Artists–L

Pancraz Labenwolf, ‘Meister des Nürnberger Rathausputto’ (1492-1563)

German brass-founder who cast brass statues after wooden models prepared by sculptors; born Nuremberg (1492), died Nuremberg (1563); father of Georg Labenwolf (a. 1533–1585), also a brass-founder. See entries under Peter Flötner (ca 1485-1546).

• Polyhymnia, metal plaquette, workshop of Pancraz Labenwolf (1492–1563). Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Weber 71,6. Ref. Weber (1975); Munich RIdIM (1999: Mbnm-Weber 71,6). The putto represents Polyhmnia, Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn, dance, and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime. On the ground below there is a second lute and a recorder of alto/tenor size.
• Euterpe (ca 1900), plaquette (electrotype), 5.9 × 4.2 × 0.5 cm, N. von Klucaric (ca 1899–1900) after workshop of Pancraz Labenwolf  (1492–1563). Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Inv. ASN 4958. A putto representing Euterpe, Muse of music and lyric poetry, stands in front of a portative organ blowing a  conical recorder with a clearly depicted window/labium and paired holes for the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand. The title EVT–ERPA is incised into the top of the plaque. One of a series of plaquettes depicting putti with attributes of the muses.
• Polyhymnia (ca 1900) plaquette (electroytpe), 6.0 × 4.3 × 0.5 cm, N. von Klucaric after workshop of Pancraz Labenwolf  (1492–1563). Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Inv. ASN 4962. Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Weber 71,6. A  putto representing the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn, dance, and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime, Polyhmnia, strolls to the left as she plays a lute. On the ground below there is a second lute and a recorder of alto/tenor size with beak, window/labium, fingerholes and flared bell are more or less clearly depicted. The title POL–INMIA is incised into the top of the plaque. One of a series depicting putti with attributes of the Muses.

Paolo Labisi

Italian draughtsman and architect in the Sicilian Baroque style whose most notable works are in the town of Noto which was completely rebuilt on a new site following the earthquake of 1693; his work on the Palazzo Villadorata in Noto is perhaps one of the finest examples of his talent, displaying putti in seemingly supporting balconies with intricate wrought iron balustrades; born ca 1731, died 1790.

• Balcony decoration (1770), stone carving, Paolo Labisi (ca 1731–1790). Detail. Noto: Palazzo Nicolacci di Villadorata. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Five carved torsos adorn the supporting brackets of one of the six, terraced, ornamental balconies. The central figure, a moor in a toga, holds a recorder, the head and body of which is clearly depicted. This building has recently been restored and the figures could be misleading. However, southern Sicily has long had a strong Arab minority population, mainly now from Tunisia. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Carlo Labruzzi

Italian watercolourist and etcher of Roman portraits, antiquities, landscapes, genre scenes and landscapes; best known for his landscapes which were particularly appreciated by English travelers; born Rome (1748), died Perugia (1817).

• Landscape with Two Musicians (1763–1817), pen & brown ink, with brown wash, over black chalk on paper, 35.0 × 48.6 cm, Carlo Labruzzi (1748-1817). London: British Museum, Inv. 1946,0713.940. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012, col.) A landscape with two boys seated by a waterfall, one playing an alto-sized pipe with a flared bell, two women, a sheep, and a dog by a pool. The instrument could easily be a recorder and there is just the hint of a window/labium.

Pieter-Jacobsz. van Laer(Il Bamboccio)

Netherlandish painter; born and died Haarlem (a. 1583–p. 1642).

• Father Guarding his Beasts (ca 1635), wood, oval, 32 × 43 cm, Pieter-Jacobsz. van Laer (a. 1583–p. 1642). Paris: Louvre, Inv. 1418. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). One of a pendant pair. A shepherd leans against one of his beasts (a cow) playing his pipe, possibly a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) whilst several goats and a sheep look on and a young lad is busy in the foreground.

Louis Laguerre

French artist and godson of Louis XIV; he specialised in history paintings on ceilings and walls and decorated many English houses, including Blenheim, Chatsworth, Marlborough, Petworth and Sudbury; much of his work was done under Antonio Verrio (1639-1707); director of Godfrey Kneller’s London Academy of drawing and painting, founded in the autumn of 1711; born Versailles (1663), died London (1721); father of engraver, scene painter and singer John Laguerre (1688–1748). Alexander Pope wrote of him:

And now the chapel’s silver bell you hear,
That summons you to all the pride of prayer.
Light quirks of music, broken and unev’n,
Make the soul dance upon a jig to Heav’n:
On painted ceilings you devoutly stare,
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio or Laguerre,
On gilded clouds in fair expansion lie,
And bring all paradise before your eye:
To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite,
Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.

—Moral Essays, Epistle IV. Of the Use of Riches (1731)

• Life of Julius Ceasar (1692–1694), Louis Laguerre (1663–1721). Chatsworth House, ‘The Painted Hall’, East wall. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). The walls and ceiling of ‘The Painted Hall’ were painted by by Laguerre and assistants on the subject of events in the life of Julius Ceasar. On the East wall Caesar is supervising a thanksgiving sacrifice for a victory (‘vici’). Interestingly, the tibicen (piper) at centre right holds a single pipe in his left hand with the thumb very much in its recorder-playing position. The mouthpiece is slightly beaked, and the instrument is of alto size and cylindrical (but with a short sharp bell flare). The tibicen’s right hand is ready to play with three fingers down and the little finger lifted. The painting is not clear enough to see any lower right-hand finger holes nor a window/labium. But it looks like a recorder.

Carine M.Y. Lai

Talented US art student with a penchant for fantasy illustration; born 1980. Artist’s web-site.

• Recorder City, 4.79 × 5.99 cm, acrylics and roller-ball pen, Carine M.Y. Lai (1980–). Ref. American Recorder 40, 2: front cover  (2001, col.); Website: Elfwood (2002). Recorders as skyscrapers with the inhabitants painting, hanging out washing and watching the world go by.

Conrad [Konrad] Laib

German painter, active in Austria; religious panels and wall paintings influenced by north Italian models; his figures are characterized by their large, heavy forms and are often crowded; born Ensingen, active ca 1440–1460.

• Crucifixion in the Crowd  (ca 1457), Conrad Laib (op. ca 1440–1460). Graz: Domkirche St Aegydius. Ref. Wiese (1977: pl. 45); Archiv Moeck; Website: Wikimedia (2014, col.) Immediately behind the central cross, a man on a horse plays a pipe and tabor, not a recorder.

Gérard de Lairesse

Dutch draughtsman, etcher, painter and writer; a contributor to the ‘gallicizing’ of Dutch art in the second half of the 17th century, he was a talented painter who served a wealthy, cultivated bourgeoisie for whom he painted complex allegories; also an influential theorist whose books reflect the proselytizing zeal of the late 17th-century promoters of classicism; born Liège (1640), died Amsterdam (1711).

• Organ shutters (1686), oil painting on wood, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Amsterdam: Westerkerk. Ref. Haynes (1988: 335, fig. 25, b&w); Legêne 1993: 96–98); Bouterse (1995: 86); Legêne (1995); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1). The South (left) shutter compries a number of musical garlands, amongst them a flared-bell recorder by Haka tied together with an oboe and a cornetto; a recorder with a strongly flared bell tied together with a tambourine and two small black bells; a recorder with a very strongly flared bell tied together with two flutes; and a small duct flute (possibly a recorder, though only six finger holes are shown) crossed with a mute cornetto and a hurdy-gurdy. Similarly, the North (right) shutter (1686), comprises a number of musical garlands, amongst them a stoutly made recorder with a slightly flared bell, tied with a shawm and other wind instruments.
• Bacchanale, drawing (lead pencil, brown wash, white gouache) on paper, 30.1 × 41.7 cm, school of Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Paris: Musée du Louvre, Department des Arts Graphiques, Inv. No. 21968. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Joconde (2007, col.) Naked men, women and putti dance to the music of a pipe played by one of the men and a timbrel played by one of the women presided over by a statute of a woman déshabillé. The pipe is stylised and might be a duct flute (flageolet or recorder); all four fingers of the lowermost (left) hand are covering their holes. More more or less identical to the drawing below.
• Bacchanale, drawing (lead pencil, brown wash, white gouache) on paper, 30.4 × 40.6 cm, school of Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Paris: Louvre, Department des Arts Graphiques, Inv. No. 21973. Ref. Website: Joconde (2007, col.) Naked men, women and putti dance to the music of a pipe played by one of the men and a timbrel played by one of the women presided over by a statute of a woman déshabillé. The pipe is stylised and might be a duct flute (flageolet or recorder); all four fingers of the lowermost (left) hand are covering their holes. More or less identical to the drawing above.
• Allegory of the Arts and of Maecenas, or the Emperor Augustus Sustaining the Arts (1668), oil on canvas, 62.3 × 48.4 cm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Caen: Musée des Beaux Arts, Inv. 68 2 1. Ref. Website: Joconde. A symbol of the importance of artistic patronage to those who have worldly riches as both power and wisdom are represented by art. A woman seated, a lyre, a recorder, a globe, a man standing, money, a putto, Minerva, Hercules, a caduceus. The recorder is of alto size and lies on the ground near the globe (a symbol of earthly power often seen Vanitas pictures) and across the middle of the instrument (obscuring one finger hole) lies a rod with a snake around it, Mercury’s caduceus representing financial acumen in this context. Above and below, the obscured hole are three large finger holes in line. The whole instrument is slightly outwardly concical with no bell flare – this could be an effect of perspective, however. Both the bell end of the instrument, and the globe, are in a rivulet with a small reflection of the recorder at right-angles to it linking music (the recorder) with the commercial riches which finance the arts. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
• Allegory of the Five Senses (1668), oil on canvas, 139.5 x 183.0 cm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711).  Glasgow: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Inv. 3635. Ref. Website: artifexinopere, ‘The complex pendants of Gérard de Lairesse’ (2019, col.); Wenley (2020, col.) A highly complex allegorical composition. In the left half of the painting are  symbols of the five senses in the form of cupids representing

• • Sight: cupid showing a convex mirror
  • Hearing: cupid hitting a triangle
  • Smell: girl holding a bouquet of flowers
  • Taste: young woman holding a fruit
  • Touch: young woman holding a parrot which bites her index finger

The right half takes up the symbols of the five senses, duplicated by the polysemic mirror as if to indicate to us that, in a certain way, the two halves reflect each other.  The flowers in the vase, the fruits in the basket, the recorder on the floor, the revisited statue of Cupid. Thus the entire right half shows us a sensory universe entirely manipulated by the artist , a still life which is in sum an extract of reality ordered by Art. The recorder is in one piece, the body obconic, the foot flared. The beak, window/labium six finger holes are clearly depicted; the offset hole for the lowermost finger is hidden behind a book of music.

• Barge with six Young Women and a Flute Player, ink on white paper, 19.3 × 31.7 cm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Paris: Louvre, Department des Arts Graphiques, Inv. 22718. Ref. Website: Joconde Database (2007, col.) Depicts six young women in a boat. One rows, another points the way; one plays a tambourine (with jingle rings), and another plays a conical pipe with a flared bell which looks very much like a shawm rather than a duct flute.
• Cadmus kills the Dragon (1682), engraving on paper, 16 × 19 cm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-46.718. Cadmus kills the dragon that has devoured his companions. The mythological scene is set in a medallion-shaped frame. To the left of this, an allegorical female figure with a conical pipe points to some sheet music above. To the right, three putti play cello, violin and another conical pipe. The pipes could represent duct flutes, perhaps even recorders. Underneath the picture is a three-line caption in French which reads “Ouverture with all the airs from the opera Cadmus made in Paris by M. Jean Baptiste Lully, steward of the King’s Music. Printed in Amsterdam by J.P. Heuss 1682.”
• Children playing, painting, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). In the foreground two young children play with some flowers in an urn; behind them a third child bangs on a tambourine (with jingle rings) with what looks very much like a one-piece soprano recorder. To the trio’s left, four putti dance in a ring. Behind them all a woman holds up a wreath and points to a fifth putto who is holding a rattle as he jumps off a bridge! A sixth putto following him. Ah, the folly and dangers of youth!
• Musical Putti (1670), etching  on paper, 84 × 173 mm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-46.715. Before a cloth strung between two trees, seven wingless putti amuse themselves with music. One conducts from a score, others play flute, viol, ?bassoon, and a flared bell pipe which may be a recorder. Two putti admire the efforts of their companions. A shawm lies on the ground before them. The same shawm and bassoon appear  on the title page of Anders’ Trios … Op. 1 (see below).
• Musical Putti with Pegasus (1670), etching  on paper, 84 × 173 mm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-46.716. Identical to the above, but here the cloth backdrape has an image of Pegasus flying above the he fountain on Mt Helicon.
• Portrait of Amélia von Anhalt Dessau and her Son (1689), painting, 163.0 × 135.57 cm, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711). Quimper: Musée des Beaux-Arts, 873-1-290. Christina Rowland-Jones (2015, pers. comm.) Amelia, a handsome woman, sits on an elaborate chair her leaning on an arm-rest in the shape of a Pekinese dog. Stretching over her, her young son tugs at her blouse with his right hand to reveal his mother’s left breast. In his left hand he holds a white conical pipe which looks very much like other recorders illustrated by this artist, the foot pointing upwards, the beak pointing towards his mother’s midriff, perhaps indicating that she is pregnant. Amélia von Anhalt Dessau (?-1726), the grandmother of Prince William of Orange, had eight other children.

Jan de Lairesse

Dutch artist; born Amsterdam (1640), died 1690.

• Title page: H. Anders’ Trios, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gighe … Op. 1 (1697–1698), engraving, Jan de Lairesse (?1687). London: British Library. Ref. Haynes (1988: 335, fig. 24, b&w; 2001: 154: pl. 3.2, b&w). Depicts four winged putti with ?bassoon, trumpet, oboe and viol; a violin and a recorder lie discarded on the ground. The same shawm and bassoon appear in the Musical Putti by Gérard de Lairesse (see above).

Jacques de Lajoüe

French painter, draughtsman; designer of title-page cartouches, banners, picture frames, harpsichord cases and the decorative components of carriages; painter of architectural capriccios and decorative canvases for insertion in panelling, screens and firescreens; born and died Paris (1686–1761).

• The Shepherd’s Song, oil on canvas, lined and mounted on wood, 148.9 × 45.4 cm, Jacques de Lajoüe (1686–1761). New York: Frick Collection, 16.1.82F. Ref. Ford (1987b: #36, fig.); Pottier (1992: 59, pl. XLV); Archiv Moeck. One of seven decorative panels mounted in a screen. A rather well-dressed shepherd plays an alto recorder sitting beneath a tree surrounded by greenery. The window/labium and holes for the lower five fingers are clearly visible, the lowermost hole offset. The foot is abruptly flared.

Richard de Lalonde

French furniture designer; active ca 1780–1797

• Untitled, ink, watercolour and pencil, 22 × 16 cm, Richard de Lalonde (op. 1780–1796). Berlin: Kunstbibliothek, Print Collection, Inv. Hbz 3775. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Bkb 51). A drawing of a decoration in the Tuileries which includes what might be intended to be a recorder (but too inaccurate for identification). Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

Nicolas Lancret

French genre painter, draughtsman and collector whose brilliant depictions of fêtes galantes, or scenes of courtly amusements taking place in Arcadian settings, reflected the society of his time; born and died Paris (1690–1743).

• Mademoiselle de Camargo dancing (ca 1730), canvas, 76.2 × 106.7 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Washington: National Gallery of Art. Ref. Website: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Depicts Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo (1710–1770), ballet dancer and courtesan with her partner Laval. Shows a baroque recorder (amongst the dance band in the bushes behind the dancer), accompanied by violin, viola, bassoon; on the other side is a pipe & tabor player. There are other versions, in Leningrad, London, Nantes and Washington. Camargo’s spirited style of dancing was markedly different to the demure Mademoiselle Sallé, her contemporary rival, who was also painted by Lancret (see below).
• Mademoiselle de Camargo dancing (ca 1730), canvas, 43.2 × 55.2 cm , Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). London: Wallace Collection, P393. Ref. Summary Illustrated Catalogue of Pictures (1979: 131, b&w); Pottier (1992: 23, pl. 10); Thomson & Rowland-Jones (1995: 103, fig. 27). Depicts Marie-Cuppi de Camargo (1710–1770), dancer and courtesan. Amongst the dance band in the bushes behind the dancer), a baroque recorder is accompanied by violin, viola, bassoon; on the other side is a pipe & tabor player. There are other versions, in Nantes, Leningrad and Washington.
• Mademoiselle de Camargo dancing (ca 1730), Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). St Petersburg: Hermitage, Inv. # 1145. Ref. Eisler (1990: 581, col.) Depicts Marie-Cuppi de Camargo (1710-1770), dancer and courtesan. Shows a baroque recorder (amongst the dance band in the bushes behind the dancer), accompanied by violin, viola, bassoon; on the other side is a pipe & tabor player. Needless to say, Mademoiselle de Carmargo dances for the Russians in a red-lined dress (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm.) There are other versions, in Nantes, London and Washington.
• Mademoiselle de Camargo dancing (ca 1730), oil on canvas, 45 × 54 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Nantes: Museé des Beaux-Arts. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image XNT39024, col.) Depicts Marie-Cuppi de Camargo (1710–1770), dancer and courtesan. To her right is a dance band with a violinist, but the recorder player present in other versions seems to have disappeared; on the other side is a pipe & tabor player. There are other versions, in London, Leningrad and Washington.
• Mademoiselle de Camargo dancing, etching by Edmond [Pierre-Edmond-Alexandre] Hédouin (1820–1889), after Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Ref. Website: Wikipedia (2015). Depicts Marie-Cuppi de Camargo (1710–1770), dancer and courtesan. Amongst the dance band in the bushes behind the dancer), a recorder is accompanied by violin, viola, bassoon; on the other side is a pipe & tabor player. Here, the recorder is depicted with a markedly flared bell.
• Mademoiselle Carmargo, engraving after Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Paris: Bibliothèque National, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Db16 fol. t1. Ref. Pottier (1992: 24, pl. 9).
• Mademoiselle Sallé, engraving by Nicolas de Larmessin (1640–1725), after Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Paris: Bibliothèque National, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Db16 fol. t1 pht. Ref. Pottier (1992: 24, pl. 11). Mademoiselle dances in a beautiful gown. Behind her a trio of girls dance holding hands. To their right a band of musicians play flutes, oboe and recorder. A disinterested statue presides over the scene. Marie Sallé (1707–1756) was a French dancer and choreographer known for her expressive, dramatic performances rather than a series of “leaps and frolics” typical of ballet of her time.
• Mademoiselle Sallé, the Dancer, engraving, 23 × 30 cm, by Hippolyte-Louis Garnier (1802–1855), after Nicolas de Larmessin (1640–1725), after Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Hobart (Tasmania): Collection Nicholas Lander. Ref. Early Music 5 (index): front cover, reversed (1977). Mademoiselle dances in the open air wearing a beautiful gown. Behind her a trio of girls dance holding hands. To their right a young person, seated, plays what appears to be a recorder, and two others, standing immediately behind him, play oboe and flute. Further to the right of the picture a man standing plays a second oboe. The foot of the recorder rests on the players lap; the beak seems somewhat narrow for a recorder, and there is no sign of a window/labium. But what is really interesting here is that the profile of the foot of the recorder seems to be of the late Stanesby Jr design. A caption (in Latin, French and English) reads:
  

  Vera incessu patuit Dea. Verg. Aenid L.I

  Maitresse de cet Art que guide l’Harmonie,
  Je peins les Passions, j’Exprime la Gaieté:
  Je joins des Pas brillants au feu de mon Genie,
  Les Graces, la justesse, a la lègereté
  Sans offenser l’aimable Modestie,
  Qui de mon Séæe augmente la Beauté.

  I know her now the sylvan Goddess cries,
  And saw her once in such disguise,
  Delusion vain! her Grace, her easy Mien,
  Her ev’ry step discloses Beauty’s Queen.
  But soon the laughing Nymphs the fraud confesse’d,
  For they to grace her feast had Sallé dress’d.

  The Latin quotation may be translated as “The true goddess was revealed by her step,” or in other words, she reveals that she is a goddess by the way in which she walks. This is a quotation from Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 1 line 405, which refers to the goddess Venus, who is disguised as a young Spartan huntress. Aeneas meets her in a forest on the shores of North Africa, after landing with the remainder of his fleet near the city of Carthage. Aeneas questions the girl about the surrounding area and she in turn questions him about his present situation. It is not until she turns to leave and walk away that Aeneas truly recognizes the girl as his mother Venus in disguise, although he suspects that she is a goddess from the moment they initially meet.

• Spring (1738), oil on canvas, 69 × 89 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Paris: Louvre, Inv. 5597. Ref. Lallement (1997: 195). A fête galante with a bird catcher, his musical assistant and four women against a landscape with a watercourse. The assistant, in the background, plays a small a duct flute (probably a flageolet), presumably to lure the birds. One from a series of four paintings of the seasons made for the king’s cabinet at La Muette castle.
• The Flute Lesson, oil on canvas, 84 × 87 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Paris: Louvre, Inv. 20807 (displayed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Ref. Mirimonde, Scènes de genre musicales … (?date: 21, fig. 17); Archiv Moeck; Lallement (1997: 196); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). In a forested park, beside a stream fed by a fountain, a young man teaches a young woman to play the recorder watched by a shepherd who leans on his stick and a maid lying on the ground who adjusts the young woman’s dress. In the shade of a tree is the statue of a faun who plays a horn.
• The Flute Lesson, print after Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Ref. Archiv Moeck. In a forested park, beside a stream fed by a fountain, a young man teaches a young woman to play the recorder watched by a shepherd who leans on his stick and a maid lying on the ground who adjusts the young woman’s dress. In the shade of a tree is the statue of a faun who plays a horn.
• The Flute Lesson, printed saucer, 11 cm diam., after Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). London: Bonhams (New Bond Street), Sale 16641– The Zorka Hodgson Collection of English Porcelain, 10 September 2008, Lot 53. A Worcester saucer thinly potted painted with a ‘Smoky Primitive’ print based on Nicolas Lancret’s The Flute Lesson originally from the Palace of Fontainbleau. In a park, beside a stream fed by a fountain, a young man teaches a young woman to play the recorder. The shepherd, maid, faun and other details of the original are lacking.
• Untitled, black chalk drawing, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kuperferstichkabinett (West), Inv. 15150. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Bkk 277). A man plays a recorder, left hand lowermost. The instrument has no bell flare, but the player has his left little finger poised as if to use it. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).
• Untitled, black chalk drawing, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kuperferstichkabinett (West), Inv. 15151. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Bkk 278). An oldish woman plays a recorder. Note by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).
• Dance in the Garden Room, painting, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Berlin: Charlottenburg Palace, Garden Room. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A painting done in situ. Four musicians play for the dance in a low gallery with stone-carved putti at each side, one playing a transverse flute. The musicians play cello, two violins and what seems to be an alto recorder. Details of the latter or not clear, but the mouthpiece is beaked, the body is cylindrical with a slight thickening at the bell, and the instrument is played left-hand lower, fingers 1 and 2 down.
• Study of a Man Sitting and Playing a Recorder, pencil on paper, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Private Collection: E. Croft-Murray, Esq. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2001: Image XJF143226); Fulbourn: Walter Bergmann Slide WB 66; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A man in a long coat sits on a rock playing a recorder, right hand lowermost. The instrument is somewhat sketchily drawn, but the window/labium and paired finger holes for the two lowermost fingers can be discerned. The beak is rather elongated. The bell is only very slightly flared and there is no terminal decorative ring. An Edward Croft-Murray was keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum in the 1960s.
• Lady with Servant Holding a Parasol / Elegant Ladies Serenaded by Musicians, oil on canvas, Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743). Location unknown: Auctioned by Phillips, 17 August 1995 (unsold). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Gabrius Data Bank (2002, b&w). An elegantly dressed woman, shaded by a parasol held by her maidservant, listens to a young man leaning against a tree playing a slender alto-sized pipe with a slender mouthpiece. All his fingers are placed in perfect recorder playing position. Two shepherds (possibly a shepherd and shepherdess) peer out from behind the tree.

Ottokar von Landwehr-Pragenau

Austrian art-nouveau portrait painter, illustrator and teacher; Professor at the Theresian Academy, from 1931; from 1934 to 1938 he taught at the pedagogical institute of Vienna; from 1937 to 1938 he owned a private school for painting and graphic arts in Vienna; from 1940 he joined the army; born 1905 (Vienna), was shot and died 1945.

• Forest Music (1905), pencil and colour chalks on paper, 43.0 × 31.5 cm, Ottokar von Landwehr (1905–1945). Vienna: Private Collection; offered for sale by Kunsthandel Boris Wilnitsky, Lot 3JKPW. Ref. Website: Sotheby’s New York (2002). A portly faun with a punk haircut strides through a forest playing a flared bell pipe.

Albert Lang

German painter and woodcut artist; a member of the Leibl circle in Munich, whose slogan was “art for art’s sake”; born 1847, died 1933.

• Flute-playing Boy by a Lake, Albert Lang (1847–1933). Karlsruhe: Kunsthalle, 1647. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: KAkh 48); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). A naked young man sits amongst some fruit trees by a lake playing a flared-bell pipe. The painter has shown no details of the instrument – only its shape. But the playing position – fingers, hands, wrists, relaxed lips, etc. – is excellent for a recorder. And the instrument has a bell-flare very typical of recorder design. Despite the style of the painting, could Albert Lang have painted this in his old age during the German post-war recorder revival?

(Johann) Peter von Langer

German artist and teacher; director of the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich; born 1756, died 1824.

• The Stall at Bethlehem (1820), painting, (Johann) Peter von Langer (1756–1824). Regensburg: Thurn und Taxis Zentralarchiv und Hofbibliothek. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Rtt 57). A young shepherd plays a ? recorder to the Christ-child.

Giovanni Battista Langetti [Langhetti]

Prolific Italian painter whose catalogue of works numbers over 120 with new paintings still being discovered; his style is noted for its extreme realism and strong contrasts of light and shade; born Genoa (1635), died Venice (1676).

• Mercury and Argus, Giovanni Battista Langetti (1635–1676). Ref. Warburg Institute, London; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Mercury stands behind the sleeping Argus holding a duct flute (probably a recorder) in his left hand.

Bernardino Lanino

Italian draughtsman and painter of religious subjects; his mannerist style is characterised by delicate effects achieved with soft, misty brushstrokes; born Vercelli (1509–1513), died after 1581.

• Sacra Conversazione (1552), oil on panel, 237.7 × 153.7 cm, Bernardino Lanino (1509/13–p. 1583). Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, GL 60.17.45 (Kress K.1570). Ref. Shapley (1968: fig. 368); Winternitz (1967/79: pl. 39b, detail); Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (? date: Taf. 87, detail); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.L272.34[a]); Chelys 15 (1986); Rasmussen (1999c); Villa I Tatti ND623L37B47; Romano (1986: 262); Archiv Moeck; Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). The Virgin and Child are surrounded by Saints and Donors. “A putto plays a cello. Not played: lute, recorder and tambourine (BB/slot or jingle but no jingle) (with roses on it). Roses are undoubtedly an indication of the connection with the Dominican confraternity of the rosary. The saints are all Dominican” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) The “cello” is in fact a viola da braccio played as if it were a cello, and the player is seated on a pedestal. The other instruments lie at his feet. Only the head of the cylindrical recorder is visible.
• Putto Playing a Flute, panel, 34 × 28 cm, Bernardino Lanino (1509/13–p. 1581). Location unknown; formerly in the hands of an antiquarian dealer, Berlin. Ref. Romano (1986: 241, b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A winged putto standing astride a stream plays an elegantly tapered (‘choke-bore’) duct flute, probably a recorder though the fingering is haphazard and the holes not visible.
• Musical Putti, Bernardino Lanino (1509/13–p. 1581). Location unknown; Finarte Sale, Milano, 2 December 1993. Ref. Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2001) Three putti play lute, harp and tambourine (with pellet bells). Before them on the ground are a bird, music books, a rebec, a cornetto, and a cylindrical recorder with a slightly flared bell (choke-bore) of which the window/labium and seven finger holes are clearly depicted.

Yves Lanthier

Canadian-born decorative artist living and working in Florida, USA; creates large oil paintings, elaborate staircase settings, along with “Trompe L’Oeil” embracing the ceilings and walls of the living areas in numerous East Coast mansions. See artist’s website, here.

• Boy Playing Flute, oil on canvas, Yves Lanthier (contemporary). Jupiter (Florida): Estate of Celine Dion (popular singer). In a trompe-l’oeil niche, a boy in classical style plays a flared-bell duct flute, possibly a recorder.

Hieronymus Lapis

Little-known Italian portraitist and interior decorater who fled to Holland because of his religious beliefs; worked in Delft, Rotterdam and The Hague; born 1723, died 1798.

• Shepherd and Shepherdess in an Arcadian Landscape (ca 1766), Hieronymus Lapis (1723–1798) Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie 53483 (2010, col.) Baarn: Kasteel Groeneveld. in the foreground a shepherd entertains his shepherdess by playing a a slender slightly flared pipe, possibly a duct flute. A dog sleeps beside them and their beasts look on. In the middle-ground a wagon is pulled over a hillock by a horse. In the background is a ruin.

Nicolas de Largillière

French rococo painter who worked in London and Paris; especially known for his skills as a portraitist, his brilliant colour and lively touch attracted all the celebrities of the day, as well as members of both the French and English royal courts; also painted historical and religious subjects and a number of landscapes; born and died Paris (1656–1746).

• Portrait of the Boutin de Vaussigny Family (ca 1713), oil on canvas, 318 × 255 cm, Nicolas de Largillière (1656–1746). Besançon: Musée des Beaux Arts et d’Archéologie, Inv. 842.5.1. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008); Website: Joconde (2016, col.); Wikimedia Commons (2012, col.) A large portrait of nine members of a wealthy and influential Besançon family. The oldest boy sits in the centre playing, or holding, a superbly painted viol. Beside him (on his right) a slightly younger man holds a large pipe which, based on his observation of the original, Anthony Rowland-Jones believes to represent a basset recorder. There are no other instruments in the picture, nor is anyone singing. Anthony writes that the recorder appears to be direct blown via a centrally-placed mouth-piece. The window/labium is fairly close, so the wind channel is short, but the labium is quite long, but not drawn with the same accuracy as the viol. The central body of the instrument is in two parts with the central joint well-decorated with turned rings, as is the lower joint, though the bell end is unfortunately hidden behind a lady’s sleeve. Three finger holes show on the lower section. The player’s left hand is uppermost with all fingers down and the thumb well-positioned under the instrument. The lower (right) hand is close to its playing position without touching any finger holes. There is no catalogue reference on the wall label. What is interesting here is that a very fashion-conscious member of Besançon high society in 1713 wanted to be painted playing a basset recorder. Moreover, the design of the latter with the central joint is very like those in the Charles LeBrun 1664 tapestry border design. Given this and the large number of surviving bassets between 1664 and 1713 and one might conjecture that the basset recorder was at least as much in vogue amongst amateur players as alto recorders could have been. It is by no means clear from the Wikipedia or Joconde images that the instrument is a recorder: it looks for all the world like a clumsily drawn transverse flute. Joconde notes the family name has been recorded as Boutin de Diencourt but is now believed to be Boutin de Vaussigny. An actual portrait La famille Boutin de Diencourt has also been attributed to Largillière (Website: gallica, 2015, b&w).
• Allegory of the Arts Arts, oil on canvas, 112 × 91 cm, studio of Nicolas de Largillière (1656–1746). Location unknown. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: artnet.com (2016, col.) A winged putto stands brandishing a lighted torch in his left hand whilst pointing upwards with his right. At his feet lie a violin, dividers and set square, an artist’s palette and brushes, a bust, a globe and a turned baroque recorder the head of which has an ivory-sheathed beak and ferrule.

Anton Maria Lari [detto il Tozzo] & Mario Bigio

Anton Maria Lari was an Italian architect and painter; he was responsible for the designs of a number of churches and other religious buildings in Siena, including renovation of the cathedral as well as Siena’s city wall and various other fortifications; born and died Siena (1503–ca 1549).

• Glory of Angels, Anton Maria Lari (1503–ca 1549) & Mario Bigio (16th century). Siena: Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). In the clouds are five large musical angels, together with two music books. The central angel sings from a scroll. Another holds a lysarden, fingering it but not quite covering the holes. Two hold recorders, one being of large alto size, the other tenor sized. The alto is seen slightly from beneath showing beak and block, but finger holes and the angel’s hands are also visible. The upper (left) hand covers its finger holes, but the right hand has slipped slightly showing one finger hole, and (very clearly) an offset hole with with the right hand little finger not quite reaching it. The bell end is hidden by a music book, but the instrument is cylindrical up to that point. The tenor is held right hand uppermost with the beak, the window/labium, six finger holes in line and a seventh offset to the left clearly shown and (less clearly) the corresponding little-finger hole to the right. The tenor has a very slight bell flare.

Nicolas de Larmessin [Nicholas L’Armessin]

French engraver who worked for his father-in-law, the publisher Pierre Betrand (m. ca 1678), particularly on the execution of series of portraits and almanacs, taking over the business after the death of his parents-in-law; born and died Paris (1632–1694).

• Album des métiers (ca 1680): Habit de Musicien [The Musician’s Costume], copper plate engraving, 310 × 210 mm, Nicolas de Larmessin (1632–1694). London: Bernard J Shapero Gallery, item 5136. Ref. Ausoni (2009: 376); Bern: Klingendes Museum, Inv. 4036 (b&w). An engraving satirizing musicians, one of whom stands holding a tromba marina in one hand and a violin in the other. He is clothed in musical instruments of all kinds, harp, serpent, bagpipe, cornetto, guitar, lute, triangle, harpsichord, bassoon, timpani, trumpets, tambourine (with jingle rings), rebec, and two baroque-style recorders, one attached to each shin.

Marcellus II Laroon [Lauron], ‘Old Laroon’

Dutch-born draughtsman and painter active in London from 1674; his principal work was as a drapery painter, and he served as an assistant to Kneller; other works include portraits, low-life genre scenes, history pieces and animal studies; born The Hague (1653), died Richmond (1702).

• [Musicians] (1680-1700), etching, Marcellus II Laroon (1653–1702). London: British Museum, Inv. 1866,0623.39. Two men and a boy playing music by a cask; one man playing a violin, the other playing a slender one-piece, soprano-sized recorder with a flared bell, and the boy playing a whistle. On the cask are a smoking pipe and a tin of tobacco.
• Musicians, mezzotint, 24.9 × 16.6 cm, John Smith (p. 1654–1742) after Marcellus II Laroon (1653–1702). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-102.197. A man and a young woman embrace and kiss on a chair; she has her hands around his neck, and he has his hand up her dress. On a table beside them lie an open music book and an alto-sized baroque recorder. A small boy or servant peeps at them from behind a curtain. Clearly an enjoyable lesson all round!

Michel Lasne

French engraver, draughtsman and collector, active in Antwerp (1617–1618) where he probably worked under Rubens and van Dyck; before his stay in Antwerp his engraving was dry and meticulous but his touch subsequently became softer and his cutting more refined; born Caen (ca 1590), died Paris (1667).

• Musica, engraving, Michel Lasne (ca 1590–1667). Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie; Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A personification of Music sits playing her cittern before a table on which stand a ? mirror, a sheet of music (rolled), a quill in its ink-well, and a pipe. Only the foot and the last three finger holes of the latter are visible, but it might be a small duct flute (flageolet or recorder).

Luigi La Speranza

Austrian artist: sculptor, painter, draughtsman, computer graphics living and working in Vienna; ranging from highly realistic portraits to increasingly surrealistic figures and landscapes; born Vienna (1962).

• Angel Flautist, cast sculpture based on clay model, painted and gilded, 15.5 × 12.0 cm, Luigi La Speranza (1962–). Ref. Website: Galerie La Speranza (2005, col.) A winged putto with the head of a bird holds what must be a duct flute (given the work’s title) to its beak. Details of the blowing end are hidden; ten finger holes are visible.
• Animation, computer graphic (animation), Luigi La Speranza (1962–). Ref. Website: Galerie La Speranza (2005, col.) A fantastic creature with a human body and an insect head sits on a lily playing a clearly depicted recorder. In the animation, the creature’s thumb opens and closes the hole at the back of the instrument.

Lieven van Lathem

Flemish illuminator who was admitted as a master of the guild of painters of Ghent in 1454 and in Antwerp in 1462; he undertook commissions for both Duke Philip the Good and his son, Charles the Bold; born Ghent (ca 1430), died Antwerp (ca 1493).

• Prayer Book of Charles the Bold: All Saints (ca 1469–ca 1471), tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment, 12.4 × 9.2 cm, Lieven van Lathem (ca 1430–1493). Detail. Los Angeles: Getty Museum, Ms 37, fol. 43. Ref. Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium (2010, b&w). A prayer-book commissioned in 1469 by Charles the Bold (Charles le Téméraire) and most likely created by the scribe and illuminators of Nicolas Spierinc and Lieven van Lathem. A supplement, The Little Hours of the Cross, was added sometime after 1480 by an unknown subsequent owner who commissioned different scribes and illuminators, most likely from Normandy. Van Lathem was paid for the 25 miniatures which make up the first portion of the prayer book which was completed and bound in 1469. This contains Latin prayers devoted to Christ, the Virgin, and the saints and is remarkably embellished with miniatures, and decorations on every page. They are incredibly detailed, often with deep panoramic landscapes framed by lush borders. One of the illuminations depicts a landscape with saints approaching from every direction. Ecclesiastical saints and kings stand on the left: Saint Jerome wears a cardinal’s outfit and his lion crouches at his feet. The elderly hermit saints Anthony Abbot and Paul sit against rocky boulders on the right. In the middle ground, military saints in full armor ride gracefully along the center path, while behind them, female saints make their way down a hill at the right just as monastic saints do on the left. In the middle distance stands a draped cross surmounted by the lamb of God. In the semicircle at the top of the miniature, God the Father, crowned, enthroned, flanked by angels, and surrounded by saints, holds Jesus’ dead body upon his lap. The borders include several musical angels: two play porcine psalteries, one plays an organetto, and a fourth plays a slender cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder.

Giovanni Laurenti [Laurentini] (called l’Arrigoni)

Italian painter and frescoist; born 1550, died 1633.

• Annunciation to the Virgin, Giovanni Laurenti (1550–1633). Ravenna: Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). Seated at her desk, the Virgin holds her hand to her breast as Gabriel approaches holding a lily in his left hand and gesturing with his right to cherubim and angel musicians who surround God the Father above. The musicians play harp, lute, flute, trombone and a slender recorder. The recorder has a flared foot and the hint of a window/labium, and the little finger of the diminutive players’ lowermost (left) hand is covering its hole.

Nicolaes [Nicolaus] Lauwers

Flemish engraver, publisher and dealer; amongst the first generation of Rubens’s reproductive engravers, of which he was certainly one of the most talented; also made engravings after Anthony van Dyck, Gerard Seghers, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Erasmus Quellinus, Federico Barocci and Jacob Jordaens; born Leuze (1600), died 1652.

Winifred Law (20th century), English

• Music Time, Winifred Law (20th century). Plymouth: Jeanette Hipsey. Ref. Recorder Magazine 21a (4): cover, col. (2001). On a table are a bunch of flower in a vase, some sheet music, two plastic Aulos recorders on a stand, and a basset or tenor recorder in an open carry case.

Ludovico Lazzarelli (late 16th century), Italian

• Musica Ludovico Lazzarelli (late 16th century). Rome: Vatican Library, Urb. Lat. 717. Ref. Frings (1999: 268, pl. 9, b&w). A personification of Music sits playing a cylindrical recorder with paired holes for the lowermost finger. An organetto, lute, harp, rebec and some ambiguous wind instruments lie scattered at her feet. Cf. the so-called “Tarocchi Cards of Mantegna”.
• Poesis [sic.] Ludovico Lazzarelli (late 16th century). Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb. Lat. 717. Ref. Frings (1999: 268, pl. 9, b&w). A personification of Poetry sits before a fountain playing a recorder one-handed. The instrument is slender with a flared bell and paired (offset) holes for the lowermost finger. Cf. the so-called “Tarocchi Cards of Mantegna”. Note, Lazzarelli’s is the small picture in the upper right-hand corner.

Sebastiano Lazzari

Italian artist active in Verona in the second half of the 18th century; he specialized in still-lifes set against highly detailed spruce pine planks, otherwise known as finto asse; his highly personalized approach to trompe l’oeil painting proved successful in the Veneto region, as demonstrated by the activities of his followers and imitators Francesco Bossi, Giovanni Battista Bertoldi and the artist known only by the monogram GF; active 1752–ca 1770.

• Trompe-l’oeil (1752), Sebastiano Lazzari (op. 1752–ca 1770). Private Collection. Ref. Jurod (1997: 55, fig. 3, b&w); Angelo Zaniol ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); de Avena Braga (2015: 223, col.) On a table covered with an embroidered cloth are an astrolabe, an ink-well and pen, some furled music scores, a lantern, a baroque guitar, a violin and a three-piece alto baroque recorder with decorative turnings. On the wall behind hang a pair of spectacles, some scissors, a tarot card, a cutting from a book or paper, a pair of dividers, and an astronomical chart.
• Trompe L’Oeil, oil on canvas, Sebastiano Lazzari (op. 1752–ca 1770). Location unknown: Offered for sale by Finarte, Milan, 14 November 1990 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, col.) Identical to a Trompe L’Oeil by Lazzari in a private collection, possibly the self-same work (see above). On a table covered with an embroidered cloth are an astrolabe, an ink-well and pen, some furled music scores, a lantern, a baroque guitar, a violin and a three-piece alto baroque recorder with decorative turnings. On the wall behind hang a pair of spectacles, some scissors, a tarot card, a cutting from a book or paper, a pair of dividers, and an astronomical chart. Offered for sale with a companion-piece by the same artist in which the top of a harpsichord is littered with musical instruments in front of a wall on which hang a painting of a rhinoceros and a pistol.
• Trompe l’Oeil, oil on canvas, 63.5 × 84.7 cm, Sebastiano Lazzari (op. 1752–ca 1770). New York: Sotheby’s, Sale N08952, Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, 31 January 01 February 2013, Lot 236. Ref. de Avena Braga (2015: 226, fig. 3.12, col.) Hanging on a wall are a drawings, sheet music, a guitar, a violin, a mandora, and a slender, baroque-style recorder with the hole for the little finger of the lowermost hand offset and an abruptly flared foot. The stringed instruments are each attached to the wall with a ribbon; the recorder hangs from a nail. The score in the centre is Corelli’s sonata Op. 5 No. 1. Commenting on the juxtaposition of this “renaissance looking recorder” with a Corelli sonata, de Avena Braga (loc. cit.)  observes that the latter work  could not possibly have been played on the instrument depicted. But this supposes that we can determine the internal bore of a recorder from its exterior profile. Similar looking recorders are depicted by Giacomo Francesco Cipper (1664–1736), notably his Shepherd Recorder Player in the Narodna Gallerija, Ljubljana (Inv. S 982). In any case, neither the guitar nor the mandora depicted by Lazzari would seem suitable for Corelli either. I note that the instruments appear not to be drawn to scale: all are shown to be of more-or-less equal length.

Alexandre-Jean Baptiste [Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre] Le Blond [Leblond]

Architect and garden designer best known for ornamental interiors; born Paris (1679), died St Petersburg (1719); son of the painter, engraver and print publisher Jean Le Blond (ca 1635–1709).

• [Shepherd], print, Alexandre-Jean Baptiste Le Blond (1679–1719). Location unknown. Ref. Warburg Institute, London. A ‘pseudo-shepherd’ in a fantastic flame head-dress holds a squarish duct flute (three finger holes visible, the rest of the instrument out of frame), two fingers across, two underneath, between the window/labium and the three finger holes. This is probably a flageolet, especially as the accompanying verse reads:
  

  Si lon voit rauerdir a mode que je chante
  Les feuilles et les fleurs de mon beau chaplet
  Doit on pas confesser quil est fait d’amaranthe
  Et que Zephir souspire en mon doux flajolet.

  If you see the fashionable greenery in which I sing
  The leaves and flowers of my beautiful garland
  Declare that it is made of Amaranth
  And that Zephirus breathes into my sweet flageolet.

  Identical to a print attributed to Étienne Le Blond (1652-1727), for which see below.

Étienne Le Blond

French tapestry maker who served as tapissier ordinaire du Roi in the Gobelins manufactory where he became head of the fifth basse-lisse workshop, a position that passed to his son, Étienne-Claude Le Blond in 1727.

• Flute-player, print, Étienne Le Blond (1652–1727), Paris. Ref. Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A man in an ermine lined coat wearing a wreath of leaves and flowers holds a cylindrical duct flute (probably a recorder) in his right hand. The window/labium and the first three finger holes are clearly visible. A verse below reads:
  

  Si lon voit rauerdir a mode que je chante
  Les feuilles et les fleurs de mon beau chapelet
  Doit on pas confesser quil est fait d’amaranthe
  Et que Zephir souspire en mon doux flageolet.

  Identical to a print attributed to Alexandre-Jean Baptiste Le Blond (1679–1719), for which see above.

Charles Le Brun [Lebrun]

French painter and designer, director of Les Gobelins and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, personally responsible for designing every aspect of the interior decoration of the great royal apartments at Versailles; his immense output covered allegorical, historical and religious paintings, frescoes, tapestries, designs for garden sculpture and furniture, and intimate and luminous paintings in the Caravaggesque style; born and died Paris (1619–1690).

• The Elements: Air (1666–1669), tapestry, 338 × 640 cm, workshop of Valentin Lefebre (1642–1708), after Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Florence: Palazzo Pitti; formerly Sienna, Palazzo Publico. Ref. Félibien (1679 – fig.); Haynes (2001 30 & pl. 1.5-7, 1.10-11, b&w); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008). A number of decorative panels adorn the borders of this tapestry, the first of several duplicates (tentures) of L’Air designed for the royal Gobelins workshop by Le Brun in 1664. They comprise swags of musical wind-instruments – bagpipes, cornetti, trumpets, drums, flageolets, flutes, horns, oboes, and recorders. Amongst the latter are instruments of both baroque and earlier styles, including an ornate basset recorder in baroque style but with a renaissance-style fontanelle, and an elaborately decorated baroque-style alto/tenor with the beak, head-joint and bell covered in ornamental silver-work (somewhat in the style of Terton) and a very widely flared bell, also decorated with silver. The same decorative borders were also used for Le Printemps au Versailles tapestry from the series Les Saisons. Le Brun’s original designs (cartoons), his first for Les Gobelins, are now lost, but copies survive in several different media. the centre-piece shows Juno sitting on a cloud driving away the wind personified by a youth with inflated cheeks who is pushing other clouds. The centre top of the border has the arms of Louis XIV. Besides the Gobelins tapestries (six surviving tentures of L’Air and three of Le Printemps), watercolours on vellum exist (by Bailly, 1672) as well as engravings (by LeClerc after Bailly, 1670 & 1679).
• Elements and Seasons: Air (1683), silk, wool, metal thread on canvas 49 stitches/sq. cm, 426.7 × 274.3 cm, design attributed to Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 46.43.4. Ref. Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1989, 113: 96); Ramsussen (2002, Horn, as Panel Glorifying Louis XIV); Website: Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013, col.) Rasmussen (loc. cit) notes that this tapestry “includes two small, 1½-circle coiled horns and a curved horn among the several musical instruments (musettes, oboe, recorder, straight trumpets) in the border.” However, I can see no recorder in this work, only flageolets, also syrinxes and flutes. The border was designed by Jean Lemoyen le Lorrain (1637/38–1709). “The impressive program of Elements and Seasons is made more personal by having the king, the marquise de Montespan, and six of their children take the roles of the central figures. The complete set, of which four hangings are in the Metropolitan Museum, may be identical to wall decorations in tapisserie de petit point that decorated the king’s apartment at the Château de Rambouillet. Here, the monarch is shown as Jupiter, seated on an eagle and holding thunderbolts and a Medusa-headed shield. Also meant to personify Air, the figure is surrounded by winged creatures – parrots, raptors (including a hooded falcon), songbirds, and butterflies – as well as wind instruments. Commissioned by the marquise de Montespan (1641–1707), the hangings were probably embroidered at the Parisian convent of Saint-Joseph-de-la-Providence, which also executed other royal projects, including furnishings for Versailles. One of the marquise’s favorite charities – she was named a director in 1681 and retired there ten years later – the convent provided vocational training needlework for orphan girls” (New York Metropolitan Art Museum, 2002)
• Winter (1673), Gobelins tapestry, designed by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Château de Fontainebleau: corner room ante-chamber overlooking the Oval Courtyard. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). An area now overlooking the Oval Courtyard, which was where the old buildings (12th and 13th centuries) stood, was greatly redesigned in 1768 as a suite of rooms, and then completely redecorated in mid-19th century to suit the tastes of Napoleon III’s Empress Eugénie. A corner room ante-chamber houses three large tapestries, all from the Gobelins manufactory to the designs of Charles Le Brun, representing Autumn (back to window, on left wall), Winter (wall opposite window) and Summer. In Winter, at bottom right, the theatre season is represented by a mask, a tambourine, a violin and a cylindrical alto-sized recorder, with all finger holes visible including paired little finger holes, and the window/labium, though the mouthpiece is just hidden. Obviously Le Brun had not noticed what the Hotteterres had done to recorder design by 1673!
• The Seasons: Spring (before 1680), wool, silk & gold tapestry, 470 × 480 cm, designed by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Château de Versailles: Salle du Congrès. Ref. Mirimonde (1977: 165, pl. 99, b&w); Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Assemblée Nationale Française: Histoire et patrimoine (2007, col.) The Seasons series of tapestries is one of the foremost creations of Les Goblins. Spring is set in the gardens of the Château de Versailles. Two divinities on a cloud, Mars and Venus support an oval medallion showing an entertainment of for Louis XIV. The border of this tapestry comprises an extensive trophy of musical instruments of all kinds including horns, cornetti, oboes, flutes, and duct flutes most of which seem to be small and cylindrical and have only a few finger holes thus representing flageolets. One seems to be a large-scale instrument with the turned head of a typical baroque recorder, but the lower part of the instrument is hidden from view. A shawm and a lute are balanced on the parapet.
• Allegory of Spring (ca 1680), wool, silk & linen embroidery, 322.5 × 215.6 cm, after a cartoon designed by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Minneapolis: Institute of Arts, Inv. 15.210. Made for the duc de Créquy, possibly at the Convent of St Joseph in Paris. The design is worked in petit point, and the silk background is embroidered in a diamond, or diaper, pattern. Presumably part of a set depicting the four seasons. “The personification of spring is shown surrounded by flowers and musical instruments. Also associated with spring are the garden tools (lower foreground), the insects and nesting birds in the foliage, and the signs of the zodiac – Aries (the ram), Taurus (the bull), and Gemini (the twins)” (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, loc. cit.) The musical instruments include tambourine, syrinx, horns, cornetti, bagpipes, oboes and duct flutes – several of the latter are short with few finger holes and thus probably flageolets rather than recorders but one in a trophy centre-right is clearly a recorder.
• Grand Staircase of the Ambassadors: America, Versailles (ca 1683), 62.8 × 64.0 cm (plate), engraving by Étienne Baudet (ca 1636–1711) after frescoes by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Melbourne: National Art Gallery of Victoria, Print Collection, p.183.46-1. Ref. Exhibition, Picture to Print: Reproductive Prints in the NGV Collection, 13 October 2006 to 25 March 2007. One of a series of six engravings meticulously depicting the architecture and frescoes of the Grand Staircase of the Ambassadors painted 1677–1679, reputed to be Le Brun’s masterpiece, but destroyed in 1752 on the order of Louis XV. The engravings include personifications of four continents, the arts and the Greek pantheon. One of these engravings, which depicts a personification of America, includes a depiction of  King Louis XIV dispensing rewards to the leaders of his armies. Above, Mercury rides astride the winged horse Pegasus; below, are Uranie (Muse of astronomy) sitting on a globe and holding her dividers, and Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) holding a flared-bell duct flute, probably a recorder. The reference to Apollo is obvious, here. The royal propaganda machine strongly identified Louis XIV with Apollo, amongst other exalted mythological and historical figures. Jean-Baptise Lully in his Tragédies-lyriques twice uses recorders in scenes with Apollo and these same Muses.
• The Marriage of Moses and Zipporah (1687), oil on canvas, 113 × 122 cm Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Modena: Galleria Estense. Ref. Website: CopieArte (2007, col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). Le Brun’s subject here, derived from Poussin, is the life of Moses, who is pictured at his marriage with Sephora, the daughter of Jethro. Music is provided by a lyre and two narrowly cylindrical duct flutes, played as a double pipe in the manner of an aulos. On each duct flute there are two open finger holes below the placing of the player’s fingers, but this very doubtfully a recorder. Louis XIVth kept this picture in the billiards room at Versailles.
• The Marriage of Moses and Zipporah (1686–1725 ), engraving & etching on paper, 25.0 × 32.2 cm, by Gérard Audran (1640–1703), after Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.165. A reverse copy of the original painting by Charles Le Brun’s in the Galleria Estense, Modena (see above). Here, the piper seems to be playing a single pipe rather than the double pipe of the original.
• The Marriage of Moses and Zipporah (1686–1725), mezzotint printed in red ink, anonymous copy after Gérard Audran (1640–1703) after Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). London: British Museum, Inv. 2010,7081.164. A copy of Audran’s engraving after the original painting by Charles Le Brun’s in the Galleria Estense, Modena (see above). Here, the piper seems to be playing a single pipe rather than the double pipe of the original.
• Histoire du Roi: Baptisme de Louis de France, Dauphin, St-Germain-en-Laye, 24 March 1668 (? 1700), cartoon for Gobelins tapestry, Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Versailles: Chateau de Versailles. Ref. American Recorder 32 (1): 7 (1991, detail, b&w); Benoit (1971: pl. xx, fig. 25); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). The musicians comprise six boy singers, a flautist and a recorder player. The recorder is a plain cylindrical alto-sized pipe half-swallowed in the player’s mouth. Moeck (1983: December) attributes this sketch to Charles Le Brun. It formed the basis for the painting The Musicians’ Platform by Joseph Christophe (1661–1748) which, in turn, was the basis of a Gobelins tapestry made by the Atelier de Delatour. According to Hermann Moeck (loc. cit.), Le Brun’s drawing clearly depicts a cornetto rather than a recorder.
• Histoire du Roi: Baptisme de Louis de France, Dauphin, St-Germain-en-Laye: The Musicians’ Platform (1715), painting by Joseph Christophe (1661–1748), after Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Versailles: Chateau de Versailles. Ref. Moeck (1983: December); Paris RIdIM (1999), Paris. Depicts Henry Dumont conducting singers and musicians in a performance of Lully’s motet Plaude laetare Gallia. The musicians include players of both the transverse flute and a small cylindrical duct flute (probably a recorder, judging by the cross fingering employed). The placement of the beak in the player’s mouth and a shadow where the window of a duct flute would be seen seem to preclude the cornetto, though Mersenne tells us that the latter was employed by choirs to strengthen the soprano part. A copy was made by Atelier de Delatour, des Gobelins (1716), see below. Based on an original sketch by Charles Le Brun, this painting is now seriously damaged.
• Histoire du Roi: Baptisme de Louis de France, Dauphin, St-Germain-en-Laye (1716), tapestry, Manufacture des Gobelins, Atelier de Delatour, after Joseph Christophe (1661–1748), after Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Detail: The Musicians’ Platform. Versailles: Chateau de Versailles. Ref. Moeck (1983: December, col.); Moeck Catalogue (1984); Pottier (1992: 12, pl. I); Archiv Moeck; Website: gallica (2012, b&w). This tapestry, a copy of an original painting by Christophe (see above), depicts Henry Dumont conducting singers and musicians in a performance of Lully’s motet Plaude laetare Gallia. The musicians include players of both the transverse flute and a small cylindrical duct flute (probably a recorder, judging by the cross-fingering employed). The placement of the beak in the player’s mouth and a shadow where the window of a duct flute would be seen seem to preclude the cornetto.
• Winter (ca 1712), wool & silk tapestry, 382 × 542 cm, tapestry by Étienne Le Blond (m. 1727) & Jean de La Croix (m. 1714), cartoon designed by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Chicago: Art Institute, 1954.261. Ref. Ford (1987: #52). “Included in a group of emblematic objects are a violin, a wind instrument (recorder?, top of pipe not shown), a tambourine with jingles, and a second violin, of which only the peg-box and the top of the neck are shown” (Ford, loc. cit.)
• Hearing, tapestry, designed by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Versailles: Château de Versailles. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). Marginal decorations contain musical instruments of all kinds, including two small recorders looking for all the world like the Dordrecht instrument, with a beak and foot of some contrasting material to the body and offset finger holes for the little finger of the lowermost hand recorders, a black alto-sized recorder with ivory beak, ferrule and foot elaborately decorated in the style of Dupuis, and a larger (basset) recorder with a characteristic windcap and bocal and a bulbous ferrule but the lower body and foot obscured.
• Euterpe, ceiling painting, Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Melun: Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Salon des Muses, SE corner. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm. 2007). This fairytale castle created by Nicolas Fouquet (France’s young Minister of Finance) was in its time the finest château in France, with the most spectacular garden, and it remains one of the superlative feats of 17th-century French architecture. A man of exquisite taste, Fouquet chose three of the most talented men in the country to construct his sumptuous abode; architect Louis Le Vau (1612–1620), painter Charles Le Brun and gardener Andre Le Notre (1613–1700). In the Salon des Muses, Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) is at the SE corner, each corner having two Muses where the walls merge into the ceiling. A jolly-looking Euterpe in a huge red skirt sits holding a tenor-length pipe, quite slender and cylindrical, just touching relaxed lips and held horizontally. The pipe is painted dark brown and no details are visible. It could be intended to represent a recorder, often associated with the Muse of lyric poetry and music. This is very similar to Le Brun’s Euterpe at La Rivière (see below).
• Euterpe, painting, Charles Le Brun (1619–1690). Paris: Musée Carnavalet, salons de l’hôtel La Rivière, ceiling Ref. Website: Paris.fr (2007). Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) in a red skirt sits on a cornice playing a tenor-length cylindrical pipe held slightly horizontally. This is very similar to Le Brun’s Euterpe at Vaux-le-Vicomte (see above).

Sebastien Leclerc

French artist from the Duchy of Lorraine; he specialized in subtle reproductive drawings, etchings, and engravings of paintings; and worked mostly in Paris, where he was counseled by the King’s painter, Charles Le Brun, to devote himself entirely to engraving; he was also a student of physics, military architecture and perspective; born Metz (1637), died Paris (1714).

• The Dance, engraving by Edme Jeurat after Sebastien Leclerc (1637–1714). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). In the forest, a young woman dances holding a tambourine (with jingle rings) in one hand. On a ledge beside her a small child plays a narrow cylindrical pipe, probably a duct flute, and his hands and fingers and thumb are perfectly disposed for recorder-playing. A young girl reaches out to the dancer to prevent her billowing sleeves catching on a bush.

Anthonie [Anthony] Leemans

Dutch trompe l’oeil painter who had a reputation for violent behavior; born 1631, died p.1674.

• Musical Still-life (1664), Anthonie Leemans (1631–a. 1674). Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Ref. Catalogue, Kunsthandel van Diemen, Berlin; Legêne (1995: 123). Includes a slender-form, flared-bell (early baroque style) recorder.
• Still-life, Anthonie Leemans (1631–a. 1674). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). On a bench partly covered by a tapestry are a flask, a tall beaker, books, playing cards, papers, a sheet of music, a violin and bow, a cittern, an oboe (only the foot visible), and a pipe (probably a duct flute), only the slightly flared foot of which is visible.
• Still-life, oil on canvas, 101.0 × 83.3 cm, Anthonie Leemans (1631–a. 1674). Amsterdam: Christie’s, auctioned 9 November 2010, Lot 56. Ref. Website: arcadja auction results (2012, col.) On a bench are a flask, a jug, an apple, an artist’s palette and brushes, some printed pages, one announcing the funeral of BROOT-ETER, a clay smoking pipe, a gilt tobacco box, a violin and a recorder. Only the slightly flared foot and last few finger holes of the recorder are visible; the hole for the little finger of the player’s lowermost hand is paired, that on the near side filled.
• Trophy with Musical Instruments, Anthonie Leemans (1631–a. 1674). Antwerp: Private Collection. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). The trophy comprises a violin and bow, a cittern, some sheet music, and a one-piece recorder with a flared bell with decorative rings.
• Still-life (1655), oil on canvas, 78 × 72 cm, Anthonie Leemans (1631–a. 1674). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. 1429. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 666; 1948–1980, 2: 710); Munich RIdIM (1999); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). On a table lie scattered a demijohn, mugs, a plate with food on it, papers, a copy of No. 8 of the weekly journal MERCURIUS a broadsheet with the news of Tromp’s victory over three English ships on 28 June 1639, a poem telling the story of Apelles and the cobbler, a breastplate, a violin, and the upper part of a recorder.

Hughie Lee-Smith

African-American artist whose work has been described as “magic realism”, “surrealism” and “social realism”; a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, he became the second black member of the National Academy of Design; during the Depression years, he painted numerous realist murals for the Works Progress Administration; his earliest work was fired by social concerns and longing for a better, more democratic ideal for the future of America; born Eustis, Florida (1915).

• The Piper (1953), oil on composition board, 55.9 × 89.5 cm, Hughie Lee-Smith (1915–). Detroit: Institute of Arts, Inv. 66.391. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2000: Image DTR140369). Before a derelict building an Afro-American street kid plays a black (? plastic) recorder of modern design. As in much of Lee-Smith’s work, the meaning of The Piper is ambiguous, though the painting seems to intertwine themes of decay and optimism. The crumbling walls and a litter-strewn urban street emphasize the isolation of the young African American boy in the foreground. Amidst such circumstances, however, the boy plays his recorder, which suggests hopefulness.

Valentin Lefebre [Lefevre] (1642-1708)

Flemish painter and printmaker active in Venice; he painted in the style of Veronese and made prints after Le Brun, Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto; born in Brussels (1642), died Venice (1708).

Stefano Maria Legnani [called ‘Il Legnannino’]

Italian painter of religious subjects; born and died Milan (1660–1715).

• Glory of Saints of the Trinity (1694), ceiling fresco, Stefano Maria Legnani (1660–1715). Turin: Pia Congregazione dei Banchieri, Negoziantie e Marcanti, dite Madonna SS Della Dede. Ref. RIdIM (2000). A trompe l’oeil. Amongst the multitude of saints, are musicians, including a lutenist and a possible recorder player (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2000).

Pierre-Nicolas Legrand de Serant [Pierre-Nicolas Legrand de Lérant, Pierre-Nicolas Sicot]

French painter and book illustrator; born Pont-l’Evêque, (1758), died  Berne (1829).

• The Orange Seller (late 18th century), painting, 180 × 99 cm, Pierre Nicolas Legrand de Serant 1758–1829). Rouen: Musée des Beaux-arts, Inv. 2008.3.1 ; 2592. Ref. Website: Joconde (2014, col.) A bare-breasted woman holds a tray of oranges. Clinging to her skirts a small boy holds a a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) the beak and window/labium of which are clearly depicted.

Frederic, Lord Leighton, Baron of Stretton

English artist whose first painting was purchased by Queen Victoria; became President of the Royal Academy of Artists; he preferred to paint subject matter that was connected to ancient Greek and Roman mythology; he intended for his paintings to be visually beautiful, and his work then and now has a reputation for luminous colours and solidly drawn figures; he was ennobled shortly before his death, the only British artist to receive this distinction; born Scarborough (1830), died (1896).

• Rustic Music, Frederic Leighton (1830–1896). London: Roy Miles Fine Paintings. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image BAL13725). A country boy in a smock and hat holds a small cylindrical duct flute, probably a tin whistle.

Paul Lelong

French architect and artist; as an architect he designed a number of public buildings in Paris; as a painter he specialised in cabinet-sized still-lifes, a number of which include musical instruments; born Paris (1799), died Marne (1846).

• Vanitas Still-life, gouache on vellum laid down on cardboard, 17.0 × 22.5 cm, Paul Lelong (1799–1846). One of a pair of vanitas still-lifes. New York: Sotheby’s, Sale NO9003, Old Master Paintings, Lot 74, 6 June 2013. On a stone tabletop lie an hour-glass, coins, books, a glass vase with roses, a skull, an ornate glass goblet with a lid, a rolled map, shells, a mirror, a jewellery chest with drawers, a rectangular quill-holder/inkwell and quills, a lute, a sheet of music, a baroque recorder with an open music-book. The recorder is soprano-sized and ornately turned, with details of the window-labium obscured by the music-book.

Sir Peter Lely (born Pieter van der Faes)

Westphalian-born Baroque painter, draughtsman and collector, active in England; a painter of small mythological motifs and genre paintings and portraits, known for his Van Dyck-influenced likenesses of the mid-17th-century English aristocracy; his development of an efficient studio practice is of great importance in the history of British portrait painting; born Soest (1618), died London (1680).

• A Boy as a Shepherd, oil on canvas, 91.4 × 75.6 cm, Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680). London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 563. Ref. Manifold (1948: cover, b&w); Early Music 10(2): 182 (1982, b&w); American Recorder 25 (4): front cover (1984, b&w); Dulwich Picture Gallery, London: postcard (col.); Moeck (1987); Ausoni (2009: 314, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A portrait of a young man holding a slender, early-baroque style recorder, the beak of which is curved and narrowed to form a distinct ‘beak’, and the flared bell which is decorated with turned beads. The sitter was the English poet and essayist Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), the same age as Lely himself. Although much admired in his own day, Cowley’s poetry is little read now. Much of his verse was of a pastoral nature, and the picture depicting him as a flute-playing shepherd – albeit a stately one – is apt.
• Man Playing a Pipe (ca 1648), oil on canvas, 141 × 105 cm, Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680). London: Tate Gallery, T00885. Ref. Tate Gallery (1969: 13, b&w; 1999). Depicts a man playing a flared-bell recorder. “This is from a set of five pictures of people playing musical instruments that dates from very early in Lely’s career in England. Because the sitters are so individualised, it has been suggested that they may be portraits – perhaps of friends of the artist. Unidentified musicians are a frequent subject of Dutch paintings of the period, particularly in Haarlem, where Lely had been trained” (Tate Gallery 1999).
• Mademoiselle de la Vallière and her Children / Portraite Allégorique, 222 × 212 cm, oil on canvas, Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680). Rennes: Musée des Beaux Arts, Inv. 1280. Ref. Joconde Website (2007); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2006). Mademoiselle sings accompanied by an obliging angel who plays the organ. At their feet, two children read from a score bearing the words ‘Ave Maris Stela’ (sic.); one of them, seated on a cushion, holds a small recorder with a slightly flared bell, the paired finger holes for the little finger of the lowermost hand clearly depicted. Although it is a real portrait, the organ and the position of its player refer to St Cecilia. The symbolism of the recorder is obscure.
• Apollo and the Muses, painting, Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680). Tonbridge (Kent): Penshhurst Place (Viscount de L’Isle). Ref. Warburg Institute (2013, b&w). Beside the waters of Helicon, Apollo strums his lyre to an accompaniment provided by the some of the Muses who play double bass, baroque lute, viola, and a recorder (the beak, window/labium and body of which are clearly depicted. One Muse reclines, a folded trumpet by her side. Three Muses look on, and another gazes at us, her hand on a globe.

Jean Lemaire [called Lemaire-Poussin]

French painter who specialised in landscapes and classical architectural scenes, populated with mythological figures in classical dress; in 1640 he worked as Poussin’s main assistant in the decorative scheme in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre. born Dammartin-en-Goële (1597), died Gaillon (1659).

• Mercury and Argus (ca 1630–1635), oil on canvas, 75.4 × 98.8 cm, Jean Lemaire (1597–1659). Houston: Rice University, Blaffer Foundation Collection 1988.3 Ref. Wikimedia Commons (2013, col.) Mercury sits on the fallen cornice of a decaying temple playing on a clearly depicted one-piece alto recorder to lull Argus asleep. The latter leans against a broken column, watched by Io (as a white heifer). Cattle browse amongst the ruins and in the countryside beyond.

[Andries Cornelis] Lens

There are a number of artist with this surname amongst whom the most likely candidate for this painting is Flemish neo-classical painter Andries Cornelis Lens; his works are the result of his study of antique and Italian masters, but also his reading of classical and biblical writings (Ariadne on Naxos, Brussels Museum); he was director of the Antwerp Academy from 1763; born Antwerp (1739), died Brussels (1822).

• Ariadne and Bacchus, painting, [Andries Cornelis] Lens (1739–1822). Location unknown. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Ariadne has been left on the island of Naxos, deserted by her lover Theseus, whose ship sails away to the far left. She is discovered on the shore by the god Bacchus, leading a procession of revelers including a putto playing a pipe (possibly a recorder). Three winged putti are tumbling out of the air towards Ariadne.

Bartolomeo della Leonessa = Bartolomeo Mendozzi

Leone Leoni [Leone Aretino]

Italian mannerist sculptor who worked in many parts of Italy and in the service of the emperor Charles V in Germany and the Netherlands; trained as a goldsmith, but none of his works in that medium survives; from 1538 to 1540 he was coin engraver to Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese), but he was then condemned to the galleys for conspiring to murder the papal jeweller; he was released in 1541 and for most of the rest of his life was master of the imperial mint in Milan; his sculpture consists mainly of portraits – both medals and busts; born Menaggio (1509), died Milan (1590); father of the goldsmith and medalist Pompeo Leoni (?1531–1608).

• Travelling writing desk, intarsia, attributed to Leone Leoni (1509–1590). Modena: Galleria Estense. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). An intarsia design on the flat writing area of the desk depicts many musical instruments including the lower end of a possible duct flute with two finger holes showing and a very slight bell flare.

Pierre Lepautre [Le Pautre]

French ornemaniste, a prolific designer of ornament that presages the coming Rococo style; he was appointed in 1699 as Dessinatueur in the Bâtiments du Roi, the official design department of the French monarchy, headed by Robert de Cotte in the declining years of Louis XIV; son of Jean Lepautre and brother of Antoine Lepautre; born 1648, died 1716.

• Interior of the Library, Cabinet des Beaux Arts, Paris, engraving by Charles Perrault, after Pierre Lepautre (1648–1716). Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, NMG Orn 6657:1-16. Ref. Sidén (2001: 17, fig. 2). A view through the highly decorated doorway of the Cabinet des Beaux Arts, Paris. In one of the smaller ornamental panels at the bottom right a one-piece flared-bell recorder is crossed with a mallet. In another a tromba marina is crossed with a tool of some kind. In a central panel between them is a garland made of of various tools (protractor, set-square, etc.), an artist’s palette and a possible recorder, only the flared bell of which is visible. Recorders are associated with Industry by Lotto (see below) and in various enfants de Mercure depictions.
• Poetry, engraving by Pierre Lepautre (1648-1716), after Alexandre Ubeleski (1628–1715). Paris: ? location. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). The original was a ceiling decoration in the Art Gallery of Charles Perrault (ca 1681/84), destroyed in 1685. A personification of Poetry, her clothing in disarray, leans on her elbow pensively whilst putti play straight trumpet, lyre and what looks like a baroque recorder, though it is held with only one hand. Another putto plays with a mask. In the background, can be seen a stage with actors.

Michel Lepri (18th century), Italian

• Memento Mori: Musicorum coetus pro anima (1721), oil on canvas, 98.0 × 124.5 cm, Michele Lepri (18th century). Florence: Oratorio di San Niccolò del Ceppo. Ref. Imago Musicae 31/32: front cover (2021, col.); Abbado (2021: 137-164, col.); Website: Bowed Strings Iconography Project, bsip2513 (2022, col.) This unusual vanitas was painted on behalf of a company in the Florentine manner, of San Niccolò di Bari called del Ceppo which was established in its modern form in 1417. In it, the macabre theme of death is represented by a skeleton smashing musical instruments: organ, lute, violin, cello, double bass, folded trumpet, oboe and a well-depicted 3-piece baroque alto recorder, the characteristic beak, window/labium foot clearly visible. Two partbooks (with legible notation) and scrolls provide a rich set of paratexts, with the overall motto according to Psalm 45 [46] (He breaks the bow and shatters the spear), and a clue to the painting’s original function: a group of musicians assembled for the sake of salvation. Erroneously considered until recently a 17th-century anonymous work, the stylistic influence of Jacopo Ligozzi, a master of the vanitas genre, is strong. Among the iconographic models, a drawing now attributed to Ligozzi has been identified as well as Frederico Zuccari’s Giudizio universale for the dome of Florence Cathedral (Abbado, loc. cit.)

Claudia Lerwick

American graphic designer and illustrator now living in Wellesley, Massachusets, USA; born San Francisco.

• Recorder Chopsticks (2004), Claudia Lerwick (contemporary). Ref. American Recorder 45 (3): front cover (2004, col.) Two neo-baroque recorders upended serve as chopsticks, dipping into a folded packet spilling over with noodles which have arranged themselves into a musical staff with notes and prawns!

Eustache Lesueur

French artist, one of the founders of the French Academy of painting; his subjects include religious and mythological events, painted in the style of the French classical Baroque; most of his works have been engraved, chiefly by Picart, B. Audran, Seb. Leclerc, Drevet, Chauveau, Poilly and Desplaces; born and died Paris (1617–1655).

• Detail from Triumph of Bacchus: Maened Blowing a Wind Instrument, Eustache Lesueur (1617–1655). Le Mans: Tessé Museum , Inv. 1820. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A maenad with a wreath on her head blows an ambiguous pipe. Her lips are pursed and her cheeks slightly swollen so this could be meant to represent a cornetto, but the little finger of her lowermost (right) hand is crooked as if venting a finger hole, so it could be a recorder.

