Artists–Z

Paolo Zacchia (il Vecchio) [Zacchia di Antonio da Vezzano]

Italian Renaissance painter active in Lucca; his works show influences of Domenico Ghirlandaio and Fra Bartolomeo; born Lucca, active 1519-c.1461; father of painter and engraver Lorenzo di Ferro Zacchia (Zacchia il Giovane).

  • St Joseph and a Shepherd (1519), Paolo Zacchia (op. 1519 – ca 1561). Milan: Pinacoteca di Brera. Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2004). Fragment from a larger Nativity stolen and dismembered from the Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, Pietrasanta. The complete work is known only from a photograph taken prior to the theft. Standing behind St Joseph, a young shepherd leans against a wall, holding a large (?tenor) recorder in one hand. Only the head of the instrument can be seen, but the beak, window/labium and maker’s mark are clearly depicted. The latter, a trefoil, is similar to the third of those illustrated in the fingering charts given by Silvestro Ganassi in the Fontegara (Venice, 1535), and those observed in an intarsia panel made by Damiano Zambelli (Bologna, 1528-1549). These marks may belong to members of the Rauch family from Schrattenbach. A tenor recorder in the Moeck collection (Celle) bears a mark with a single trefoil, as do a basset in Paris, and another in Vienna. The remaining instruments bear double trefoil marks.

Francesco Zaganelli (di Bosio) [Francesco da Cotignola] (op. 1470/1480 – 1531/1532), Italian

Italian artist influenced by Ercole di Roberti, Costa and Francia, and later by Palmezzano, Rosso and Garofalo; but his work, notwithstanding its provincial limitations, is characterized by a fertile imagination; born Cotignola, near Ravenna (1470/1480), died Ravenna (1532); collaborated with his younger brother, Barnardino (op. 1499 – 1509, with whom he shared a workshop.

  • Sacra Conversazione [Maddona with the Child Enthroned], Francesco Zaganelli (op. 1470/1480 – 1531/1532). Sarasota: John and Mable Ringling Museum, Ref. Suida (1949: 51, fig. 49-b&w); Rasmusen (1999, Lute); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Mary is seated on the top of a two-tiered plinth. The precocious Child is wandering off in search of a cross which is embraced by a blissful-looking woman standing to the left who points up to the Child. On the right is a donor, dressed in armour, wearing a crown and bearing a flag. At the foot of the plinth sit three putti one playing a lute, the other playing slender pipes, possibly intended as recorders though no details are shown. Curiously, this work is not listed in the later catalogue of the Ringling Museum by Tomory (1976).

Fra Damiano Zambelli [Damiano da Bergamo]

Italian Dominican brother and artist who worked in Bologna as a renowned wood-carver and intarsiatore; born Bergamo (1480), died Bologna (1549).

  • Bench and Lectern (1528–1549), wood with intarsia paneled doors, Fra Damiano Zambelli (1480-1549). Bologna: Basilica di San Domenico, doors of a bench supporting a lectern in between the front choir stalls. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1850 (2023, col.) There is a large panel at each end and two sets of double doors on each side of the bench, each door comprising two smaller panels. The three-sided lectern also has intarsia panels. One of the bench door panels depicts a lute, a book of music, and two cylindrical recorders each with window/labium, makers mark (a trefoil under the window and on the foot), a slightly flared bell, and seven finger holes (the lowermost offset) clearly shown. Interestingly, the trefoil maker’s marks are very similar (though inverted) to the third of those illustrated by Ganassi (1535). Young (1993) notes various renaissance woodwind instruments (including a tenor recorder in the Moeck collection) with clover-leaf/trefoil makers’ marks which he believes may indicate members of the Rauch family other than Hans Rauch von Schrattenbach. Silvestro Ganassi belonged to a large family of musicians and instrument makers, probably originally from Bologna. A second door panel depicts a trophy comprising a viola da braccio and bow, and a cylindrical duct flute (probably a recorder) with a wide bore; the window/labium is partly visible. A third door panel depicts a trophy above a clavichord. The trophy comprises a timbrel (without skin) and two cylindrical duct flutes (probably recorders) each with a flared bell with a wide bore. On one of the recorders the window/labium is hinted at, and only 4 finger holes are visible, the remainder probably hidden by the timbrel. The other recorder is shown in side profile only. The beaks of each instrument are clearly shown.
  • The Baptism of San Domenico (1528-1549), intarsia panel, Fra Damiano Zambelli (1480-1549). Bologna: Basilica di San Domenico. Ref. Alce (1969: 181); Rasmussen (1999, Lute). “Includes figures singing and with a lute and a recorder. There is another recorder on a table” (Rasmussen (loc. cit.) Not seen. St Domenic of Osma (1170-1221) was founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominican Order), and he is the patron saint of astronomers.

