Shop art print and framed art The Musicians by Caravaggio

The Musicians or The Concert (in Italian Concerto di giovani) is a painting by Caravaggio, painted around 1595 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The picture was painted around 1595 for Cardinal del Monte, Caravaggio's patron (cited as such by biographers such as Baglione and Bellori): Bellori writes that "Michele painted for this lord young musicians captured from life in half-figures (...)". Mentioned in the inventory of 1627, it was sold by the cardinal's nephews along with other paintings during the inheritance to pay off their debts. It did not reappear until 1894 at a Christie's sale in London, before being found again in 1947 by an English enthusiast and identified by David Carritt"; an attribution subsequently denied by Roberto Longhi and Ferdinando Bologna, but reconfirmed in 1952 by Denis Mahon and subsequently accepted by Longhi, Berne-Joffroy, and finally by all the painter's specialists". It is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, following its acquisition via the Rogers Fund in 1952. The composition and date confirm that this was one of Caravaggio's first attempts to paint a group of several figures. Two of them in the centre face the viewer: a lute-player is tuning his instrument, and behind him stands a chanter-player who could have the features of Caravaggio himself: this would therefore be one of his first self-portraits. Another figure is on the right, with his back to the edge of the painting. The last figure [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

« The Musicians » is kept at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

 

Find the full description of The Musicians by Caravaggio on Wikipedia.