Mordechai Levanon

Hungarian-born artist who immigrated to Israel in 1921 where he studied at Bezalel and acquainted himself with the innovations of European painting in the studio of ltzhak Frenkel. In the late 1920s he joined a large group of artists advocating pure formal and chromatic values, but most of his work was based on visual reality; well-known for his landscapes in a fundamentally expressionistic style, tinged with symbolism showing elongated buildings aspiring toward the sky, or of Jerusalem as a heavenly city; born Oradea, Hungary (1901), died Jerusalem (1968).

• A Woman Playing a Recorder, gouache and watercolour, 98.5 × 67.5 cm, Mordechai Levanon (1901–1968). Tel Aviv: Matsa for Public Auctions, Auction #89, 29 June, 1997, Lot 629 & Artonline, Lot 27 (2005). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001). An elderly woman sits playing a stylised recorder, her music on her lap.

Carlo Levi

Italian writer, journalist, artist, and doctor, whose first documentary novel, Christ Stopped at Eboli (1945), became an international sensation and introduced the trend toward social realism in post-war Italian literature; the brushstrokes and characteristic style of his paintings are unmistakable; born Turin (1902), died Rome (1975).

• Portrait: Amico Dolci (ca 1973), Carlo Levi (1902–1975). Location unknown. Ref. LP cover: Musici Siciliani – Amico Dolci (ca 1973, col.); Recorder & Music 5 (1): front cover (1975, b&w); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003). A youthful Amico Dolci plays a baroque-style recorder with ivory beak, probably the one made for him by Dolmetsch in 1967 featured on the above LP. “Amico Dolci was born in 1957 and is already one of the finest recorder players. His father is Danilo Dolci, world famous champion of the Sicilian peasants, and it was Professor Ross Waller, Chairman of the Dolci Trust who first introduced Amico to the recorder, and Edwin Alton (Chairman of the Manchester Branch of the S.R.P. and Vice-Chairman of the Trust) who continued the teaching. Ferdinand Conrad and Edgar Hunt have also visited Sicily to give intensive coaching, and Amico is now studying composition in Palermo with Eliodoro Sollima. Our portrait by Carlo Levi is reproduced from the sleeve of a record, Musici Siciliani – Amico Dolci, of five Nuovi Ricercari for unaccompanied recorder(s) played by the composer. No. 4 is for two recorders and he is joined there by his sister, Daniela. These Ricercari are being published by Heinrichshofen, and reveal Amico as a composer sensitive to and observant of his surroundings” (Recorder & Music, loc. cit.) Amico Dolci is still active as a recorder player, teacher and composer (2016).

Julian Edwin Levi

USAmerican painter, lithographer and muralist who also taught in Pensylvannia and New York; his subjects include portraits, landscapes, as well as works in abstract and surrealist style; born Yorkville, New York (1900), died 1982.

• Margaret Boni Plays the Recorder (1940) oil on canvas, 53.34 x 38.10 cm, Julian Edwin Levi (1900–1982). Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Inv. RCA1943:4. Ref. Wheeler (1942: 110, b&w).
  Seated on a chair, Margaret plays a baroque-style recorder of tenor-size. Her left hand is uppermost and the instrument is probably by Dolmetsch. She wears a ruffled blouse and reads from a book of music open on her lap.

  Margaret Bradford Boni (1893–1974) was a music teacher and writer of popular books on songs. She was early exponent of the recorder, an instructor in public schools in Pennsylvania and New York, and director of the music department of the City and Country School, 165 West 12th Street, New York (1928 to 1954).

Lucas van Leyden [also called Lucas Huyghensz.]

Dutch painter and one of the greatest engravers of his time; active in Leyden and briefly in Antwerp; born and died Leiden (1489–1533).

• The Month of April (1688–1689), tapestry, designed by Lucas van Leyden (1489–1533). Detail. Paris: Mobilier National. Ref. Pincherlé (1963: 99, col.) Musicians on the shore amuse themselves by singing to the accompaniment of lute and hammered dulcimer, whilst on the river behind them a group in a punt are entertained by a man playing a pipe (possibly a recorder). Cf. 15th- and 16th-century tapestries depicting April or May boating parties with recorders or flutes.
• Virgin and Child with Angels (ca 1520), panel, 74 × 44 cm, Lucas van Leyden (1489–1533). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemädegalerie. Ref. Postcard, Gemädegalerie, Berlin, Nr. 1098 (n. date); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). The Virgin and Child enthroned are entertained by putti, one of whom is tuning his lute whilst the pitch is given by one of his companions on a cylindrical duct flute (flageolet or recorder). The latter, only partially visible, is played right hand uppermost.
• Ten Musical Angels, pen & grey-brown ink on paper, 13.7 × 27.4 cm, Lucas van Leyden (1489–1533). Linz: Mordico Stadtmuseum Linz, Inv. S V/ 250. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 12250 (2010, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Of the ten musical angels, three play what look like alto recorders, reading from music held by a third; a fourth angel has her back to us. In a second group of angels, one plays a tenor, others play harp, clavichord and fiddle.
• Triptych: Mary with Child and Portrait of Petrus Ruuther (17th century), panel, after Lucas van Leyden (1489–1533). Location unknown. Ref. Website: Memoria beeld (2010, b&w). The central panel depicts Mary and the Holy Child surrounded by musical putti playing lute, hurdy-gurdy, bowed lute, cymbals, and a slender pipe (possibly a recorder) played right-hand uppermost. A table in the foreground is scattered with pomegranates, and cherries. The identity of Petrus Ruuther is obscure.

Judith Leyster

Dutch painter of portraits, genre and still-life compositions who may also have made small etchings; specialized in small intimate genre scenes, usually with women seated by candlelight, and single half-length figures set against a neutral background; born Haarlem (1609), died Heemstede, near Amsterdam (1660).

• Boy Playing a Flute (1630–1635), oil on canvas, 73 × 62 cm, Judith Leyster (1609–1660). Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, NM 3384. Ref. Bouterse (1995: 85); Haak (1984/1996: 237, fig. 494); Rasmussen, M. & F. von Huene (1982: fig. 5, b&w); Sire, S. (1995, col.); Griffioen (1988: 440–441); Welu & Biesboer (1993: pl., col.); Kortenhorst von Bogendorf Rupprath (1993: 188-193); Rowland-Jones (2000c: 86, 100, pl. 5, col.); Bridgeman Art Library (2001: Image SNM128527); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1); Rowland-Jones (2004: 41, fig. 2, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 280064 (2014, col.) A young boy plays a transverse flute; a violin and an alto recorder hang behind him on the wall. The broken chair-back tells us that something is amiss in this seemingly happy portrait. Rupprath (loc. cit.) explains it as a complex commentary on Calvinistic education. The young man should not be attempting to play the flute, an instrument associated with moral turpitude and also particularly difficult to play in tune, though perhaps not quite so bad as the recorder which, though easier to play in tune, has even baser phallic associations. He should have chosen the violin because of its harmoniously proportioned sound and its association with the divinely inspired Apollo. Leyster’s husband, Jan Miense Molenaer (ca 1610–1668) painted the same instruments on the wall in The Artist in his Studio, and in Women at her Toilet (Lady World) (1633), again as part of a complex symbolism. The recorder depicted appears to have an unusually long windway.
• The Flute Player, etching, 24.3 × 20 cm, by Carl Evald Enequist (1868–1800), after Judith Leyster (1609-1660). Uppsala: Universitet, Bibliotek , UB G (2244). Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A very accurate engraving (dated 1899) of Leyster’s Boy Playing a Flute in the National Museum, Stockholm. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
• The Young Musicians, Judith Leyster (1609–1660). Location unknown: Sold by Étude Tajan, Paris, 1 July 1994. Ref. Gabrius Databank (2001, b&w). A woman holding a flared-bell recorder points to a boy sitting on the side of a barrel playing a violin. Behind the barrel, another child plays with a cat; opposite the woman a little girl plays with a dog. A seemingly identical painting by Leyster’s husband, Jan Miense Molenaeer, has also been offered for sale recently as Children Making Music and a Girl Holding a Cat.
• Boy with a Pipe, oil on wood, tondo, 27.5 cm diameter, Judith Leyster (ca 1610–1660). Frankfurt: Auktionshaus Zimmermann, 1434 (2002). Portrait of the left side of the face of a laughing boy, who is holding a pipe (possibly a duct flute, but only the head visible, and that indistinctly) in his hand; personification of hearing, allegory of the five senses, great light and dark contrast.

Pietro Liberi [il Libertino]

Italian painter, frescoist and draughtsman; a student of Padovanino, amongst the most interesting Venetian artists of the seventeenth century; his nickname refers to his gracefully erotic work; his frescoes and major works decorate numerous palaces and churches in Venice (Doge’s Palace, Santa Maria della Salute, etc.); born Padua (1605), died Venice (1687).

• Cupid and other Putti Playing in a Landscape, painting, Pietro Liberi (1605–1687). Location unknown: Offered for sale by Phillips, 4 April 1995 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, b&w); Website: Web Gallery (2011, col.) Beneath a tree, a cherub (winged putto) with a tambourine dances and a seated cherub plays a small flared-bell pipe (no details visible). In the background two more winged putti are playing, one shooting a bow and arrow. Above the two cherubs in the foreground, a bow and arrow-sheath hang prominently from a tree.

Bernardino Licinio da Pordenone

Italian renaissance painter; born Poscante (ca 1498), died Venice (a. 1565).

• Concerto, (?1556), 1.36 × 1.86 cm, variously attributed to Bernardino Licinio da Pordenone (ca 1498–a. 1565) and Giovanni Battista Moroni (1525–1578). Vercelli: Museo Borgogno. Ref. Limberg (1992: 121, fig. 7, b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Ausoni (2009: 347, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Two patrician young men play cornetti, and two young women with elegant hairstyles hold cylindrical soprano- and alto-sized duct flutes (probably recorders). The women on the right holds an open music book, but the score is merely suggested by notes of equal value scattered randomly over four-line staves which are not assigned any key. Since two women have their free arms around one of the cornettist’s shoulders, music here is a metaphor for love.

Jean de Liège

Franco-Flemish sculptor of church doors, panels, altarpieces, choir-stalls and thrones; flourished in Dijon (1381–1403).

• Angel Musicians (1399), woodcarving, Jean de Liège (op. 1381–1403). Dijon: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Inv. CA1419 B. Ref. Mirimonde (1965 – cover); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001; 2007a: 40–41 & fig. 1, col.) Carved on the back of part of the choir stalls in 1399 with the arms of Jean sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy and installed in the choir of the Abbey-church of the Chartreuse of Champmol in 1401. It could have been the specially ornate stall where Jean sans Peur would sit. The carving is in low bas-relief (to have been otherwise would have made it rather uncomfortable!). There is no obvious sign of restoration, although some other parts of the stall-back have less ancient-looking oak. The ageing of the wood may smother some details which the carver may have depicted in the original.Four angel musicians are carved on the back of the chair or throne of an officiant. The angels play two-stringed tambourin de Béarn (with two beaters rather than the usual one), fiddle, hurdy-gurdy (lute-shaped) and a pipe. The later is of alto size, cylindrical, played with very relaxed lips and held vertically, slightly to the player’s right. The right hand is held lowermost, all fingers of both hands are down, obscuring any holes, but there is a mark near the mouthpiece which is, however, probably a window/labium. Because of the flatness of the carving and the angle of the pipe across the player’s chest, the mouthpiece only touches his lips on its inner side; this, and the relaxed cheeks, strongly suggests the pipe is a duct flute. The only rather slight evidence that the pipe may be a recorder is that all four fingers of both hands are firmly on the instrument in hole-covering position. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Balthazar Lieutaud

French clockmaker, active in Paris from 1772–1807.

• Decorated back of clock (ca 1780), lacquered porcelain (Vernis-Martin), Balthazar Lieutaud (op. 1772–1807). Gouda: Museum Het Catharina Gasthuis. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). On the concave back surface under the console of this small clock is a scene with a young shepherd playing his soprano-sized pipe (? recorder) to a shepherdess. Both hands (all fingers) are down as he plays with relaxed cheeks, right hand uppermost. No detailing of the window/labium or finger holes are visible.

Jan I Lievens [Lievenz.]

Dutch painter, draughtsman and printmaker who worked in England and Antwerp, returning to Holland in 1644;  his work has often suffered by comparison with that of Rembrandt, with whom he was closely associated early in his career; known for his life-size half-length figures which were often historicising portraits in which their subjects were placed in a biblical scenes or classical landscapes; in later years he turned more towards a somewhat facile rendering of the international Baroque style favoured by his noble patrons; his drawings include some of the finest examples of 17th-century Dutch portraiture in the medium; born Leiden (1607), died Amsterdam (1674).

• Mercury and Argus (ca 1625–1626), 19.5 × 16.5 cm, engraved by Franc v. Wÿngaerde, Düsseldorf, after Jan I Lievens (1607–1674). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Wurburg Institute, London; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Mercury plays to Argus on a cylindrical slightly flared pipe, probably a recorder since the little finger of his lowermost (right) hand seems to be covering its hole, though the window/labium is not visible. Argus leans drowsily on his staff; Io (as a heifer) and a couple of sheep look on.
• Wood Edge with Flute-playing Shepherd, pen drawing in brown ink, Jan I Lievens (1607–1674. Location unknown. Ref. Liesbeth van der Sluijs (pers. comm., 2001). A shepherd plays a flared-bell pipe under big wide tree. The shepherd’s cheeks are a bit blown, so this could represent a shawm rather than a recorder.
• Boy with a Reed Pipe, painting, Jan Lievens (1607–1674).  St Petersburg: Hermitage, Great Peterhof Palace, Hall. Ref. Web-site: Peterhof (2005, col.) A young boy wearing a wreath plays a stout, alto, cylindrical recorder (not a reed pipe at all), the beak and window/labium of which is clearly depicted, beneath which part of a maker’s mark is visible. The player’s hands are perfectly positioned, the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand covering one of two holes. The subject of this portrait was given a blow-wave hair-style, a beauty spot and a dress by the Imperial Russian Tapestry Manufactory to become the ‘Girl’ below!
• Girl Playing a Recorder (late 18th century), tapestry in wood & metal thread, 121.9 × 88.9 cm, Imperial Russian Tapestry Manufactory, after Jan Lievens (1607–1674). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 53.225.21. Ref. Imperial Russian Tapestry Masterpieces (2014, b&w). A young woman seen in side profile, seated and wearing an elaborate cap, plays a conical recorder. The beak, window/labium and offset doubled hole for the little finger of the lowermost hand are clearly depicted. A diamond-shaped mark beneath the window/labium may represent a maker’s mark. Based on an original painting in the Hermitage (see above).The first Russian Tapestry Manufactory, St Petersburg, was founded by Peter I in 1716–1717. Their outstanding output includes examples based on the original paintings by European (Rembrandt, Nicolas Lancret, Anthony van Dyck, etc.) as well as Russian artists; amongst them are many copies of paintings from the Hermitage collection. These large-scale textile items include classical, biblical and genre scenes. Some tapestries were inspired by Russian history.

Michiel [Machiel] D. van Limborch [Limburg] (op. 1636-1675), Dutch

• Interior with Musical Company (1636–1675), Michiel D. van Limborch (op. 1647). Amsterdam: J. Goudstikker. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 24502 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Three peasants sing and play cittern and a soprano- or alto-sized pipe, probably a recorder. The latter is held right hand uppermost; the mouthpiece is unclear but could be beaked; there is a gentle bell and bore flare; the little finger of the left (lowermost) hand seems to be covering its hole which is possibly offset.

Jacques Linard

French painter of still-lifes, mainly of fruit and flowers; amongst the first French artists to combine successfully the female form with still-life elements; his work has a distinctively French elegance and economy of composition; born Paris (before 1600), died Paris (1645).

• The Five Senses and the Four Elements, oil on canvas, 105 × 153 cm, Jacques Linard (a. 1600– 1645). Paris: Louvre. Ref. Museum Boymans-van, Beuningen (1954: 5, no. 7 & cover); Burlington Magazine (1955, 97: April advert. p. vi, May advert. p. xiv, June advert. p. xxvi]; Turris, Cremona: postcard (col.); Ferino-Pagden (1996: 20, Lallement (1997: 200); Rasmussen (2002, Lute); Website: Réunion de Musées Nationaux (RMN), Agence photographique, Inv. DL1970-12 (2009, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). A still-life with flowers, mirrors, boxes, fruit, vegetables, a small charcoal stove, a glass of wine, and some playing cards, and a lute (with an unusual double peg-box) all on and around a bench on the drawer of which is balanced a small flared-bell duct flute (probably a French flageolet since only four finger holes are shown) and a music book.
• Vanitas Still-life, painting, circle of Jacques Linard (a. 1600–1645). Location unknown: auctioned 12/12/2003 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2007, col.) A skull, an hourglass, a recorder, a candle and candlestick and mixed flowers on a table. Only the beak and window/labium of the recorder are visible.

Heinrich Eduard Linde-Walthern

German artist, well-known as an illustrator of children’s books; born Lübeck (1868), died Travemünde (1939).

• Recorder Consort, Heinrich Eduard Linde-Walther (1868–1939). Lübeck: Museen für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Inv. 1939.308. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: LÜmk 32). Two children play recorders with music on a piano. The piano is not being played. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

Norman (Alfred William) Lindsay

Australian draughtsman, painter, sculptor, ship-modeller and writer; best known for his exquisite pen drawings, he also produced wash drawings, watercolours, oil paintings and etchings; he also made model ships; he had long association with the Bulletin magazine; born Creswick, Victoria (1879), died Sydney (1969).

• Moonlight’s Piper (1925), etching and aquatint on cream wave paper, 25.4 × 32.9 cm (plate), 37.3 × 44.3 cm (sheet), Norman Lindsay (1879–1969). Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, Inv. 3436-3; Melbourne: McCory Collection; Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery, Inv. 2:0677; San Francisco: de Young Museum, Inv. L512.1966 (on loan from California State Library). “On a dark and devilish night, heavy with moisture, a gaggle of late night revelers; half-naked women dance along carrying little lanterns on bamboo wands, clownish men, peer from behind a grandfather tree trunk to spy a slender man with high lit horns, shoulders and knees sitting cross legged on a little mound playing upon his flute.” The “flute” is played vertically and has a flared bell and thus just might represent a recorder.

John Linnell

English painter who participated in the naturalist movement of the early 19th century, making oil sketches from nature along the Thames; subsequently developed a more intense interest in humble landscapes, often including labourers at work; he later turned his attention to portraiture, acquiring royal and aristocratic patronage; born London (1792) died Redhill, Surrey (1882).

• Shepherd Boy Playing a Flute, oil on panel, 13.5 × 16.6 cm, John Linnell (1792–1882). British National Trust. Ref. British National Trust: postcard. Shows what is clearly a baroque-style recorder. Similar if not identical to Linell’s Shepherd Boy (1831), Yale Center for British Art.
• Shepherd Boy Piping (1828), pencil & watercolour, 26.4 × 21.8 cm, John Linnell (1792–1882). London: Lowell Libson Ltd. Beside a river, a young shepherd wearing an embroidered smock typical of Downland (eg Sussex) shepherds and a floppy hat, a staff resting in the crook of his left arm, plays a narrowly cylindrical pipe, possibly intended to represent a recorder, given other variations of this composition. He seems to have strayed some way from his sheep.
• The Farmer’s Boy, watercolour over pencil, 43.8 × 27.7 cm, John Linnell (1792–1882). London: Sotheby’s, Sale L11040, 7 July 2011, Lot 341. Ref. Warburg Institute, London. A young shepherd wearing an embroidered smock typical of Downland (eg Sussex) shepherds and a floppy hat, a staff resting in the crook of his left arm, plays a baroque-style recorder. Probably a preparatory sketch for Linell’s Shepherd Boy (1831), Yale Center for British Art.
• Shepherd Boy (1831), oil on panel, 23 × 16.5 cm, John Linnell (1792–1882). New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image YBA165948, col.); Macmillan (2008, b&w); Wikimedia Commons (2012, col.) A young shepherd wearing an embroidered smock typical of Downland (eg Sussex) shepherds and a floppy hat, a staff resting in the crook of his left arm, plays a baroque-style recorder. His sheep graze behind him and his dog stands beside him.

Jan [Hermafrodito] Linsen (1602/3-1635), Dutch – see Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/95–1667)

Pieter [Pierre, Peter] van Lint

Flemish painter and draughtsman, active also in Italy; the subjects of his own works were biblical and mythological, but he frequently copied the more famous paintings in Antwerp’s churches; born and died Antwerp (1609–1690).

• Adoration of the Shepherds, Pieter van Lint (1609–1690). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldergalerie. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 696); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Shepherds and others admire the Christ-child. A shepherd stands on the right carrying under his arm a lamb as his gift. In the same hand he clutches a pipe of which four large finger holes and a decorated, flared bell are visible. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.) The bell of this instrument is widely flared; the blowing end is hidden behind the lamb’s ear. This seems far more likely to represent a small shawm rather than a duct-flute. There is an identical painting in the Museo de Belles Artes, Seville.
• Adoration of the Shepherds (ca 1650), Pieter van Lint (1609–1690). Seville: Museo de Bellas Artes. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Website, flickr: Santiago Abella photostream (2013, col.) Shepherds and others admire the Christ-child. A shepherd stands on the right carrying under his arm a lamb as his gift. In the same hand he clutches a pipe of which four (possibly five) large finger holes and a decorated, flared bell are visible. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.) The bell of this instrument is widely flared; the blowing end is hidden behind the lamb’s ear. This seems far more likely to represent a small shawm rather than a duct-flute. There is an identical painting in the Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldergalerie, Berlin.

Jan van Linteloo [or Lintelo] (op. 1619–m. 1631/2), Dutch

• Two Musicians, drawing on paper, 13.5 × 13.3 cm, Jan van Linteloo (op. 1600–m. 1631/32). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, FP 5103. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: DÜk 296). Seated, an old couple play music together. On the right, a man plays a lute; on the left, a woman plays a slender conical pipe (probably a duct flute).

Andrea Lione

Italian artist; born Naples (1610), died (ca 1675).

• [Bachanalia] Andrea Lione (1610–ca 1675). Location unknown: auctioned in London to a private collector. Ref. Ferino-Pagden (2001: 212, pl., col.) Bacchus (or ?Silenus) lies back happily half-drunk with his right arm on the ground. Beneath his hand are two small duct flutes (probably recorders), not joined together. They are partly hidden, but they both have some bell flare with ornamentation. The upper one has no visible finger holes, but four finger holes in line can be seen on the lower instrument. The windway opening in the beak is clearly shown with both.

Filippino Lippi

Italian painter of altarpieces, cassone panels and frescoes and also an exceptional draughtsman; his work is remarkable for an unusual sense of colour and pattern; his most distinguished achievement was the decoration of the Strozzi Chapel in S Maria Novella, Florence; born Prato (ca 1457), died Florence (1504); son of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406/07–1469) and of Lucrezia Buti, the nun Fra Filippo abducted in 1456.  Lippi left a number of musical instruments at his death in 1504, including “five good recorders in a bag” (5 zufoli buoni in una sacchetto).

• Coronation of the Virgin, 277 × 189 cm, Filippino Lippi (ca 1457–1504), Alonso de Berruguete (1488–1561), and others. Detail. Paris Louvre. Ref. Nielson (1938: fig. 89); Post (1930-1966, XIV: 6); Scharf (1950: fig. 142); Rasmussen (1999b & c). “Altar-piece for the high altar of S. Girolamo sulla Costa, Florence. Three putti play rebec, lute and woodwind (recorder?). There are also angels playing panpipes (!) and tambourine (dancing). It’s a regular bacchanale” (Rasmussen, 1999, Tambourine) The painting was started by Filippino Lippi, but was mainly painted by Berruguete between 1511 and 1518; it was retouched by an unknown painter in 1520. It has been variously attributed to Alsonso de Berruguete, Piero di Cosimo and others.
• Portrait of a Musician (late 1480s), tempera & oil on wood panel, 51 × 36 cm, attributed to Filippino Lippi (ca 1457–1504). Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, Inv. NGI.470. Ref. Boydell (1985: 28–29, fig. 20); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2644 (2023, col.) “A man dressed in black is tuning a lira da braccio, while on shelves behind him lie sheets of music and other musical instruments: a lute, a second lyra da braccio with its bow, and two small wind instruments, probably recorders … The inscription at the lower corner, in the Ferrarese dialect, reads e ichonjcar no fia p tempo mai (‘and it will never be too early to begin’); this could be a quotation from a poem or song written by the sitter” (Boydell, loc. cit.) One of the wind-instruments has the characteristic beak of a duct flute; the other has a distinctly flared-bell.
• Nativity with Saints and Donor (late 15th century), workshop of Filippino Lippi (ca 1457–1504) and del Pesellino [Francesco di Stefano] (ca 1422–1457). Rome: Palazzo Venezia, Inv. PV 7695. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The rounded top of this painting includes two angels on each side of God, playing lute and fiddle (left) and ? recorder and harp (right). The recorder is of tenor size and slightly outwardly conical with a short slight widening at the bell end. No other details are visible, but the angel player does not have inflated cheeks and the lower (right) hand is too close to the foot for the instrument to be a shawm or cornetto.

Lippo d’Andrea (formerly known as Pseudo Ambrogio di Baldese)

Italian painter active in Florence in the early 15th century; born 1370–1371, died before 1451.

• Coronation of the Virgin, tempera on panel, 56 × 40 cm, Lippo d’Andrea (1370/71–a. 1451). Rome: Pinacoteca Capitolina, PC 349. Possibly part of a polyptych. The style is late Tuscan medieval with much gold. Angels look on as the Virgin is crowned. On each side of the throne two angels play cylindrical pipes with prominently flared bells. One is an alto played right hand lowermost with seven finger holes visible, and three fingers of the left hand lifted. The second is a tenor decorated with a complex diamond-shaped pattern; it is played left hand lowermost with six finger holes in line visible, plus a seventh offset to the player’s right, and two fingers of the right-hand lifted. A third angel standing behind a kneeling angel in the bottom right foreground, also plays a pipe, of which only the mouthpiece and a small part below are visible. A recorder trio is clearly a possibility here. As the instruments are in profile, the artist does not show the window/labium with any clarity, if at all.

Johann [Jan] Liss [Lys]

German painter who worked in Rome and Venice; his works include both sensuous mythological and pious biblical subjects; a master of color, he influenced Venetian 18th century painters like Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giovanni Piazzetta; born Oldenburg, Holstein (c. 1590), died Verona (1629), of plague.

• Shepherd Playing a Flute, oil on canvas, 65.5 × 49.5 cm, circle of Johann Liss (ca 1590–1629). Location unknown: Sotheby’s (New York), Sale NO8282, Important Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art, 26 January 2007, Lot 380 (sold). Ref. Sale Catalogue (2007, col.) A young shepherd holds right hand uppermost a renaissance style recorder, only the top half of which is visible.
• Mercury & Argus, painting, Johann Liss (c.1590–1629). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Argus points to Io (as a heifer) looking meaningfully at Mercury who plays an alto-sized cylindrical pipe (probably a recorder) with an abruptly flared bell. The beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, but not all the fingers of the lowermost (right) hand are covering their holes.

Richard Livesay

English portrait, landscape and marine painter and engraver; born 1750, died Southsea (1826).

• The Royal Review at Hatfield Park of the Volunteer Cavalry and Infantry with the Militia of the County of Herts (1802), aquatint, 45.1 × 67.3 cm, Joseph Constantin Stadler (op. ca 1780–1812) after Richard Livesay (1750–1826). New York: Donald A. Heald, Item #27075 (2014, col.); Stansted Mountfitchet: Sworders, ? date, Lot 583. Ref. Macmillan (2008: 136). A brilliant panorama of a patriotic convocation on 13 June 1800 during the Napoleonic Wars. As George III raises his hat, seated upon a white horse and the rest of the Royal Family watches from carriages, the smartly uniformed volunteer troops of Hertfordshire march and ride through Hatfield Park. The original, painted by Livesay in 1800, was hung in Lord Salisbury’s town house, 20 Arlington Street, London.  The parade seems to stretch on for miles, though the military display seems to be somewhat secondary to the beautiful rolling landscape in the distance and Hatfield House, the very symbol of British stability and ascendancy. By 1802, fighting the French to preserve Britannia had become a perpetual task for every generation since William and Mary. And of course enthusiasm for it had to be constantly re-ignited by demonstrations of the glamour of soldiery and war, and reminders of the greatness and loveliness of England. Livesay’s print does all of these things extremely well, giving us an elevated view of the King and family, row upon row of earnest young men in dress uniforms and an infinite landscape. Macmillan (loc. cit.) notes that a young lad (presumably standing to the right of the family group being moved off by a cavalier on horseback) holds a baroque recorder of alto size, but I am unable to verify this.

Joaquin Torrents Llado

Spanish postwar painter of highly acclaimed impressionistic landscapes, garden scenes and portraits; born Badalona (1946), died Palma de Majorca (1993).

• Portrait of a Boy with Recorder, oil on canvas, 61 × 66 cm, Joaquin Torrents Llado (1946–1993). Franklin, MA: Woodshed Art Auctions, Antique & Modern Oil Paintings, Lot 5152, October 2015 (sold).  A young man (or woman) standing, plays a tenor-sized recorder of neo-baroque design, left hand uppermost. Details of the instrument are very vague.

Andrea Locatelli [Lucatelli]

Italian painter of bambocciate, landscapes, marine scenes and religious subjects; born Rome (1695), died Rome (1741).

• Goatherd, oil on canvas, Andrea Locatelli (1695–1741). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, col.) A young goatherd seated by a tree plays a pipe (possibly a duct flute) watched by a large goat.

Stephan Lochner [Master of Cologne]

German painter known as the Master of Cologne because his paintings are outstanding examples of the gently lyrical and delicate style developed by the artists of Cologne; he combined the spiritual idealism of previous artists with realistic details of figures and landscape and his works are notable for their glowing colors and the monumental dignity of their figures; born Meersburg (ca 1400), died Cologne (ca 1451).

• The Virgin Mary (ca 1410–ca 1420), Stephan Lochner (15th century). Ref. Sauerlandt (1922: 2); Peter (1958: 42). Mary is surrounded by angels playing various instruments, including recorder, psaltery and fife alongside violins, lutes, harp and regal.

Giovanni Agostino da Lodi [Pseudo-Boccaccino]

Italian painter and draughtsman; an intermediary between the perspective art of Lombardy during the last decade of the 15th century and the Venetian style of Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione and the other painters of their circle; active ca 1467–1524/25.

• Pala dei Barcaioli [Boatman Altarpiece] (ca 1497-1498), oil on panel, Giovanni Agostino da Lodi (op. ca 1467–1524/25). Venice (Murano): San Pietro Martrire. Ref. Humfrey (1993: 267, pl. 249, col.); Website: Wikipedia (2015, col.) Two red-winged angel musicians stand precariously on columns. One plays a fiddle. The other, at the top right, holds a very slender pipe with an elongated beak, right hand lowermost, all fingers on. Although there is little or no bell flare, and no visible window/labium or finger holes, this could be a recorder, as the playing position suggests. Between the pillars the Virgin and Child sit enthroned. Seated on the predella a putto plays a lute. At the base of the predella an illusory circular reliefs represents St. Christopher fording a river. On the right stands St John the Baptist with a bishop; on the left is ?St George (judging by his flag) and a second bishop.

Jan van Logteren

Dutch sculptor working mostly in Amsterdam and Haarlem; executed organ decorations, interior stucco work, and garden statues; born and died Amsterdam (1709–1745); son of sculptor Ignatius van Logteren (1685–1732).

• Musical Angel, gilt woodcarving (1738), Jan van Logteren (1685–1732). Haarlem: St Bavokerk, on right side of great organ. Ref. Jan Bouterse to Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2001); Bouterse (2006); Lasocki (2008: 17-18). A half-length figure of a man plays a tenor-sized baroque recorder with gilt mounts and beak. A matching figure on the same side plays what looks like a tenor oboe. The organ was built by Christian Müller and sculptor Jan van Logteren between 1735 and 1738. With its 60 stops and its imposing 32 foot pedal towers, it was, for many years, the largest organ in the world. Handel, Mozart and Mendelssohn number along the many celebrated visitors who have travelled far to play the instrument. Between 1959 and 1961, it was restored by Danish organ-building firm, Marcussen & Son and the organ case received a new coat of paint and gilding. And, yes, the organ’s Rückpositiv contains a register called Fluit douce.

Jacob Lois

Dutch architect; the only building attributable to him is the former Gemeenlandshuis of Sliedrecht, or ‘Schielandshuis’ which became the home of the Museum Boymans (1849–1958), gutted by fire in 1864 and subsequently rebuilt, and thoroughly restored in 1986; flourished 1634, died Rotterdam (1676).

• Portrait of an Unknown Man as a Shepherd with a Recorder (1645), oil on panel, 60.5  58.0 cm, Jacob Lois (op. 1643–m. 1676). Rotterdam: Museum Rotterdam 66439-A. Ref. Schadee (1994: 73, pl. 27); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Possibly a self-portrait of the artist. A slightly embarrassed man, with two roses in his bonnet, holds in his left hand a perfect soprano hand-fluyt. The two uppermost finger holes are covered, the four beneath are open, and there is an offset hole for the little finger of the lowermost hand. The recorder is slightly flared towards the foot with two lightly incised decorative rings at the bell. There is a pendant to this, namely Portrait of an Unknown Woman as a Shepherdess with a Bird (Museum Rotterdam 66440-B) in which a small bird perches on the subject’s fingers, its wings outstretched.

Giovanni Domenico Lombardi

Italian painter of the late-Baroque period in Lucca who shows the influence of rising neoclassicism but enveloped by an attention to Caravaggist quotations; born and died Lucca (1682–1752).

• A Woman Playing a Flute, with a Young Boy and a Dog, oil on canvas, 81.2 × 106.0 cm, circle of Giovanni Domenico Lombardi (1682–1752). London: Bonhams, Auction 19789, 24 October 2012, Lot 168 (sold). A soulful looking young woman who looks downwards at a book of music as she is about to play a slenderly conical duct flute with a flared foot. She is watched by a sympathetic dog seated behind her, and by a dreamy looking child who holds the music book open. The beak of the instrument is hinted at, but there is no sign of the window/labium; a number of finger holes are visible. The player’s  fingering is haphazard to say the least.

Assuerus Jansz. van Londerseel

Flemish copperplate engraver and publisher; born Amsterdam (1572), died 1633.

• The Prodigal Son Wasting his Fortune (? 17th century), copper engraving, 26.9 × 20.1 cm, Assuerus Jansz. van Londerseel (1572–1633). Berlin-Grunewald: Galerie Bassenge, 96th Art & Photography Auction, Lot 5096 (2010). Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). The prodigal son, resplendent in his finery is wasting his money on wine, women and song. He sits at a table surrounded by beautiful women available for a price: one even plays the violin. In the background a musician plays a cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder though no details are visible. Slightly out of frame another man adds up the bill. A caption reads: Et venere et Baccho bonna decoquit omnia natus (From Venus and Bacchus all are born).

Giovanni Paolo [Gianpaolo] Lomazzo

Italian writer, draughtsman and painter in the late Mannerist working in an eclectic version of the Lombard style; lost his eyesight in an accident at age 33 and turned to writing metaphysical discussions of the philosophy of artistic creation; born and died Milan (1538–1600).

• A Young Man, red chalk on ochre paper (pasted on yellowed, stained, paper), 17.5 × 13 cm, attributed to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1600). Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Accession No.: Cod F 271 Inf n 47 Ref. Bora (1971: 41, fig. 49); Biblioteca Ambrosiana (1999). “Profile of young bearded man, facing left with his head turned in three-quarter view looking towards the viewer. The man wears a wide brim hat, and in his left hand he holds a flute (?) or recorder (?). A parapet is in front of the figure. Attributed to Lomazzo as an early work by Giulio Bora (loc. cit.), the drawing is related by him to the Self Portrait in the Brera (no. 354) dated 1568. In addition, the drawing reveals compositional and motival correspondences to a painting attributed to Savoldo in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House (cat. no. 223)” (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, loc. cit.)

Alessandro Longhi

Italian painter, engraver and writer; his approach was individualistic; most admired for the realistic qualities of his unofficial portraits, many of which depict humble subjects; born and died Venice (1733–1813); son of the artist Pietro Longhi.

• A Poet Declaiming his Verses, Alessandro Longhi (1733–1813). Port Sunlight: Lady Lever Gallery. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). The seated poet reads to a large group of people, also seated, but the host who has invited this lion of literature, although sitting beside the poet, stands up waving his arm in ecstasy, while an angel hovers above blowing a long trumpet. On the floor by the host’s chair are scattered books and some stage masks, and leaning with its head end on a cushion is what looks like a tenor-sized recorder (it could be an alto) with a slightly curved-over mouthpiece, but otherwise plain and either cylindrical or slightly inwardly tapering towards the bell end. The bell flares slightly, with no decoration. Although the instrument is in shadow the window-labium and seven finger holes, all in line, can just be made out.

Pietro Longhi

Italian draughtsman and painter whose work includes altarpieces, frescoes, and depictions of Venetians at play, and going about their daily lives; born and died Venice (1702–1785); father of painter Alessandro Longhi (1733–1813). He was born Pietro Falca but adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint.

• Boy with a Recorder / Girl with a Caged Bird, oil on canvas, Pietro Longhi (1702–1785). Milan: Sale 1375, Importanti dipinti antichi, 16 May 2007, Lot 80. A pendant pair depicting a a young boy holding a more or less cylindrical alto recorder with a slightly flared bell, with an open book of music; and a young woman with a birdcage, its inhabitant perched on her thumb.
• The Music Lesson (1760–1799), oil on canvas, 62.0 ×  48.5 cm, school of Pietro Longhi (1702–1785). Venice: Casa di Carlo Goldoni, Cl. I n. 0842. Ref. Tibia 20 (4): front cover (1995, b&w, detail). A woman at the harpsichord and a man holding a slender pipe (possibly a duct flute, maybe a recorder) are interrupted in their lesson by their gesticulating teacher. In the foreground, an old man hobbles towards them, and a small dog seems to be barking at them. They are obviously not at their best.

Charles [Carle] André van Loo

French artist, the most famous member of a successful dynasty of painters of Dutch origin; his patrons included members of the court, the Gobelins factory, private individuals, and the church. he was named Premier peintre du Roi to Louis XV of France in 1762; his  oeuvre includes every category: religion, history painting, mythology, portraiture, allegory, and genre scenes; born Nice (1705), died Paris (1765); grandson of  painter Jacob van Loo (ca 1614–1670), son of painter Louis-Abraham van Loo (1653–1712), brother of painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo  (1684–1731), father of painter Jules-César-Denis van Loo (1743–1821).

• Pan and Syrinx, painting, Charles Andre van Loo (1705–1765). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Syrinx sits beside a stream holding a perfectly depicted baroque tenor recorder. At her feet sits Pan, gazing lustfully up at her, holding his pan-pipes, cooling his hooves in the water.

Jacob (or Jacques) van Loo

French painter of Flemish extraction, active in Amsterdam and Paris; his works include complex figure compositions based on mythological themes, in which Flemish monumentality and animation were translated into quieter compositions of a more classical nature; born Sluis, near Bruges (ca 1614), died Paris (1670); son of the painter Jan van Loo (1585–?).

• Concert (early 1650s), 76 × 65 cm, Jacob van Loo (ca 1614–1670). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Bernt (1969, 2: 702); Nash (1972: pl. 175); Griffioen (1988: 440–441); Website: klassiskgitar.net (2009, col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1736 (2023, col.) A bass viol player (woman), a lutenist (man) and a soprano recorder player (woman) accompany a singer seated with her music at a table. The recorder is played right-hand lowermost; its window/labium is clearly visible, and the bell is slightly flared.
• Music-making Company (ca 1650), oil on canvas, 73.7 × 66.0 cm, Jacob van Loo (ca 1614–1670). Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. 225. Ref. Heinemann (1969: pl. 147, b&w); Website: Bernard Huyvaert, Dutch 17th Century; Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “The group includes two singers, a very elegant man and woman – the man taps the time with his fingers on a table, a lute and a smallish bass viol, together with what could be a sopranino recorder played by a woman. The beak of the instrument is in her mouth and there is a clear window/labium and three upper left hand fingers are held very close together. Of the right hand fingers, the first is down, the second half-covers hole, the third is down, and the little finger is lifted. One of the lower holes is slightly offset (on the opposite side to the little finger). The instrument is rather flat-topped and broad in shape. Because of the uncertainty about the lower holes it could be a flageolet, but this seems unlikely in the context” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.) This painting is identical to Loo’s The Concert (Hermitage), above.
• The Concert, Jacob van Loo (ca 1614–1670). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Haak (1984/1996: 488, fig. 1083); Kuznetsov, pl. 112; Nash (1972: pl. 175); Griffioen (1988: 440–441). A ‘merry company’ scene in which a seated man on the right plays a wind instrument which, from the position of the little finger of the lower hand, could be a recorder. But the instrument has no flare and may be a flute viewed obliquely. On the upper left of the painting, a child is seated on the steps also playing a pipe of some kind.
• Happiness / Allegory of Fortune (1655), oil on canvas, 114.0 × 94.5 cm, Jacob van Loo (ca 1614–1670). Bamburg: Neue Residenz, Staatsgalerie, Inv. 2361. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1743 (2023, col.) An orgy is in progress to music provided by a man playing a beautifully depicted lute, and a less well-depicted duct flute (probably a recorder) played by a boy. The window/labium is not clear. The playing position is perfect for a recorder with the left hand uppermost covering its holes with the little finger supporting the instrument, the right hand lower with two fingers down and the third and fourth fingers raised above their holes (which are not visible). The instrument is of alto or tenor size, cylindrical with a gentle bell-flare, widening of the bore, and a double-moulded decorative ring on the bell.

Hans Lopatta (20th century), German

• Child with Flute (1957), charcoal on paper, 50 × 40 cm, Hans Lopatta (20th century). Regensburg: Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Inv. 3999. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Rog 227). A girl plays a recorder. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

Ugolino Lorenzetti = Master of the Ovile Madonna

Lorenzo d’Alessandro da Sanseverino

Italian painter active in the Marches (in eastern central Italy); he was influenced by Carlo Crivelli, Niccolò di Liberatore, and others; born 1452, died 1508.

• The Marriage of St Catherine of Siena (ca 1481–1500), egg tempera and oil on wood, 144.8 × 145.4 cm, Lorenzo d’Alessandro da Sanseverino (1452–1508). London: National Gallery, NG249. Ref. National Gallery (1937: no. 1085, p. 134); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 374.G27.38C; Rasmussen (1999b); Davies (1961). Formerly attributed to Geertgen to Sint Jans (National Gallery, loc. cit.) Painted as an altarpiece, possibly for the Dominican church of S. Lucia, Fabriano. St Dominic raises his hands in amazement as St Catherine kneels to receive a ring placed on her finger by the infant Christ who is held in the Virgin’s lap. St Augustine, right, stands behind an unnamed Dominican beatus, probably the Blessed Constanzo da Fabriano (died 1481/2). Around the Virgin, angel musicians sing and play a bell, harp, lute and an alto-sized pipe. The latter has a bulbous swelling above the distinctly flared bell, possibly a fontanelle, and the little finger of the player’s lowermost hand appears to be closing its hole (or key). The player’s cheeks appear somewhat inflated as if playing a shawm, but that would seem out of place in this ensemble and so a recorder remains a possibility. At the foot of the Virgin’s throne lie a cucumber and an orange: the first a symbol of chastity since the cucumber sets fruit without being fertilised; the second a symbol of love and marriage.

Lorenzo Veneziano

Italian painter of altarpieces; active Venice (op. 1356–1379).

• Coronation of the Virgin (1368), tempera on wood, Lorenzo Veneziano (op. 1356–1379). Detail. Tours: Museé des Beaux-Arts. Ref. Postcard: P. Boyer, Montlouis; Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Painted for San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna. Restored in 1996. Above the central scene, angel musicians play two psalteries, organetto, three shawms (with pirouette and played with inflated cheeks), fiddle, two gitterns, two tambourines, and a cylindrical pipe which lacks a pirouette and probably represents a duct flute (flageolet or recorder).
• Marriage of St Catherine, ?tempera on wood, Lorenzo Veneziano (op. 1356–1379). Venice: Gallerie dell’Accademia. Ref. Website: Early Music Gallery (2005); Wikimedia Commons (2011, col.) St Catherine of Alexandria was born to a noble family of Alexandria; she refused to marry the Emperor Maxetius himself because of her previous “mystic marriage” to Christ. The emperor ordered 50 Alexandrian philosophers to prove to her the absurdity of her faith, but she effectively regarded all their arguments. The emperor, enraged by this rebuff, ordered the philosophers to be burnt alive and Catherine to be broken on a spiked wheel. The wheel miraculously fell to pieces, and finally Catherine was beheaded.The legend relates that in her vision she underwent a mystic marriage with Christ, who put a gold ring on her finger. Another version has it that when Catherine was praying to a small icon of Virgin with Child, he turned his head and placed a ring on her finger.Catherine of Alexandria is patron saint of young girls, students, clergy, wheelwrights and millers. In fine art she is often represented with a wheel, or a part of a broken wheel; in the episode of her “wedding” angels usually surround her.In this painting the infant Christ, seated on his mother’s lap, is seen putting the ring on Catherine’s finger. Above, are musical angels who play two gitterns, two psalteries, two  lutes, two small flared pipes (probably duct flutes) and an organetto; and one sings.

Claude Lorrain(e) = Claude Gellée

Alfonso Loschi, Italian

• The Madrigalist’s Table, Alfonso Loschi (?17th century). Detail. Florence: Galleria Palatina (Pitti Palace). Ref. Roche (1974: cover). Still-life with musical instruments, including viol, violin, lutes and a small flared-bell recorder.

Bernardino Loschi

Italian artist from Parma who worked as court painter to Alberto Pio, Lord of Carpi in Emilia; born Parma (1489), died Carpi (1540); son of painter Jacopo Loschi (1495–1533).

• Madonna, with Child Receiving a Rose from St John the Baptist (1548), follower of Bernardino Loschi (1489–1540). Modena: Galleria Estense. Ref. Cosetta (1985, 1: pl. 36); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) Mary sits on a throne with the infant Christ standing on her right thigh. A young St John the Baptist stands between her legs handing a rose to the infant, a symbol of the blood of Christ foretelling his martyrdom. Three cherubs (winged putti) sit on the step of the predella, side by side, playing lira da braccio, a small lute, and a slender alto-sized duct flute (probably a recorder), left hand lowermost. The recorder possibly has an offset hole for the little finger of the lowermost hand, but no other finger holes are visible. On the right-hand side of the throne stands ? Joseph; on the left stands ? Elisabeth, kinswoman of the Virgin and the mother of John.

Johann Carl Loth [Lotto, Carlotto]

Italian Caravaggesque painter, chiefly known for his lively depictions of mythological scenes dominated by the nude figure and for his altarpieces; born Munich (1632), died Venice (1698); son of the painter Johann Ulrich Loth (1632–1662).

• Mercury Piping to Argus, oil on canvas 117 × 100 cm, Johan Carl Loth (1632–1698). London: National Gallery. Ref. Levey (1959, b&w); Pater & Bauer (1997: 60, col.), Rowland-Jones (1998c: 16; 1999; 2002b: 50-51, pl. 6, b&w); National Gallery (2002). Against a darkened sky, and watched by Io (as a heifer), Mercury (Hermes) lulls the watchful Argus Panoptes to sleep by playing on a small cylindrical recorder with a slender flared bell. The beak and window/labium are clearly shown. The associations here are five-fold: a myth about supernatural beings, Mercury (the god of skill, invention, industry and intellect), a shepherd, sleep, and death.
• Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, 112 × 147 cm, Johan Carl Loth (1632–1698). Sibiu/Hermannstadt: Muzeul National Breukenthal, Inv. 980. Ref. Website: Muzeul Breukenthal (2007, col.); Charles Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008). Argus is lulled to sleep by Mercury who plays a small slender pipe with a flared bell. No details of the pipe are shown, but Mercury’s cheeks seem slightly inflated. Unlike the painting of this subject in the National Gallery, London, this version does not include Io, but it does show on the right in the shadows another man, possibly a servant.
• Mercury and Argus, oil on canvas, after Johan Carl Loth (1632–1698). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank OMP (2000, col.) A crude copy of the original in the Muzeul Breukenthal (Sibiu, Romania). Argus is lulled to sleep by Mercury who plays a small slender pipe with a flared bell. No details of the pipe are shown, but Mercury’s cheeks seem slightly inflated.
• A Young Boy, in Profile, Playing a Pipe, oil on canvas, 68 × 55 cm, circle of Johann Carl Loth (1632–1698). Location unknown: Sotheby’s (London) Sale L07034, Lot 172, 6 December 2007. Ref. Website: Sotheby’s (2009, col.) A young boy in a brown shirt and loose cape plays a flared-bell soprano/alto recorder, left hand uppermost, with slightly inflated cheeks.
• Satyr Playing the Flute, painting, attributed to Loth, Johann Carl (1632–1698). Detail. Paris, Galerie Lingenauber Ref. Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Images 0027101, 0001559 & 0027105 (2009, b&w & col.) An old white-bearded man wearing a floral wreath plays a slender pipe which may represent a recorder.

Lorenzo Lotto

Italian painter and draughtsman, known for his perceptive portraits altarpieces and mystical paintings of devotional subjects; made a considerable contribution to the development of the three-quarter-length portrait; born Venice (ca 1480), died Loreto, Papal States (1556).

• Allegory of Industry and Idleness (1505), painting, cover for a portrait of Bernardo de’ Rossi, Lorenzo Lotto (ca 1483–1556). Detail. Washington: National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection 1939.1.156. Ref. Ford (1986: 60); Humfrey (1997: 13, fig. 16, col.); Rowland-Jones (2000b: fig., b&w); Groos (1994: 103-110). Illustrates the motto “The path of virtue and reason may be hard and stony, but it will eventually lead to happiness and fulfilment.” A putto grows wings, whereas a pampered and lazy satyr lolling in rich vegetation and indulging himself with wine is destined to a watery death by shipwreck in a tempest. The kneeling putto, despite his stony surroundings and the leafless hedge, concentrates on acquiring skills, learning geometry and music, picking up a number of small objects including a sheet of music, a syrinx, a cornetto, and a small flared-bell duct flute (flageolet or recorder); but he will grow wings and fly to a golden heaven. Obviously mastering the recorder was one of life’s difficulties! Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)
• Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (1521), oil on canvas, 287 × 268 cm, Lorenzo Lotto (ca 1483–1556). Bergamo: Chiesa di Santo Spirito. Ref. Colalucci (1994: 18, pl., col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Web Gallery of Art (2002, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Website: Will Kimball, Trombone (2013, col.) The represented saints are Catherine of Alexandria, Augustine, Sebastian, Anthony the Abbot, and the Young John the Baptist. A very animated group of angels includes singers who seem to be struggling to find the right page in a large music-book held for them by another angel, and players of a very large fish-shaped psaltery with two roses in the sound-board, a slide trumpet, a triangle, and three recorders (two soprano and one alto/tenor size). The soprano-recorder -playing angels, close together, have slightly outwardly conical instruments with quite wide bore openings and a little flare. The window/labium is clear in both instruments which are played left-hand lowermost with all fingers down (except for slight lifting of the first finger of the left angel with part of the hole just showing beneath). The player of the alto/tenor recorder is sideways on to the other two, so the window/labium is not possible to see, but the fingers are just as perfectly placed for recorder-playing as with the other two angels. The presence of the slide trumpet in this bas group is interesting, but its tube-work is very slender so it could have played softly. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
• Intarsia (1522–1555 ), stall back, by Giovanni Francesco Capoferri to the design of Lorenzo Lotto (ca 1483–1556). Bergamo: Santa Maria Maggiore, choir screen. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (2003, pers. comm.) The choir screen has four large intarsia panels, two on each side of the entrance to the choir, at ground level, and a further series at the back of each choir stall. The four screen panels depict subjects from the Old Testament, and the stall backs are mainly decorative in style. One of Capoferri’s stall-backs has, filling half of the panel (on the left side), an intarsia of three renaissance recorders, almost upright but leaning inwards to the right, slightly out of parallel, with the head ends uppermost. Each very clearly shows a beaked mouthpiece, the window/labium and six finger holes in line plus paired offset holes for the little finger of the lowermost hand, and possibly with some slight bell flare. They are not normally visible as all the protecting doors are kept shut except for one of the screen panels.
• Sleeping Apollo and the Muses with Fame (1545–1550), oil on canvas, 44.5 × 74.0 cm, Lorenzo Lotto (ca 1483–1556). Budapest: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Inv. 947. Ref. Halápy (1973: 246); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). The literary source of this subject (if any) is unknown. As Apollo falls asleep clutching his lira da braccio in the shade of bay trees on Mount Parnassus, the otherwise dignified Muses have cast aside two perfectly depicted flared-bell recorders and several music books along with their clothes and are chasing each other among the hills. Fame, the goddess of reputation, flies away from the scene holding her two trumpets unplayed. The deeper meaning of the scene may be that without reason, personified by Apollo, art goes astray. This painting, executed around 1545–1550, appears in Lotto’s account-book several times in connection with unsuccessful attempts to sell it. The canvas was mutilated in the 17th century, and its right-hand third, with five of the Muses in a landscape, is now missing. Transferred from the Hungarian National Museum; formerly in the imperial collection in Vienna.

Sebastiano Luciani [Sebastiano del Piombo]

Italian painter who tried to combine the rich colours of the Venetian school with the monumental form of the Roman school; he was know as Piombo, a name conferred upon him by Pope Clement VII, as keeper of the leaden seals; born Venice (ca 1485), died Rome (1547).

• Flute Player, circle of Sebastiano Luciani (ca 1485–1547). Location unknown. Ref. Gabrius Databank (2002, b&w). A bearded man in a hat holds a cylindrical recorder of alto/tenor size in his right hand. This is very similar to Portrait of a Man with a Staff, also from the circle of Sebastiano Luciani (see below), and an untitled portrait of a flute-player (see below). In Flute Player, however the characteristic curved beak, the great similarity with Giovanni Giraolamo Savoldo’s Shepherd with Flute (Bowood House, UK), and the fact that the same model seems to have been used in all four works would indicate that a recorder was intended. The original composition is currently in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
• Portrait of a Man with a Staff (? 16th century), ? after Sebastiano Luciani (ca 1485–1547). Location unknown; Auctioned 19 January 1994, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.) Ref. Gabrius Databank (2002, b&w) Very similar to the Flute Player (see above), though the recorder is held at a different angle. Almost identical to the Shepherd Flute Player (see below), though details of the face are somewhat different. The original composition is currently in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
• [Man with a Flute] (? 16th century), after Sebastiano Luciani (ca 1485–1547). Ref. Bonhams (Knightsbridge), Sale 13602 – Pictures & Frames to be sold without reserve, 16 August 2006, Lot 143. A bearded, fur-coated man holds a crudely depicted cylindrical recorder, the positions of the finger holes and details of the beak and window-labium poorly represented. The original composition is currently in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
• [Man with a Flute] (? 16th century), 52.9 × 42.2 cm, after Sebastiano Luciani (ca 1485–1547). Ref. Bonhams (Knightsbridge), Sale 16745– British & Continental Oil Paintings, 10 March 2009, Lot 27. A bearded, fur-coated man holds a cylindrical recorder with a strangely truncate beak, the window/labium clearly depicted. The original composition is currently in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
• Man with a Fur Cap, oil on canvas, 51.5 × 39.0 cm, after Sebastiano Luciani (1485–1547). Munich: Oliver Alagheband. Ref. Ebay (Germany ), article no. 271397502679, attributed to Sebastian del Piombo (2014, col.) Very similar to the portraits above, which are more or less crude copies of the original composition  currently in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. A bearded, fur-coated (and hatted) man holds a crudely depicted cylindrical recorder. No details of the finger holes or window-labium are visible; but the beak and wind-way opening are reasonably clearly represented.
• Death of Adonis (ca 1511), oil on canvas, 189 × 295 cm, Sebastiano Luciani (1485–1547). Florence: Galleria degli Uffizi. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The young Adonis is lying on the ground due to the wound inflicted by the wild boar hiding in the undergrowth behind, while Venus, sitting with a group of nymphs who are listening to the god Pan, learns the sad news from a young Eros who alone points at Adonis. There is a view of a city in the background. Two of Venus’ nymphs gaze at Pan, and a third looking at Venus, points at him. Perhaps divine grief is of greater concern than a mortal’s death. Pan is in shadow, by a tree with a shepherd’s staff by his shoulder. He plays two pipes. A heavy beard hides the mouthpieces and window/labium areas, but the thumb is underneath. Four finger holes are visible on the right-hand pipe. The left-hand pipe is covered by the hand. These may not be recorders, but harmony and love in mourning may be the symbolic intention.

