Recorder Home Page

Recorder Iconography

Compiled by Nicholas S. Lander

L

Pancraz Labenwolf (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 (before 1533 – 1585), also a brass-founder.

Putto playing Lute, studio of Pancraz Labenwolf (1492-1563). Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Weber 71,6. Ref. Weber (1975); Munich RIdIM (1999: Mbnm-Weber 71,6). The putto represents the Muse Polyhmnia. On the ground below there is a second lute and a recorder of alto/tenor size.

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 puttini seemingly supporting balconies with intricate wrought iron balustrading; born ca 1731, died 1790.

Balcony decoration (1770), stone carving, Paolo Labisi (ca 1731-1790). 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).

Pieter-Jacobsz. van Laer(Il Bamboccio)

Netherlandish painter; born Haarlem (before 1583), died Haarlem (after 1642).

Father Guarding his Beasts (ca 1635), wood, oval 32 × 43 cm, Pieter-Jacobsz. van Laer (fl. 1583 & 1613-1642). 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 (1663-1721)

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 uneven,
Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven.
On painted ceiling you devoutly stare,
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio or Laguerre,
On gilded clouds in fair expansion lie,
And bring all paradise before the eye,' etc.

Life of Julius Ceasar (1692-1694), Louis Laguerre (1663-1721). Chatsworth: 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 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.

Recorder City, 4.79 × 5.99 cm, acrylics and rollerball pen, Carine M.Y. Lai (contemporary). Ref. American Recorder 40, 2: front cover-col. (2001); Elfwood (2002). Recorders as skyscrapers with the inhbitants 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, fl. ca 1440-1460.

Spielmann in Geleit (1457), Conrad Laib. Graz: Domkirche St Aegydius. Ref. Die Blockflöte in der europäischen Malerai (pl. 45); Archiv Moeck. A man on a horse plays a pipe and tabor.

Gérard de Lairesse (1641-1711), Dutch

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: South (left) Shutter (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). Includes a number of musical garlands, amongst them a flared-bell recorder by Haka tied together with an oboe and a cornett; 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 cornett and a hurdy gurdy.
Organ shutters: North (right) Shutter (1686), oil painting on wood, Gérard de Lairesse (1640-1711). Amsterdam: Westerkerk. Ref. Bouterse (1995: 89); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1). Includes 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: Louvre, Drawing Collection, 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, Drawing Collection, 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 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 thsoe 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).
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, Drawing Collection, Inv. 22718. Ref. Website: Joconde Database (2007 - col.) Depicts six young women in aboat. 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.

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 putti with bassoon, trumpet, oboe and viol; a violin and a recorder lie discarded on the ground.

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 Paris (1686), died Paris (1761).

The Shepherd's Song, oil on canvas, lined and mounted on wood, 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 abrubtly flared.

Richard de Lalonde

French furniture designer; flourished ca 1780–1797

Untitled print, 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 Paris (1690), died Paris (1743).

Mademoiselle de Camargo Dancing (ca 1730), canvas, 762 × 106.7 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Washington: National Gallery of Art. Ref. Website: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Depicts Marie-Cuppi de Camargo (1710-1770), 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.
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 NNT 39024 - 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). Ref. Website: Artsalive.ca / Artsvivants.ca (2007 - col.) 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 N. de Larmessin, 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.
Mademoiselle Sallé, the dancer, engraving by Garnier after N. de Larmessin, after Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Paris. Ref. Early Music 5 (index): front cover (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 plays a pipe, possibly a recorder. Interestingly, the bell of the instrument rests on the players lap. The beak seems somewhat narrow for a recorder and there is no sign of a window/labium.
Spring (1738), canvas, 69 × 89 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Paris: Louvre, Inv. 5597. Ref. Lallement (1997: 195). A fête galante with a bird catcher, and women against a landscape with a watercourse. Includes a duct-flute (probably a flageolet).
The Flute Lesson, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Paris: Louvre. Ref. Mirimonde, Scènes de genre musicales … (?date: 21, fig. 17); Archiv Moeck. A shepherd teaches a shepherdess to play the recorder watched by a second shepherd who leans on his stick suggestively. 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. Beside a stream fed by a fountain, a shepherd teaches a shepherdess to play the recorder watched by a second shepherd who leans on his stick and a second young woman lying on the ground and gazing at the musicians. In the shade of a tree is the statue of a faun who plays a horn.
The Flute Lesson, canvas, 84 × 87 cm, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Paris: Louvre, Inv. 20807. Ref. Lallement (1997: 196). In a forested park with a statue, a young girl plays a pipe (possibly a duct-flute) accompanied by a young man.
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 Playing a Recorder, pencil on paper, Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743). Private Collection: E. Croft-Murray, Esq. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2001: Image JF 143226); Fulbourne: 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 OR 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 was a university teacher at the pedagogical institute of Vienna; owned a private school for painting and graphic arts in Vienna from 1937 to 1938; from 1940 to 1945 he joined the army; born 1905 (Vienna).

Forest Music (1905), pencil and colour chalks on paper, 43 × 31.5 cm, Ottokar von Landwehr (1905-). Vienna: Private Collection; currently for sale by Kunsthandel Boris Wilnitsky, Lot 3JKPW. Ref. Website: Sotheby's New York (2002). A faun 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). 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, relaced 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? Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

(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 manneristic style is characterised by delicate effects achieved with soft, misty brushstrokes; born Vercelli (1509-1513), died after 1581.

Sacra Conversazione (1552), canvas, 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 (1967/1979: 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); North Carolina Museum of Art (2001). 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, 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 on 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.
Putti Musicanti, 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 cornett, 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). 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.

Nicolas de Largillière

French roccoco 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 Paris (1656), died Paris (1746).

Portrait of the Boutin de Vaussigny Family (ca 1713), painting, Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746). Besançon: Musée des Beaux Arts et d'Archéologie. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2008). A large portrait of ten members of a wealthy and influental Besançon family. The oldest stands in the centre playing, or holding, a superbly painted viol. Beside him (on his right) a slightly younger man plays a basset recorder. There are no other instruments in the picture, nor anyone singing. The recorder is direct blown via 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 interesing 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.

Anton Maria Lari & Mario Bigio (16th century)

Glory of Angels (16th century), Anton Maria Lari & Mario Bigio. 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 Paris (1632), died Paris (1694).

Album des métiers (ca 1680): Habit de Musicien [The Musician's Costume], copper plate engraving, 310 × 210 mm, Nicolas de Larmessin (ca 1632-1694). London: Bernard J Shapero Gallery, item 5136. 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, cornett, guithar, lute, triangle, harpsichord, bassoon, timpani, trumpets, tambourine (with jingle rings), rebec, and two baroque-style recorders, one attached to each shin. Currently offered for sale for £1000.

Johanna de Lasence (18th century), ?French

Taking Coffee in the Garden (1767), Johanna de Lasence. Nuremberg: Germanische Nationalmuseum. Ref. Musica Calendar (1988, June: 12-25 – col.); Rasmussen (1999a). Includes a violin, a cello, a recorder and two coiled horns piled on and around a red-upholstered chair. Not seen.

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).

Music, Michel Lasne (ca 1590-1667). Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie. A personification of Music sits playing her cittern before a table on which stand a metal plate, 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 surealistic figures and landscapes; born Vienna (1962).

Angel Flautist, cast sculpture based on clay model, painted and gilded, 15.5 × 12 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 lilly playing a clearly depicted recorder. In the animation, the creature's thumb opens and closes the thumbhole at the back of the instrument.

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 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.

Nicolaus Lauwers (1600-1652), Netherlandish

St Cecilia, engraving, Nicolaus Lauwers (1600-1652). Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, Bibliotek, UBG 1945/22. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). St Cecilia sits at a table. Seated with her, a trio of angels sing and play lute and shawm. On the table lie a candlestick, a violin and a duct-flute (probably a recorder) with a marked wave profile. The window/labium is visible, but the mouthpiece is not beaked and only six finger-holes are visible. Considerable thickening of the wood at the bell end indicates very little bore expansion. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Winifred Law (20th century), English

Music Time, Winifred Law (20th century). Devon (UK): 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".
Poesia Ludovico Lazzarelli (late 16th century). Rome: Vatican Library, 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".

Sebastiano Lazzari (fl. 1752-ca 1770), Italian (Venetian)

Trompe-l'oeil (1752), Sebastiano Lazzari (fl. 1752-ca1770). Private Collection. