SVE are most likely to be the work of his son, Samuel van Eenhoorn, known for his careful drawing of facial expressions and clothing. After Samuel’s death in 1687, Adriaen Kocks became a director of De Grieksche A after purchasing the factory from his sister-in-law, until his death in 1701. Kocks produced items of extremely high quality, as De Grieksche A was the factory that produced faience to the English court, including numerous significant vases, flower holders and bases for jugs for display within the huge ceremonial rooms at Hampton Court, commissioned by William III of Orange, the king of England and his wife Mary Stuart. After Adriaen’s death in 1701, his son Pieter took over the factory. He signed his items PAK and, even after his death in 1703, his mark continued to be used until 1722. During this time, the factory specialised in imitations of Japanese Imari porcelain, which became  highly successful.

• Monkey playing a Recorder (1701–1722), porcelain figurine (Delft), 17 cm high, A. de Grieksche (18th century). Antwerp: Museum Smidt van Gelder, Inv. Sm 1052/2. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A monkey wearing a jerkin and a tricorn hat sits cross-legged atop a pedestal playing a cylindrical duct flute (probably a recorder), right hand down.

Hans Baldung Grien – see Baldung

Gerhard Grimm

German painter, print-maker, art historian and teacher; he drew his inspiration from a variety of topics of all kinds people, animals, sports and dance, and thus arose a number of woodcuts and drawings with themes from these areas; his depiction of events, events and situations could be touching, emotional and amusing, but also ironically detached; born Würtemberg (1927), died Reutlingen (1998).

• Recorder-playing Children (1979), woodcut, Gerhard Grimm (1927–1998). Ludwigsburg: Sammlung Rudolf & Uta Henning. Ref. Archiv. Moeck. Two young girls play recorders, one tapping her toe in time to the music.

Samuel Hieronymous Grimm

Swiss painter of topographical watercolours and draughtsman, specialising in landscape and caricature; he recorded historical events in the kind of detail that might otherwise have gone unreported; the British Library possesses 2,662 drawings in 12 volumes by this artist, covering many of the counties of England and a further 886 watercolours, in seven volumes, dedicated to the county of Sussex; born Burgdorf (1733), died London (1794).

• The Church Choristers (1773), mezzotint, 34.1 × 24.6 cm, published by Carington Bowles after Samuel Hieronymous Grimm (1733–1794). London: British Museum, Inv. J,7.9. & 1875,0814.2456 & 1935,0522.1.46 (hand-coloured), 2010,7081.881 (hand-coloured). Ref. Website: British Museum (2016, col.) Eight male singers in a box pew inside a church sing from a book with one on the right playing a tenor-sized tuning pipe (described by the BM as a recorder, in error) of sharply tapering design and with a plunger in the foot, and two holding a book; a hatchment in upper right above a plaque lettered with the epitaph
  

  Stephen and Time
  Are now both even,
  Stephen beat Time
  Now Time beat Stephen

(Jean) Alexis Grimou [Grimoud, Grimoux]

Self-taught French painter who specialised in portraits; born Argenteuil, near Paris (1678), died Paris (1733).

• Le flûteur (1740), print, 20.0 × 14.3 cm, engraved by Bernard François Lépicié, père (1698–1755), after Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Marseille: Musée Grobet-Labadié; Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, 72 B 58966; Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection,0155/L; Manchester: Private Collection of John Turner; Ref. Pottier (1992: 55, pl. XLI); Seyfrit (1982, frontispiece); Archiv Moeck; Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007).  Against an open sky above a distant landscape, a boy (seen in half-length) plays an elaborately turned baroque recorder. More or less identical to a ? 19th century copy of the original painting in the Bate Collection, Oxford (see below).
• [Boy with a Recorder] (1740), mezzotint, 35.5 × 25.2 cm, engraved by Thomas Burford (c.1710-c.1779) after Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). London: British Museum,  No. 1881,0611.224, Asset 536077001 (2021). Against an open sky above a distant landscape, a boy (seen in half-length) plays an elaborately turned baroque recorder. More or less identical to a ? 19th century copy of the original painting in the Bate Collection, Oxford (see below). Inscribed below
  “Orpheus with’s Lyre charm’d th’Informal Powers!
  Tam’d Beasts, stopt Rivers, built the Thebian Towers!
  (The Artist seems to say) this Rustick’s flute,
  When Handel points the Mastery does dispute.”
• Le flûteur, ? 19th century copy of an original painting by Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Oxford: Bate Collection, Faculty of Music, University of Oxford. Ref. Recorder & Music Magazine 1 (8): 227 (1964). Presented, along with his instruments, by French recorder player and teacher Jean Henry (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000). A boy plays an elaborately turned baroque recorder. More or less identical to an engraving after the original (see above)
• The Shepherd Musician, Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Paris: Arts Déco, AD 322 21. Ref. Pottier (1992: 56, pl. XLII, b&w); Archiv Moeck. A lad plays a turned baroque alto recorder.
• The Little Flute-player, Alexis Grimou (1678-1733). Dresden: Stadtmuseum. Ref. Website: AllPosters.com (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A young boy (beautifully dressed in a ruff, slashed sleeves and a feathered hat) holds an alto recorder of baroque design. The beak, window/labium and flared bell are clearly depicted, and the thumb is perfectly positioned for recorder playing.
• Page-boy with a Recorder, Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Moscow: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Ref. CD cover: Georg Philipp Telemann, 3 Orchestral Suites, CPO (2006). A young boy (beautifully dressed in a ruff, slashed sleeves and a feathered hat) holds an alto recorder of baroque design. The beak, window/labium and flared bell are clearly depicted, and the thumb is perfectly positioned for recorder playing. Very similar to The Little Flute-Player (Stadtmmuseum, Dresden), and yet details of the boys face and slashed sleeves are different, and this boy faces left (i.e. the other way).
• A Flute-player, oil on canvas, 45.8 × 32.8 cm, Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). New York: Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings Part II, 6 July 2000, Lot 405. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001, col.) A young lad in a velvet suit, lace collar and black tricorn hat is about to play an alto/tenor baroque recorder. Auctioned 6 July 2000, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.) This appears to be a sketch for a larger work by Grimou, signed and dated 1716, which was with Galerie Segoura, Paris, in 1997.
• Boy with a Recorder, oil on canvas, 52 × 42 cm, ? Alexis Grimou (1675–1733).  Eastbourne: Eastbourne Auctions, Sale A070907 , ? date (between 7th September 2007 & 1st January 2010), Lot: 923. Ref. Website: Eastbourne Auction Rooms (2014, col.) In a pastoral setting, a  young man in a lace collar, scarlet hat,  jerkin and pants sits holding a perfectly depicted baroque alto recorder. This was given no attribution or provenance by the Eastbourne Auction Rooms, although they dated it as 19th-century. However, it is clearly related to the above painting and its derivatives. Perhaps the strongest resemblance is to the engraving by Halbou (see below)
• A Young Boy Playing the Recorder, oil on canvas, after Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Location unknown: auctioned 20 October 2005 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2007, col.) A crude copy of an original by Grimou, somewhat similar to that above. A young lad in a velvet suit, lace collar and black tricorn hat is about to play an alto/tenor baroque recorder. Auctioned 28 May 1999, unsold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
• Le Flûteur Champêtre [The Country Flautist], engraving by Louis Michel Halbou (1730–ca 1809) after Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2016, b&w). A young lad in a velvet suit, lace collar and tricorn hat is about to play an alto/tenor baroque recorder. This appears to be based on the original. A legend is unreadable.
• Young Man Playing a Recorder (1716), painting, Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Location unknown: formerly Galerie Segoura, Paris. Ref. Figaro illustré N2.F5 Folio (24 September 1906, col.); Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007). “This is a different painting than [sic.] the one on which the Miller print [see above] was based. In this work, the young man sits in right profile against a very similar landscape. He wears an orange-colored jacket and breeches and a dark brown hat. His eyes, also brown as is his hair, are turned to the viewer as he holds the recorder in his hands. He does not play the recorder, however. He only holds it as if he is about to play. The recorder in the painting reproduced on the cover of Figaro illustré is very similar to that in the Miller print. There are some slight variations in the turnings of the two instruments, but they are very, very similar. The recorder can be seen fully in the painting” (Lancaster, loc. cit.) A sketch for this painting was auctioned by Sotheby’s, New York, in 2000 (unsold).
• Portrait of a Young Man Playing the Recorder, oil on canvas, 86.4 × 68.6 cm, attributed to Alexis Grimou (1678–1733). Location unknown: Sothebys Sale N08282, Important Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art, Lot 360, 25–26 January 2007 (sold). Ref. Sothebys Sale Catalogue (2007, col.) A man in a slouch hat with a blue bow plays a perfectly depicted baroque alto recorder.
• Hurdy-Gurdy Player with a Boy Playing A Recorder (1727), Alexis Grimou (1680–1733). Location unknown: auctioned Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 25 March 1925. Ref. Sale Catalogue, Hôtel Drout (1925: no. 25, fig.). Not seen.
• Young Flautist, canvas, 59 × 45 cm, follower of Alexis Grimou (1680–1733). Paris: Étude Tajan, Old Master Paintings, Sale 9369, 21 October 2009, Lot 93. A very young boy in slashed sleeves, a lace collar and a feathered cap, holds a recorder, only the head and upper body of which are visible.
• A Young Boy Holding a Recorder, oil on canvas, 66.0 × 65.4 cm, follower of Alexis Grimou (1680–1733). London: Christie’s, Old Master Pictures, 29 October 1997, Lot 240. Ref. Artfact (2004). Not seen.

George Grosz

German painter and draughtsman prominent in the Berlin DADA group and in 1920’s a leader of Neue Sachlichkeit movement in the 1920s; invited to USA in 1932 where he settled in 1933, becoming an American citizen in 1938; primarily a caricaturist with a strong bent for social satire through which he gave vent to his disgust at the depravity of the Prussian military caste and the gluttony, and degraded sensuality of a decaying society; in America his work included romantic landscapes and still-lifes, sometimes with apocalyptic and cacatopian visions; born Berlin (1893), died Berlin (1959).

• Ständchen [Serenade] (1922), lithograph, 63.2 × 47.9 cm (image), George Grosz (1893–1938). San Francisco: de Young Museum 3329201303440045 A011048. A rich man in a bowler hat, smoking a cigar, walks heedlessly past a prostitute plying her trade, and a man with both legs cut off at the knees pipes on what looks like a recorder but is more likely a small clarinet, a hat with a few coins in it before him.

Johann Friedrich Gruber [Grueber]

German painter of vanitas subjects; (1620–1681).

• Vanitas Still-life with Musical Instruments (p. 1661), canvas, 153.0 × 166.5 cm, Johann Friedrich Gruber (1620–1681). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum. Ref. Leppert (1977: 63); Ember (1984: pl. 46, col.); Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: flautotraverso.it (2003, col.); Debra Pring (pers. comm., 2006). Formerly attributed to Cornelis Jansz. de Heem (1631-1695) and bearing his signature, this work is now attributed by the Rijksmuseum to Gruber. Musical instruments, fruit, a wine jug, music books, and gold plate lie in splendid disarray. The instruments include a viol, a pair of bagpipes, a violin, a cittern, two lutes, tambourine, trumpet, a tiny duct flute (possibly a recorder, six finger holes visible), the head of a larger duct flute (possibly a recorder) and the flared foot of what might be another.

Matthias [Mathis] Grünewald [Gothart or Neithardt]

German painter of religious works, who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century; Only ten paintings (several consisting of many panels) and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious, although many others were lost at sea in the Baltic on their way to Sweden as war booty; his paintings are known for their dramatic forms, vivid colors and depiction of light; born ? Würzburg (ca 1470), died Halle (1528 or 1531); the name Grünewald was a fabrication by a 19th-century biographer.

• Mockery of Christ (16th century), painting, after Matthias Grünewald (ca 1470–1528/31). Detail. Sibiu/Hermannstadt: Muzeul National Brukenthal. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008). A copy of Maththias Grünewald’s Mockery of Christ (1503) in the Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. But here the character at top left plays a tabor pipe as one finger is under the pipe and sticks out at the other side. Moreover, the noise and the association with (lecherous) dancing are part of the mockery. It is close to the original but the copyist has substituted a clearly depicted soprano/alto-sized duct flute with seven in-line finger holes and a flared bell for Grünewald’s shorter, cylindrical pipe. This has to be deliberate as almost everything else is pretty accurate. The instrument is a little slender for a renaissance recorder at its upper part, but otherwise it certainly seems to be a recorder. The fingers, all well-painted, are held in a manner which looks as if they are playing the instrument but in fact bear no relation to the positions of the finger holes. Perhaps the recorder alludes to the impending death of Christ.

Mariella Gualtieri

Contemporary photography and painter inspired by Caravaggesque artists of the 16th century; born Pollutri, living in Vasto (Abruzzo).

• [Musical Angels], painting, Mariella Gualtieri (2019).
  Exhibition: “De Pittura”, Vasto (Abruzzo), Sala Mattioli, 13-18 July 2019. Ref. Website: vastoweb.com (2021, col.)
  A juvenile angel who seems to have lost its way plays a neo-baroque recorder, reading from a music book held out by his companion who points to the correct place in the score.

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala

A 17th century full-blooded native Peruvian chronicler whose history of his country, Nueva Crónica y Buen Gobierno (1616), runs to 800 pages and 400 illustrations; born Huamanga, today’s Ayacucho (ca 1535), died p. 1615.

• Canciones y música, arawi: pinqullu, canción de los mozos; wanka, canción de las mozas [Songs and music, arawi: pinqullu, song of young men; wanka, song of young women] (1615), pen and ink drawing, Felipe Guaman Poma (1532–1616). Copenhagen: Kongelige Bibliotek, Manuscript Department, Gl. kgl. S. 2232, 4°. Ref. Guaman Poma de Ayala (1615/2001: 318). Two young men sit atop a rocky crag (their sheaves of straw strapped to their backs) playing duct flutes (pinkillu) to two naked young women who appear to be bathing in a stream.
• El coro de la iglesia canta la Salve Regina [The church choir performs the Salve Regina] (1615), pen and ink drawing, Felipe Guaman Poma (1632–1616). Copenhagen: Kongelige Bibliotek, Manuscript Department, Gl. kgl. S. 2232, 4°. Ref. Guaman Poma de Ayala (1615/2001: 666); Stobart (1996: 476, fig. 5). Five singer/instrumentalists read from music on a lectern. Four play long flared-bell duct flutes (recorders) which seem to have been confused with shawms, although the window/labium of each is clear. Their leader points to the music with a stick, holding an alto-sized duct flute (recorder) at his side in his left hand. The beak, labium five lowermost finger holes and flared bell of the latter are clearly depicted.
• Los auxiliares andinos de doctrina: el cantor, el fiscal y el sacristán [The native assistants of the parish: the chorister, the church assistant, and the sacristan] (1615), pen and ink drawing, Felipe Guaman Poma (1532–1616). Copenhagen: Kongelige Bibliotek, Manuscript Department, Gl. kgl. S. 2232, 4°. Ref. Guaman Poma de Ayala (1615/2001: 675). On the right, the chorister (wearing a brimmed hat) plays a flared-bell duct flute (surely a recorder) with beak and window/labium clearly depicted. He plays left hand uppermost, and with all fingers of his lower hand covering their holes, the lowermost crooked and clearly stretching downwards as this is a long instrument of tenor-size. On the right, the assistant (wearing a high bowler hat) waves his keys. The sacristan (wearing an elaborate peaked hat, reminiscent of a helmet) stands between the others on one leg holding a stout staff and what is probably a cross, looking for all the world like Mercury!

Jacopo Guarana

Italian artist who modelled his painting on great Venetian decorative artists of the 18th century, especially that of Tiepolo; born Venice (1720), died Venice (1808).

• Trionfo della musica (1776), ceiling painting, Jacopo Guarana (1720–1808). Venice: Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Derelitti, Salla della Musica dell’Ospedaletto. Ref. Laini (1993: 77, fig. 15). Musical angels play straight trumpet, cello, lute, and kettledrum. One, a female figure who seems to be waving away a marauding bird, has the bottom end of a wind instrument with a flared bell (possibly a recorder) projecting between her and the kettledrum.
• Glory of Saint Martin, fresco, Jacopo Guarana (1720–1808). Venice: Chiesa di San Martino Vescovo, ceiling. Ref. Fondazione G. Cini – Venezia, Istituto per la Musica (ABo); Goulaki-Voutira et al. (2003, col.); Wikimedia Commons (2011, col.) “This large fresco celebrates the ascent into heaven of the holy bishop of Tours. In an architectonical prospective realized by the artist Domenico Bruni, the saint is shown surrounded by a multitude of celebrating angels who accompany him in his celestial ascent. Sitting along the lower cornice, some angel musicians are forming an unusual instrumental ensemble, characterized by the presence of the colascione, depicted on the left beside two angels singing from a music book. This instrument rarely appears in sacred scenes, because it was generally associated with popular music. Beside the colascione an angel plays a pipe, held slightly to the side. A harp player and two singing angels follow. To the right in the upper part of the fresco, also near the cornice, an angel with a violin in his left hand and a bow in the right one seems to be distracted from its performance by a putto behind him. Saint Martin was elected Bishop of Tours in 371 and is remembered above all for the episode in which he gives half of his cloak to a beggar. The reproduction is far too small to see the vertical flute: it may represent a cornetto rather than a recorder.
• Matrimonio degli innamorati (early 18th century), fresco, Jacopo Guarana (1720–1808). Veneto: Villa Contarini Rota Piva. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). Musicians sing and dance for the happy couple. One holds a triangle (with jingle rings) above her head, one dances whilst playing a tambourine, a youth plays a slender pipe (possibly a duct flute, though the details are not clear), and a kneeling youngster holds a flared pipe, possibly a shawm).

Il Guercino da Cento [original name Giovanni Francesco Barbieri]

Italian painter and draughtsman whose frescoes freshly exploited the illusionist ceiling, making a profound impact on 17th-century baroque decoration; his paintings show a command of subtle effects of light and dark, with the figures revealing a wide variety of gesture and facial expression; born Cento near Ferrara (1591), died Bologna (1666); uncle and teacher of the painter Benedetto Gennari II (1633–1715).

• Summer Diversions, panel (on copper), 35 × 47 cm, Il Guercino (1591–1666). Florence: Galleria degli Uffizi 1379. Ref. Il mondo della musica (1956: 1433–1434); Mahon (1968, fig. 20); Berti (1978: 117); Brown & Lascelle (1972: 102-103); Gregori (1994: 255, fig. 470) [Villi I Tatti N2570G74]; Sartori (1974: 103); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Ferino-Pagden (2000, 256, no. IV.17); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.G937.8[a] (2002); Rasmussen (2002, Lute); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A group of eight men and women sit on the bank of a river. Several of them play instruments: two duct flutes (flageolets or recorders), violin, long-necked lute, viol; one sings. A chariot drawn by two horses is crossing the river.
• The Genius of the Arts and Sciences, copied from an original by Il Guercino (1591–1666). Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, Inv. 251. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999, Ssg – 50). A cylindrical alto recorder lies at at the foot of a serious-looking putto, with a violin and music beside him.
• Barrack Room Scene / Comedy Scene with Musicians, pen & brown wash on off-white paper, 21.0 × 39.5 cm, Il Guercino (1591–1666). Oxford: Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, WA1948.91. Ref. Parker (1956: no. 861, pl.CXC); Burlington Magazine (1986, 128: March supp. p. 36); Turner & Plazzotta (1991: fig. 185); Camiz (1994: 61, fig. 2); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372d.G937.90[I] (2002); Rasmussen (2002, Lute). In a large crowded room, musicians seated on a platform play violin, viol, lute and a cylindrical pipe which could be a recorder since all fingers of the lowermost hand are covering their holes.
• The Concert, brown ink and brown wash on cream antique laid paper, 22.3 × 35.3 cm, imitator of Il Guercino (1591–1666). Cambridge: Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum 1929.85. Ref. Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372d.G937.90[F] (2002); Rasmussen (2002, Lute). Reading from an open book of music on a table, a bearded man, a youth and a young woman play violin, pipe and lute. Beside the music is a conical pipe, possibly a cornetto, and an inkwell and quill. The pipe held by the youth is sketchily drawn, but appears to be a recorder. There is an indication of the window/labium and there are seven finger holes depicted with more possibly hidden beneath the players right hand.
• Sacred and Profane Love (ca 1622), canvas, 122 × 168 cm, Il Guercino (1591–1666). Genoa: Galleria Nazionale della Liguria. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (2003, pers. comm.) At the top left of the picture are two crossed soprano recorders in the shadows, head ends uppermost. Elsewhere, this symbolises marriage ended by death.
• Woman Playing a Pipe, pen and ink drawing with brown wash on white card, 225.6 × 18.2 cm, Il Guercino (1591–1666). Florence: Museo Horne. A woman seen in side profile blows a cylindrical pipe (zufolo) which she holds in one hand.
• Virtuous Cupid, oil on canvas, 105.5 × 151.5 cm, Il Guercino (1591–1666). Vienna: Dorotheum, Old Master Paintings, 13 April 2011, Lot 438, formerly English private collection; auctioned Sotheby’s (London), Sale L06032, Old Master Paintings, 22 October 2003, Lot 214 (sold); auctioned Sotheby’s, London, 6 July 2006 (sold). Auctioned at Sotheby’s, London, on 6 July 2006, with a provenance from Richard 4th Baron Coleridge (1905–1984); in the catalogue, the painting was erroneously attributed to Cesare Gennari and wrongly identified as an Allegory of the Liberal Arts. In the meantime, research conducted by Dr Francesca Baldassari, Denis Mahon, and Prof Nicholas Turner has positively established Guercino’s authorship. A half recumbent putto holds up a book of music. In front of him lies an artist’s palette and brushes. Beside him, beneath a draped curtain, is a bust, a lute, mallet & chisels, a violin and bow and a perfectly depicted renaissance-style cylindrical recorder with a distinctive flared foot, an off-set hole for the lowermost finger, and a maker’s mark just visible. This painting is the companion piece to Guercino’s composition of Amore Fedele, now in the National Gallery, Washington. Both paintings were made for Giovanni Donato Correggio (1608–1674), Guercino’s collector and patron. Recent cleaning of the painting has made it possible to regain a sense of the landscape’s spatial depth and the readability of such details as the three tiny figures on the riverbank, the castle on the right-hand side, and the cottages in the background. ‘It is highly probable that Guercino intended here to allude to the plains around Cento (the artist’s native town) on the River Reno: The delicate sfumato of the flesh tones and the subtle chromatic transitions are typical features of Guercino’s well-known phase at the beginning of the 1650s’. (Baldassari 2004–2005).