Carl Gottlieb Lück

Eighteenth-century German porcelain maker working in Frankenthal.

• The Good Mother, porcelain figurine, 21 cm high, Carl Gottlieb Lück (18th century). Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum, Inv. Po 490. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002: HDkm – 74); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A mother sees to the care and feeding of her children. One child blows a small duct flute; over the chair of an infant hangs a toy drum.

Johann Friedrich Lück

Eighteenth-century German porcelain maker working in Frankenthal.

• Shepherd Musicians (ca 1765), Frankenthal porcelain figurine, 24 cm high, after a design by Johannes Esaias Nilson (1721–1788), by Johann Friedrich Lück. Munich: Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Inv. Ker 2049. Ref. Hoffmann (1908: 141, pl. 721, b&w); Munich RIdIM (2002: Mbnm – 592); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A shepherdess plays a xylophone, a boy at her feet plays a bagpipe, and a standing shepherd plays a recorder.
• The Flute Lesson (1759), Frankenthal porcelain figurine, 34 cm high, by Johann Friedrich Lück. Karlsruhe: Badisches Landesmuseum; Munich: Bayerischen Nationalmuseum Ker 2047. Ref. CD Cover: Georg Philipp Telemann Triosonaten, Camerata Köln, EMI CDC 7 47573 2 (1986, col.); Hofmann (1908: 139 and pl. 714); Munich RIdIM (2009, Mbnm – 591). Marked with the monogramm ‘JH’. An elegantly dressed shepherd fingers a flared-bell pipe (possibly a recorder) played by an equally elegantly dressed shepherdess seated beside him, two sheep at their feet. Probably derived from Boucher’s The Enjoyable Lesson. The Munich example is rather damaged: one of the sheep has strayed, and an urn seems to have toppled from its perch on the wall (right front).

Bernardino Luini

Italian artist, highly influenced by Leonardo, painting Leonardo’s subjects in Leonardo’s style; born ?Luino on Lake Maggiore (ca 1480–1485), died ? Lugano (1532).

• St Cecilia, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/85–1532). Ref. Calendar: November; Archiv Moeck. St Cecilia plays the lute accompanied by a putto who plays on a slender duct flute (possibly a recorder) of which the window/labium appears to be shown.
• Virgin and Child with St Marguerite d’Antioch and St Augustin, wood, 142 × 142 cm, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/85–1532). Paris: Le Musée Jacquemart-André. Ref. Bertaux (1913: 31); Treccani degli Alfieri (1957: 617); Paris RIdIM (1999); Rasmussen (1999c). Mary with the Christ-child standing on her knee is flanked by the two saints standing on each side. At her feet are two putti, one playing a tambourine, the other a flared bell pipe, almost certainly a recorder given the disposition of the fingers.
• Child Angel Playing Flute, oil on canvas, 35.5 × 28.2 cm, attributed to Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/85–1532). Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. No. 634. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image FIT63089, col.); Postcard, Fitzwilliam Museum Enterpirsed Ltd. CC39 (2003, detail, col.) A fragment of a larger painting. The putto holds his instrument to one side, but the end is slightly beaked and it only just touches the right-hand corner of his lips, so that he does not seem to be actually playing it. It does not cross his lips in any way. The thumb of the upper (left) hand is under the instrument and all the fingers, including the little finger of the lower (right) hand seem posed just above where one would expect finger holes to be, though none are visible. Although it seems at first glance to be a transverse flute I think this instrument may be intended to be a recorder. The label says that the same putto as the one on this fragment appears in Luini’s polyptych of 1523 in the church of San Magno in Legnano, Lombary. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).
• Polyptych (central panel): Enthroned Virgin and Child (1523), oil on canvas, 500 × 300, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/85–1532). Detail. Legnano: Church of San Magno. Ref. Gregori (? date: 249, pl. 65, col.); Concert advertisement: St George’s Baroque Consort, G.F. Handel, Messiah, St George’s Cathedral, Perth, Australia, 17 & 18 December 1999 (b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). The Virgin sits enthroned with the Christ-child standing on the armrest, twirling a glass ball in his outstretched right hand. Beside them, sitting on the architraves, two putti play lutes. Beneath, three winged putti play cylindrical recorders of soprano, alto and tenor size; two stand each side of the third who sits on a plinth below the throne. This composition is identical to the Madonna and Child Enthroned in the Brooklyn Museum of Art (see below). The central putto holds his recorder sideways in the manner of a transverse flute (but it does not cross his lips in any way) and is identical to the fragment in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (see above).
• Angels Making Music, oil on canvas, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/85–1532). Location unknown: Auctioned by Sotheby’s, 21 May 1998 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, b& w); Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0001559 (2009, b&w). Seated beneath three arial putti, three winged putti play cylindrical recorders of soprano, alto and tenor size; two stand each side of the third who is seated. The central putto holds his recorder sideways in the manner of a transverse flute (but it does not cross his lips in any way) and is identical to the fragment in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (see above). This is the same band that plays for the Enthroned Virgin and Child in the Church of San Magno, Legnano (see above), although the players stand closer together here. The restaurant chain Trattoria il Panino in Boston, USA, has a logo and advertising image apparently based on Luini’s central angel.
• Madonna and Child Enthroned, oil on canvas, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480–1532) New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image TBM105043, col.); Website: klassiskgitar.net (2009, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-232 (2023, col.) The Virgin sits enthroned with the Christ-child standing on the armrest, twirling a glass ball in his outstretched right hand. Beside them, sitting on the architraves, two putti play lutes. Beneath, three winged putti play cylindrical recorders of soprano, alto and tenor size; two stand each side of the third who sits on a plinth below the throne. This composition is identical to the Enthroned Virgin and Child in Legnano (see above). The central putto holds his recorder sideways in the manner of a transverse flute (but it does not cross his lips in any way) and is identical to the fragment in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (see above).

Roberto Lupetti

Italian Classical Realist painter; amongst his works are many still-lifes, nudes, portraits and studies of classical architecture; he assisted in the restoration of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and the immense fresco The Battle of Ponte Miluio by Giulio Roman, a disciple of Rapheal; after the end of Second World War, he moved to San Francisco and taught art; later he settled in Carmel where he ran an art studio; born Milan (1918), died 1997; husband of fellow artist Lynn Lupetti, known for her whimsical paintings of children; father of USAmerican artist Silvana Lupetti

• Girl with a Recorder (1970–1989), oil on canvas, 60.9 × 91.4 cm, Roberto Lupeti (1818-1997). Encino (USA). Ref. Ebay Sale 170700977368 (2011). A young woman in a technicolor stripped sleeveless jumper, standing, holds an alto recorder of modern design. Currently for sale at USD $2,500.
• Portrait, drawing, charcoal & crayon, 68.6 × 53.3 cm, Roberto Lupeti (1818–1997). Ref. Website: Live Auctioneers (2011). A young woman (same person as in the above painting) sits on the floor playing an alto recorder of modern design. Sold.
• Still-life, oil on canvas, 60.9 × 91.4 cm, Roberto Lupeti (1818–1997). Ref. Website: ArtBrokerage.com (2011). On a blue cloth-covered surface are arranged two books, an ornate urn, two apples, a modern recorder and a violin. Currently for sale at USD $7,500.

Vasco Pereira Lusitano

Portuguese artist working in Seville, Spain; born 1535, died 1609.

• Coronation of the Virgin (1604), oil on canvas 258 × 195 cm, Vasco Pereira Lusitano (1535–1609). Ponta Delgada, Azores: Museu Carlos Machado, Inv. 745/88. Ref. Mons (2002); de Oliveira Alves (2014: c0l.) With the Christ-child on her lap, the Virgin is crowned, surrounded by musical angels singing and playing their instruments, including straight trumpet, trombones, guitar, viol, dulcian, cornetto, harp, organ, violin, shawm and (in the bottom left corner) a small cylindrical recorder. The beak and window/labium of the latter are clearly visible.

Benedetto Luti

Italian painter, draughtsman, collector, dealer and teacher; his work include religious and classical subjects; born Florence (1666), died Rome (1724).

• Boy with a Flute (ca 1720), oil on canvas, 42 × 33 cm, Benedetto Luti (1666–1724). Moscow: Hermitage. Ref. Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0019445 (2009, b&w); Website: gallica (2012, b&w) . A young boy with curly hair holds a baroque soprano recorder loosely in his hands. The turned beak, window/labium and three finger holes are clearly visible, but the foot of the instrument is out of frame.
• Young Flute-player, oil on canvas, 49.5 × 37.7 cm, Anonymous, after Benedetto Luti (1666–1724). New York: Christies, 4 June 2009, Lot 95. Ref. Katalog Neumeister, München Auktion (2 July 1986: pl 461); Archiv Moeck; Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 199252 (2014, col.) A copy of Luti’s Young Flute Player (Moscow: Hermitage). A young boy with curly hair holds a baroque soprano recorder loosely in his hands. The turned beak, window/labium and three finger holes are clearly visible, but the foot of the instrument is out of frame. It seems odd that this painting by an Italian artist is indexed by RKD.
• Young Flute-player, oil on canvas, attributed to Benedetto Luti (1666–1724). Location unknown: Offered for sale by Sotheby’s, 7 June 2000 (unsold) & 28 November 2000 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002, col.) A copy of Luti’s Young Flute Player (Moscow: Hermitage). A young boy with curly hair holds a baroque soprano recorder loosely in his hands. The turned beak, window/labium and three finger holes are clearly visible, but the foot of the instrument is out of frame.
• Boy and Flute in the Cabinet at Houghton (1780), engraving by J. Boydell, after Benedetto Luti (1666–1724). Ref. Recorder & Music 3 (7): inside front cover (1970); W. Bergmann, First Trios, Faber, London (1970, cover); H. Hunter & W. Bergmann, Initial Duets, Book 2, Faber, London (1970, cover); Archiv Moeck. Engraving of Luti’s Young Flute Player (Moscow: Hermitage). A young boy with curly hair holds a baroque soprano recorder loosely in his hands. The turned beak, window/labium and three finger holes are clearly visible, but the foot of the instrument is out of frame.
• Boy and Lute (1780), engraving by Victor Marie Picot after Benedetto Luti (1666–1724). The Hague: Gementesmuseum, Music Department. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Engraving of Luti’s Young Flute Player (Moscow: Hermitage). The title seems to have confused the instrument with the artists name! A young boy with curly hair holds a baroque soprano recorder loosely in his hands. The turned beak, window/labium and three finger holes are clearly visible, but the foot of the instrument is out of frame.

Ignatius Lux (1649/1650 – p.1694), Dutch

Dutch engraver; born Amsterdam (1649–1650), died after 1694.

• Trade Card of Coenraad Rÿkel (ca 1699), 12.2 × 17.2 cm, Ignatius Lux (1649/50–p. 1694). Den Haag: Gementesmuseum, Music Department; New York: Sotheby’s, Early Musical Instruments, Lot 131, (8 November 1995); Washington: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Collection 0755/Z, 756/Z &; 757/Z. Ref. Waterhouse (1988: 509, fig. 5, b&w); Langwill (1980); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Artfact (2003); Lancaster (1007: 20). Shows seven baroque recorders with oboes, flutes, bassoon, double flageolet and cornetto. The advertisement (in Dutch and French) reads:
  

  Mr Coenraad Rÿkel, first-rate recorder-maker, nephew of R[ichard] Haka with whom he has worked for the past 25 years and has been in partnership with for 8 years, making and selling all sorts of wind instruments, living in the same house as his uncle, which can be found in the Spuy between the old Lutheran Church and Calverstraat, at the sign of the golden bass recorder in Amsterdam.

  “The plate shows a bass[et] recorder, baroque style with butterfly key and bocal, the head and body carrying the maker’s mark RYKEL, and four alto recorders, baroque style, two in the centre of the plate and two in swags on either side, three of which show six fingers holes in line. At the bottom centre are two soprano duct flutes (crossed and tied with ribbon) in baroque style but showing only four finger holes in the lower part of the body. The two swags include nine additional instruments, mostly partly hidden, but in recorder design style. On none of these is more than five finger holes visible.” Langwill (loc. cit.) refers this card to ‘about 1710’ (which shows that Lux was still active then). Rijkel was born in 1667 and became a pupil of his uncle Richard Haka in 1679. Adding the more than 25 years working with Haka would give a date ca 1705 rather than 1710. There are two particular points of interest:

  “The trade plate shows that Hotteterre-style ‘late baroque’ recorders were made in Rykel’s workshop; possibly also in Haka’s before him, suggesting that despite the frequent appearance in Dutch painting of the hand fluyt type of recorder the Hotteterre style instrument could have been well established ca 1700 in Amsterdam.

  “Pride of place – including in the workshop’s street sign – was given to the bass[et] recorder. While bass[et] recorders appear on various occasions in Lully’s music, what Dutch music for them was available ca 1705? Perhaps they were preferred for solo playing by some amateurs. There is some evidence that Dutch domestic music-making included vocal music, including religious music, which would have required bass parts when played on recorders

  “Richard Haka’s parents were married at St Martin in the Fields Church, London. His name, ‘Hakay’, changed to Haka when he emigrated. Rÿkel was also of English origin” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

  For details of surviving recorders (all altos) by Rykel see here.

Christian [Carstian, Carstiaen, Christiaan, Kerstraen] Luykx [Luyckx, Lucks, Lux], also known as Monogrammist KL

Flemish painter and draughtsman who worked in Antwerp and later in France; mainly known for still lifes with relatively few elements; He also painted animals, floral and garland scenes, and hunting pieces;  born Antwerp (1623), died 1657–1677. Until recently, a large body of Luykx’ work has been attributed to the French artist Simon Renard de Saint-André (c.1613–1677).

• Vanitas, oil on canvas, 100.3 ×  71.1 cm, Christian Luykx (1623–1675-7). Location unknown. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, Image 0000049701 (2010, b&w). On a draped table are a terrestrial globe, watch (or compass), shells, books, an open music-book, an ornamental goblet, a violin, and the head of a duct flute, probably a recorder. The latter is just behind the watch, the body and foot hidden behind the music book.
• Vanitas (1640–1653), oil on canvas, 37.0 × 46.5 cm, Christian Luykx (1623–1675-7). London: Sotheby’s, 11 December 2003, Lot 211. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 21502 (2010, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A still-life with skull, music book and musical instruments, including an alto recorder with a long windway, decorative turning, and a short but wide bell and bore flare. The recorder appears to be the same as that depicted in another Luykx Vanitas, the whereabouts of which is unknown (see below).
• Vanitas (1640–1653), oil on canvas, 37.0 × 46.5 cm, Christian Luyckx (1623–1675-7). Milan: Finarte, 6 May 1971, Lot 41. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 21503 (2001, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A still-life with skull, music book and musical instruments, including an alto recorder with a long windway, decorative turning, and a short but wide bell and bore flare. The recorder appears to be the same as that depicted in another Luyckx Vanitas (see above).
• Vanitas (1640–1658), Christian Luykx (1623–1675-7). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2001, b&w). Beneath a tasseled drape, objects scattered on a draped table include a shell, playing cards, coins, dice, a crown, a violin, a globe, an hourglass, a book open at a page with the inscription VANITAS VANITATIS ET OMINE VANITAS, a blue and white scarf, an inkwell and quill, a casket, a skull, a violin and bow, and a recorder. Only the head of the latter is partially visible, showing its window/labium and the first two finger holes. Identical to the item below, but here there is a casket in place of the skull.
• Vanitas (1660–1669), oil on canvas, 71.4 × 94.3 cm, Christian Luykx (1623–1675-7). Paris: Private Collection; formerly New York: Sotheby’s,Old Master Paintings, 23 May 2001, Lot 11. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 125703 (2014, col.) Beneath a tasseled drape, objects scattered on a draped table include a shell, playing cards, coins, dice, a crown, a violin, a globe, an hourglass, a book open at a page with the inscription VANITAS VANITATIS ET OMINE VANITAS, a blue and white scarf, an inkwell and quill, a casket, a skull, a violin and bow, and a recorder. Only the head of the latter is partially visible, showing its window/labium and the first two finger holes. Identical to the item above, but here there is a skull in place of the casket.
• Vanitas, oil on canvas, 73.5 × 92.5 cm, Christian Luykx (1623–1675-7).  Houston: Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Ref. Zurich: Koller, Old Master Paintings, 23 March 2018, Lot 3028 (2023, col.); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2018, col.); Ham, near Richmond: Johnny Haeften, CS0375 (2023, col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2753 (2023, col.)  “By means of a veritable arsenal of objects, together with Latin texts, Luyckx here presents a carefully coordinated symbolic programme designed to challenge and engage the viewer.  Whilst most of the objects represented in this elaborate allegory are fairly common components of vanitas still-lifes, the inclusion of certain items and the way in which they are arranged add another layer of meaning to the familiar vanitas message that reminds us of the inevitability of death and the impermanence of all worldly things.  Taken together they may be interpreted as a political allegory relating directly to concerns and events of Luyckx’s day” (Haeften, catalogue).  The most likely such event would have been the French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands in 1667-1668.  Amongst the pile of vanitas objects presided over by a standing skeleton, a perfectly depicted hand fluyt lies in front of a crown and a skull. A violin, a lute and a trumpet lean against the pedestal beneath.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Artists–L. Last accessed 3 December 2024. https://recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/artists-l/