Antonio Zanchi

Italian baroque tenebrist painter of active mainly in Venice; his works comprise religious and mythological subjects; born Este (1631), died Venice (1722).

  • Mercury Lulls Argus to Sleep by Making Music, painting, attributed to Antonio Zanchi (1631-1722). Location unknown. Ref. Universitatario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte Firenze, Special Photo Study Collections, Image 0023082 (2016 -b&w). Mercury in his winged helmet plays on a slender flared-bell pipe as Argus leans drowsily on a rock. The instrument appears to have holes for all fingers of the right hand, and although no details of the window/labium are visible Mercury’s cheeks are not inflated, so this could represent a recorder.

Domenico Zampieri = Domenichino

Conte Antonio Maria I Zanetti

Italian printmaker who produced woodcuts and etchings; born 1680, died 1757.

  • [Untitled] (1724), woodcut, Conte Antonio Maria I Zanetti (1680-1757). ? Location. An old man offers a youth an oak crown. The youth holds two wind instruments in his left hand on the ground. One, a likely recorder, is cylindrical and fat, the window/labium and windway are visible, and three lower holes in line are visible beneath the hand that grasps it. The other instrument is very slender. A goat watches the scene. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Jacopo Zanguidi [il Bertoja]

Italian frescoist and painter of the Bolognese school; known for his depictions of religious and mythological subjects; born Parma (1544), died Parma (1574).

  • Landscape with Scenes from the Legend of Apollo and Marsyas, oil on panel, Jacop Zanguidi (1544-1574). Location unknown: auctioned by Sotheby’s, 6 July 2000 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.) A composite scene. In the foreground a red-cloaked Apollo sitting on a bank plays his viola da braccio to a goat-footed Marsyas who relaxes on a tree-stump, his syrinx held loosely in his right hand. Beside them a human figure (without hooves) sits with his back to us plays a long cylindrical pipe (possibly a duct flute, but no details visible). In the middle-ground Apollo stands menacingly over Marsyas who is tied to a tree, awaiting his grisly fate. In the background, amidst the forest, stands a circular temple.

Angelo Zaniol

Contemporary Italian polymath: Professor of modern languages, instrument maker, musician, composer, and artist who lives in Castelfranco.

  • Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Sonia (ca 1980), drawing, Angelo Zaniol (contemporary). Ref. Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003); Recorder Magazine 29 (3): front cover (2009). The artist’s wife plays a soprano Hopf/Kobliczek renaissance recorder.

Bonanal Zaortiga [Master of the Burnham Collection]

Spanish (Catalan) artist from the Teruel region (southern Aragon); active ca 1425-1430.

  • Section of an altar-piece: Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angel Musicians (ca 1430), oil on panel, 174.2 × 124.4 cm, Bonanal Zaortiga (op. ca 1425-1430). Detail. Frankfurt am Main: Städtlisches Kunstinstitut: Städtische Galerie, Inv. 1168. Ref. Post (1930, 3: fig. 335); Ballester (1990: 194-195 & pl. 138); Rowland-Jones (1997c: 14-15); RIdM Munich (2009, Fsm 93); Website: Lute Iconography LI-946 (2023, col.) The Virgin and Child are entered by angel musicians playing lute, rebec, and two cylindrical soprano recorders (with paired lowermost finger holes clearly depicted). Less refined but similar in style to an anonymous Madonna and Angels from the Lázaro Collection, Madrid. The surface of this painting is raised to give the brocade of the drapes a 3-D effect.