François Guérin

French Painter and draftsman active in Paris and Versailles where he worked for Madame de Pompadour; born Paris (ca 1731/1751), died Strasbourg (ca 1791/1811).

• Pastorale (1758), 100.0 × 147.5 cm, François Guérin (ca 1731/51–ca 1791/1811). USA: Private Collection. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). An Arcadian shepherd embraces a shepherdess with a straw hat. She plays a pipe with a long mouthpiece. Her upper (right) hand is raised showing three finger holes beneath; her lower hand has the first finger raised, the second and third down, and the fourth lifted, exposing the hole beneath. The lower part of the instrument expands to a wide bell and bore opening. Although no window/labium is visible, this may be intended to represent a recorder.

Giovanni Guerra

Italian painter and draughtsman in the late Mannerist style; born Modena (1544), died Rome (1618).

• From Bomarzo il sacro bosco: Pegasus and the Muses (1598), print by Giovanni Guerra (1544–1618) after Bernardo Buontalenti (?1536–1608). Vienna: Graphicische Sammlung Albertina, Handzeichnungen Bd. 7, n. 37199. Ref. Sommer-Mathis, A. (1996: 90, fig. 15); Website: Centro Vasco de Arcquitectura (? date, accessed 2016, b&w). Watched by a male figure (? Apollo, ? Zeus), the nine Muses stand around the rim of a font or well, several holding musical instruments including lute, lyre and a slender flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder. The Garden of Bomarzo is a 16th-century manneristic monumental complex located in Bomarzo, in the province of Viterbo, in northern Lazio, Italy. Among the many monstrous statues strewn about the garden is one named after Pegasus,the winged horse. Bernardo Buontalenti was an Italian stage designer, theatre architect and costume designer; a brilliant stage technician, he was one of the original innovators of the Baroque theatre and decorative arts; he also designed palaces, gardens, fortresses, and villas and practiced military engineering; born and died Florence (? 1536–1608).

F. Guidotti (late 18th century), French

• Still-life, oil on canvas, 73 × 88 cm, attributed to F. Guidotti (late 18th century). Marseille: Musée Grobet-Labadié, Inv. 3433. Ref. Joconde Website (1999). A lemon, a peach, a watermelon, a pottery vessel, a guitar, and a duct flute (flageolet or recorder). Not seen.

Dieudonné-Barthélémy Guibal (1699-1757)

Celebrated French sculptor who spent much of his life in the service of Dukes Léopold and Stanislas for whom he made statues and fountains at various of their chateaux and churches at Lenéville and Nancy; born Nimes (1699), died (1757).

• Three Musicians, statue, Dieudonné-Barthélémy Guibal (1699–1757). Haroué: Le Château d’Haroué. Ref. Demandre Bernard (pers. comm, 2006). Three musicians sing and play lute and recorder. The latter is held right hand uppermost.

Bonnie Diane Gummow

Contemporary USAmerican artist and illustrator.

• Musical Bubbles (2006), oil pastel, Bonnie Diane Gummow (op. 2006). American Recorder 47 (4): front cover (2006, col.) An aerial view of a young child blowing bubbles through a recorder.

Johann Eberlin von Günzberg

German theologian who became prominent as the author of reformist flysheets and pamphlets; born Kleinkötz near Günzburg in Bavaria (ca 1470), died Lautershausen (1533).

• Title Page, Der clocker thurn bin ich genant (1522), woodcut, Johann Eberlin von Günzberg (ca 1465–1533). Ref. Postcard: Musica Pretiosa Verlag, Visbiburg MPV-PK-0012 (?date);Website: Munchener Digitaliserungs Zentrum Digitale Bibliotek (2010). Four children dressed as jesters dance in a circle to music played by a fifth child playing a cylindrical duct flute, probably a recorder; although the foot is not visible, there does seem to be a duplicate offset hole for the lowermost finger. Other children tumble through rings, balance on enormous pellet bells and generally frolic about.

Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (Gijsbrechts)

Dutch painter; a shadowy and enigmatic figure who cultivated the art of trompe l’oeil still-life with a passion bordering on obsession; his works include subjects ranging across all aspects of painting in this genre: musical instruments, cabinets of curiosities, studio walls covered in Vanitas-pictures and artist equipment, hunting scenes with hanging dead game or hunting gear, and so-called porte-lettres – racks where letters, documents and other items are placed behind tapes which are fastened horizontally and vertically to a wooden board; the latter are among the most ambitious trompe-l’oeil works ever made; probably born Antwerp (1610), died (1678); father of Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p.1676).

• Musikinstrumenter ophægt på en væg [Trompe l’oeil with Musical Instruments] (1672), oil on canvas, 168 × 115 cm, Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (1610–1678) & Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p. 1676). Copenhagen: Statens Museum for Kunst, Inv. 3073. Ref. Legêne (1995: 116, pl. 6); Musica Antiqua (? date: cover); Archiv Moeck; Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 21322 (2010, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1); Ausoni (2009: 265, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Website, Flickr: groenling’s photostream (2009, col.). Depicts a musical trophy including orpharion, flutes, violin, double-strung harp, cittern, kit, a walking-stick flute, a renaissance-style basset recorder with fontanelle and reversed beak and window, two recorders of slender cylindrical design reminiscent of the ‘Rosenborg’ recorders), and a baroque-style tenor recorder (in three parts with turned joints). It has been argued (by Legêne, loc. cit., Carpenter 2005: 25) that the last-mentioned of the above recorders may be the earliest painting of a baroque recorder. However, several several others appear to predate this, amongst them a 1650 Vanité by Simon Renard de Saint-André (1613–1677).
• En violin og dokumenter ophægte på en væg [Trompe l’oeil with Musical Instruments] (1672), oil on canvas, 117 × 80 cm, Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (). Copenhagen: Statens Museum for Kunst, Inv. 1908. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 272188 (2014, col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Website, Flickr: groenling’s photostream (2009, col.) On a wall hang a violin and bow, and a bundle of feathers. Beneath them is a leather strap holding some papers, some manuscript music, a printed music book, some more feathers, and a perfectly depicted hand-fluyt
• Vanitas, Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts 1610–1678). Private Collection. Ref. Bernt (1970, 1: 459); Mirimonde (1971: 235, fig. 8); Leppert (1979: 16, footnote); Rasmussen (2002, Trumpet) “Frequently, artists even placed the skull on top of a recorder, as if to clamp the instrument in its jaws” (Leppert, 1971: 12). “Only the head of the recorder shows; there is also a trumpet and a flute with an adjustable stopper” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2000). Leppert’s assertion would be difficult to substantiate. The only other examples noted in the present catalogue (which contains data for almost 4,000 images) are by Gyjsbrechts himself (see below) and by Pieter van Steenwijck (ca 1615–p. 1654).
• Vanitas, Cornelis Norbetus Gysbrechts (1610–1678). Location unknown. Ref. Sale catalogue (? date: fig. 25); Paris RIdIM (2000); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). In an oval-shaped cavity in a stone wall various objects are heaped together, including a lute, quills, spectacles, candlestick, papers, hourglass, a watch, a trumpet (the bell of which projects from under a cloth), a human cranium, beneath which the head of a recorder is visible.
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, 102.0 × 77.7 cm, Cornelis Norbetus Gysbrechts (1610–1678). Bordeaux: Museée des Beaux-Arts Bx E 244. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (2008, pers. comm.) Includes a possible renaissance-style tenor recorder only part of which is visible showing three large finger holes in line, and a tapering profile, but a shawm is another possibility. Other objects include an hour-glass, a guttering candle, several gold pieces, a timepiece, a book, a human cranium, a map, papers, and the recorder, all on a table covered with a cloth. On top of the pile, in shadow, are a violin and bow.
• Vanitas (1668), oil on canvas, 63.5 × 51.3 cm, follower of Cornelis Norbetus Gysbrechts (1610–1678). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Sale AM1090, Old Master Paintings, 18 May 2010, Lot 47. A still-life with an hourglass, a deck of cards, a skull resting on music sheets, an ewer, a candlestick, a slender wineglass (half-empty), a pipe and glowing taper, and other vanitas objects arranged on a partly draped tabletop. Bubbles float above.
• Vanitas Still-life, oil on canvas, 59.5 × 71.4 cm (unframed), Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (1610–1678). London: Soetheby’s, The SØR Rusche Collection Online, 10 May 2019, Lot 244. Ref. Bowed Strings Iconography Project, bsip641 (2022, col.) On a draped table are vanitas objects, amongst them a human cranium, sheet music, a globe, a candle stick, an hourglass, playing cards, a tobacco pipe, a violin, some sheet music and a recorder, only the head and upper body of which are seen.

Franciscus Gysbrechts

Dutch artist, born Leiden (1649), died after 1676; son of Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (a.1657–p.1683).

• Vanitas, Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p. 1676). Recklinghausen: Private collection. Ref. Bernt (1970: pl. 487); Archiv Moeck. Depicts a table covered with drawings, a feathered cap, a highly ornamental metal vase, a horn, a flute, and a cape with tassels from underneath which the head of a recorder is visible.
• Cupboard, oil on canvas, 116.0 × 68.5 cm, Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p. 1676). Hamburg: Kunsthalle. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image  XKH145546). Door; trompe l’oeil; book; page; pages; candlestick; notebook; bookcase; case; cabinet; recorder; drawings; key. The “recorder” is much more likely to be a flute or fife.
• Still-life, 135 × 116 cm, Franciscus Gysbrechts ((1649–p. 1676). Location unknown: auctioned by Sotheby’s, New York, 6-7 ?Month 1975. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie ex Ruth van Baak Griffioen (pers. comm., 2003). On a shelf in an alcove are an embroidered cover, a globe, a straw-covered bottle with a lighted candle, a candlestick and lighted candle, writing implements, papers, an hourglass, medals, a lute and a renaissance-style recorder with a metal-sheathed beak sitting beneath the cranium of a human skull. Only the head and upper body of the recorder is visible.
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, 116.1 × 100.3 cm, Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p. 1676). London: Christie’s, 29 October 1999, Lot 40. Ref. Artfact (2004); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, Image 0000253401 (2010, col.) A cello leans against a covered table on which are a brass urn, a bowl, a large plate, a watch, a transverse flute, an ambiguous wind instrument, and some drawings. Only the foot and body of the latter can be seen with no finger holes or other details visible; it could represent a mute cornetto or a recorder.
• Still-life, oil on canvas, 60 x 84 cm, Franciscus Gysbrechts (1649–p. 1676). Formerly attributed to Edwaert Collier. Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Sale 446: Old Master Paintings,  24 November 1986, Lot 202. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 198982 (2014, b&w). On a partly draped table are a plate of fruit, drinking utensils, books, quills,  peeled lemons, and a crudely drawn recorder, only the head and upper body with four finger holes visible.

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