Lorenzo Luppo Zara — see Francesco Torbido, ‘Il Moro’

Giovanni Battista [Giambattista, Gian Battista ] Zelotti [Farinati]

Italian painter, member of a group attracted by Mannerist art which was to influence Veronese; much of Zelotti’s work was executed for prestigious villas and palazzi in and near Vicenza; born Verona (1526), died Mantua (1578).

  • Concert, Giambattista Zelotti (1526-1578). Detail. Verona: Museo di Castelvecchio, Cat. 326. Ref. Berenson (1952, 1: pl. 142); Paris RIdIM (1999); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A female musician plays a cylindrical alto recorder; another plays a spinet from music held by a putto at her feet; a man plays a viol (viola bastarda); a woman with her back to us appears to be conducting! The recorder’s mouthpiece and widow/labium are clearly visible; the left hand is uppermost and three finger holes are open; the little finger of the lower hand seems poised, but the lower end of the instrument is obscured by the peg box of the lute. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)
  • Concert, ? engraving after Giambattista Zelotti (1526-1578). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A mirror image of the above. A female musician plays a cylindrical alto recorder; another plays a spinet from music held by a putto at her feet; a man plays a viol (viola bastarda); a woman with her back to us appears to be conducting! The recorder’s mouthpiece and widow/labium are clearly visible; the left hand is uppermost and three finger holes are open; the little finger of the lower hand seems poised, but the lower end of the instrument is obscured by the peg box of the lute.

Dirk-Jan Zetstra

Contemporary Dutch painter living and working in Groningen; his paintings are often genre pieces portraying daily scenes with people going about their day-to-day activities; more recently he has started to make oriental works, often with a biblical background; also a portraitist; born Groningen (1984).

  • Flute Player, 55 × 65 cm, oil on canvas, Dirk-Jan Zetstra (1984-). Groningen: ArtWay. A young woman, seated, faces us playing an alto neo-baroque recorder, perfectly depicted. The instrument seems to have German fingering. Of his paintings of musicians, the artist writes “If one thing is transitory, it is musical sounds. When a musical instrument is being played, whether a guitar, a flute or another instrument, it comes to life. But when the music stops, it is as if it was never there. The vanitas and fleeting character of life is central here.”
  • Musical Company, 100 × 100 cm, oil on panel. A rather sour-looking young woman (the same as in the work above), seated, is seen in side profile playing an alto neo-baroque recorder, perfectly depicted.  She seems to be playing a low a’. Beside her, a young man, also seated, plays a guitar. Here, too, the artist notes that music is transitory and that playing together, being together, will end.

Januarius Zick

German architect, intarsia designer and painter of mainly biblical and classical subjects; considered to be one of the main masters of the late Baroque; born Munich (1730), died Ehrenbreitstein (1797); son of the painter Johann Zick (1702-1762).

  • String Quartet with Singer and a Recorder Player  (ca 1779), pictorial marquetry on a writing table, principally of sycamore, rosewood, applewood with some traces of coloring, and boxwood, , Januarius Zick (1730-1797). Washington: National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection 1942.9.416. Ref. Ford (1986: #182). Decoration on a writing table with mechanical fittings (table mécanique or schreibtisch), by the German furniture maker David Roentgen (1734-1807). Depicts four men, playing two violins, viola, and cello, and a woman singing, all from music. A fifth man standing to the side is dismantling a recorder. A shawm or oboe lies on a table.

Johann Zick

German painter working in Bavaria, Konstanz, Munich and Würzburg; his development as a painter of frescoes was stimulated by the Asam brothers, active in Munich; born Lachen (1702), died Würzburg (1761); father of the architect, intarsia designer and painter Januarius Zick (1730-1797).

  • Diana in Repose (1750), fresco, Johann Zick (1702-1761). Detail. Würzburg: Residenz, Garten Saal –Saala Terrena, ceiling. Ref. Website, flickr: Pre-1800 musical instruments (2013-col.) Amongst the mountains, a shepherd plays a perfectly depicted baroque recorder. Beside him, a shepherdess strokes a sheep. Behind her, another shepherd (wearing what looks like a boater) plays a straight trumpet! Part of a much larger scene painted on the ceiling of the in the ornate Garden Hall. The surrounding stucco work was completed in 1749 by Antonio Bossi (1699-1764). The ceiling painting depicts the Banquet of the Gods and Diana in Repose. The former residence of the prince bishops of Würzburg, built between 1720 and 1744 and completed in 1780, is one of the most important palaces in Europe. Although it was heavily damaged during World War II, the central building with the Vestibule, Garden Hall, Staircase, White Hall and Imperial Hall survived the inferno. Restoration was undertaken in the period 1944-1987.

Johann Baptist Zimmerman

Geman painter and stuccoist; born Gaispoint (1680), died Munich (1758).

  • [Musical Shepherd and Shepherdess], wall painting, (1757), Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Nymphenburg Palace, Music Hall, above left doorway in entrance hall. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). A shepherd plays a cello to a shepherdess holding her crook in one hand and a soprano turned baroque recorder in the other. Six finger holes are visible and there is a hole for the little finger on the foot piece. The entrance hall was used for music by Maximillian III who played the viol.
  • Stucco trophy (1757), Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Nymphenburg Palace, Music Hall, stucco-work on garden end loggia. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). A trophy in which a turned baroque recorder is crossed with a winged helmet and caduceus (symbolic of Mercury), and assorted leaves, flowers and grapes.
  • Stucco trophy (1757), Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Nymphenburg Palace, Music Hall, stucco-work on balcony wall. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). A trophy in which a turned baroque recorder is crossed with a viol.
  • Gilded stucco frieze (1757), Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Nymphenburg Palace, anteroom to Music Hall, stucco-work on right of entrance. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). Includes a trophy in which a turned baroque recorder is crossed with a conch and a syrinx, and another in which a recorder is crossed with an oboe.
  • Silvered stucco frieze (1757), Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Nymphenburg Palace, Amalienburg Hunting Lodge, Hall of Mirrors. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). Includes a trophy in which two turned baroque recorders are crossed with a violin, a harp, some music and assorted foliage.
  • The Kingdom of the Nymph Flora (1756/1757), painted sketch, Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Augsburg: Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Inv. No. 6143. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). “A design for a fresco in the Steinemen Room in the Nymphenburg Palace, Munich. At the bottom right a woman leans over a low wall with a large sheet of music held down by her left hand. Her right hand holds a duct flute of soprano/alto size with beak and window/labium clearly if sketchily drawn. The bell flares slightly and has ?ivory rings” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
  • Trophy of Musical Instruments, stucco-work, Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Alte Pinakothek, Schloss Schleißheim: Gemäldegallerie, East Wing, Garden Rooms. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The decoration of the easternmost of three adjacent rooms includes two trophies of musical instruments. In one, a lute, flute, oboe and baroque recorder are crossed. The recorder is viewed in side profile, most of its body hidden behind the lute.
  • Trophy of Musical Instruments, stucco-work, Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Alte Pinakothek, Schloss Schleißheim: Gemäldegallerie, East Wing, Garden Rooms. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The decoration of the easternmost of three adjacent rooms includes two trophies of musical instruments. In one, a violin is crossed with its bow and two baroque recorders. Both of the recorders show four finger holes, the remainder hidden behind the violin.
  • [Pastoral Scene], stucco roundel, Johann Baptist Zimmerman & Son (1680-1758). Munich: Alte Pinakothek, Schloss Schleißheim: Gemäldegallerie, East Wing, Garden Rooms. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The decoration of the westernmost of three adjacent rooms includes a stucco roundel, by the door, depicting a pastoral scene in which a shepherd boy plays a soprano recorder, left hand lowermost, all fingers down. The beak of the recorder is clearly, but there a re no other details except a strong flare at the bell.

John Zoffany (also Johann Zoffani, original name probably Johann Joseph Zauffely, also spelled Zauphaly)

German-born portrait painter of a Czech family; active in England where, encouraged by the actor David Garrick, he made his reputation with paintings depicting episodes from contemporary theatre and with portraits and conversation pieces; born Frankfurt am Main (1733), died Strand-on-the-Green, Middlesex (1810).

  • Portrait of David Garrick, oil on canvas, feigned oval, 75.2 × 62.7 cm, Johnn Zoffany (1733-1810). Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, A1219. Ref. Website: Ashmolean Museum (2007 – col.); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A half-length portrait of the celebrated actor David Garrick (1717-1779) in side profile. In the foreground are flowers, masks of Comedy and Tragedy, a syrinx and a recorder, only the head of which is visible. A copy of this portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London, is dated 1763.
  • Portrait of David Garrick (1763), oil on canvas, feigned oval, 75.2 cm × 63.2 cm, studio of Zoffany (1733-1810). London: National Portrait Gallery 1167. Ref. Walter Bergamn Slide WB 43 (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, 2005); Hersom (1984); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2004). A half-length portrait of the celebrated actor David Garrick (1717-1779) in side profile. In the foreground are flowers, masks of Comedy and Tragedy, a syrinx and a recorder, only the head of which is visible. The original painting is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Gaetano Gherardo Zompini

Italian painter and engraver; his works include historical, religious and mythological subjects; born Nervesa, Treviso (1700), died Venice (1778). See under Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (ca 1610-1665).

Francesco Zuccarelli

Italian artist who specialised in pastoral landscapes with a decorative and bucolic quality; he also contributed figures and landscape vignettes to architectural scenes by Antonio Visentini (1688-1782); from 1752 to 1762, and again from 1764 to 1771, he worked in England where he became a founder member of the Royal Academy of Arts and received commissions from King George III; on his return to Italy later he was appointed President of the Venetian Academy; born Pitigliano (1702), died Florence (1788).

  • Adoration of the Shepherds, oil on canvas, 82 × 104 cm, Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788). Oxford: Christ Church, Picture Gallery, JBS 126. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). This painting is unusual for Zuccarelli: a night piece treated as compelling narrative, rather than merely a means of populating a landscape. In the right background, the angel announces the news of the birth of Christ to startled shepherds, while in the foreground they adore the Christ Child and bring gifts to honour him, including a bound sacrificial lamb. One of the shepherds coming forward from the fields with his wife holds high in the air a flared-bell pipe with a bulbous mouthpiece which must surely be a recorder.

Federico Zuccaro [Zuccari]

Italian mannerist painter, frescoist, architect, art critic and historian; his works include religious themes, portraits, born Sant’Angelo in Vado (c.1540), died Ancona (1609); brother of the painter Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1566).

  • Youth with a Flute, sketch in black chalk on paper, 13.7 × 12.1 cm, Federico Zuccaro (c.1540-1609). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-T-1937-76. A young lad in a hat and open-necked shirt holds a conical pipe which has the hint of a beak and window/labium and probably represents a recorder.

Taddeo Zuccaro [Zucchero, Zuccari or Zuccheri] (1529-1566), Italian

Italian mannerist painter and frescoist; his style, based on that of Michaelangelo and Raphael, tended to be rather dry and wooden, but utilised illusionism of various types in a sophisticated, thematically apt and visually clear way; born Sant’Angelo in Vado (1529), died Rome (1566); brother of the painter Federico Zuccaro (c.1540-1609).

  •  Musarum Officia (1597), engraving on paper, 41.0 ×  31.4 cm,  by Hendrik I Hondius (1573 – p. 1649) after Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1566). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-1881-A-4765 (2015); The Hauge: Gemeentesmuseum, Music Department. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Depicts a concert by the Muses on Mt Parnassus. Nine Muses, seven with instruments, namely viol, harp, lira da braccio, shawm, transverse flute, lute and double pipes. The latter comprises two quite separate pipes looking like cylindrical recorders each with a clearly depicted beak, window/labium and and abruptly flared bell end. The bell in each case looks like a separate piece.
  • Il Parnasso, canvas, Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1566). Location unknown: auctioned 17 May 1993 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001). Apollo plays his lyre, and the Muses disport themselves. Amongst them one on the far right (? Euterpe) plays a small flared-bell duct flute (probably a recorder).

Antonio Zucchi

Italian painter who decorated panels for Robert Adam’s interiors; born Venice (1726), died 1795; husband of Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807).

  • Epithalamium (1769), frieze-panel, oil on paper, 26.2 × 64.1 cm , Antonio Zucchi (1726-1795). Hampstead: Kenwood House, Library, to right of the entrance doorway. Ref. Rowland-Jones (2000d, 11-12; 2002d: 92, fig. 1 – b&w). A man and a woman are seated on a rock; both wear leafy crowns. Beside them is a winged cupid and a woman carrying a platter of food. Before them stands a woman holding what looks for all the world like a mop with a ribbon tied around the handle. Behind her comes a procession led by another winged cupid who is carrying a cross. He is followed by a young woman playing what at first looks like a double pipe. In fact, it is two single pipes, possibly recorders though the detail is inadequate for certain identification. Her right-hand recorder is slightly longer than the left pipe, reminding us of the two instruments in Titian’s The Three Ages of Man and in Cossa’s Triumph of Venus. Following on are a woman bearing another platter, a man playing a tambourine, a woman playing cymbals and two women carrying a large platter of food between them.

Francesco Zugno

Italian painter of the Rococo period; among his masterworks is a series of wall frescoes of figures in quadratura balconies—part genre, part courtly conceit; as a founding academic at the Accademia of Venice, he had collaborated with Tiepolo in the frescoes for Palazzo Labia; later, he completed a fresco cycle for the Villa Soderini-Berti, in Nervesa near Treviso; born Brescia (c. 1708), died (1787).

  • Quadratura balcony, fresco, Francesco Zugno (c. 1708–1787). Detail 1. Detail 2. Padua: Palazzo Emo Capodilista, salon. Ref. Capri, in Fabbri (1964, 3); Robbins Landon & Norwich (1991: title page); Angelo Zaniol ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Website: Courtauld Institute of Art (2013-b&w); Website: Corbis Images (2013: CW001020-col. & CW001021-col.) A man on a balcony seen in side profile next to a theorbist plays a flared recorder with an elongated beak. A woman looks towards us over the lutenist’s shoulder. Opposite them a couple dance. In the background is a grand palace with columns, balustrades and statues. The theorbo is peculiar in having a violin-style bridge, no frets and rather more strings than pegs.

Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl [Zyll; called Geraers or Gerards Geraers]

Dutch artist who lived and worked in London (1639-1641); he painted genre scenes and portraits in which he collaborated with van Dyck; born Harlam (c.1607), died Amsterdam (1665).

  • Concert, oil on canvas, Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl (ca 1607-1665). Location unknown: auctioned by Tajan, 23 June 1997 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001 – b&w). A woman with her back to us seems to be conducting with her right hand as a little dog jumps up at her. Opposite, across a table, a lutenist accompanies a young woman playing a small, slender pipe, possibly a recorder.
  • Flute Lesson, 30.8 × 24.2 cm, mezzotint by Gerard Valck (1651/2-1726), after a mezzotint by Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), based on a painting by Geerad Pietersz. van Zyl (ca 1607-1665). London: British Museum, Inv. 1938,1112.36; Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0256/N. Ref. Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007). A bearded man with a sorrowful look on his face holds open a book of music for a young woman (his wife, perhaps) who is seated at a table opposite him and holds a one-piece soprano recorder with a slightly flared bell in her hands. A younger man (presumably the tutor) stands beside them his hand on the older man’s shoulder as if to placate him. From the look of consternation on the woman’s face it looks as if she is finding the going difficult.
  • Concert, 19.7 × 24.0 cm, engraving by G. Texier (ca. 1750 – c.1824) after a painting by Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl (ca 1607-1665). Washington DC: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0016/N. Illustration from a book by Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun in which this image appeared in 1792. However, this scene seems to depict a music lesson in which three women and a man are seated or stand around a table and look toward a young boy who reads (and probably sings) from a music score. The woman in the centre-foreground, dressed in light-coloured satin, seems to lead the lesson. She sits in profile, facing right, and she holds a small duct flute (recorder or flageolet) in her right hand while she turns a page of music with her left. A man in dark clothing and wearing a feathered cap is seated behind her at the far left. He holds a guitar in his right hand and rests it on his knee. Another woman is seated at the table in the centre background. She wears a dark dress and a veil covers her hair. Her left hand adjusts the veil at her shoulder. A woman stands at the right background behind the boy. Her left hand rests on the back of a chair and her right hand is lowered at her side, gesturing to the music on the table. The boy stands at the far right, his back to the viewer, and he seems to read (and sing) the music with deep concentration. The adults all look on expectantly and with great interest in his ability. A dog stands at the lower right and even seems interested in the lesson as he gazes upward toward the group.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Artists–Z. Last accessed 21 November 2024. https://recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/artists-z/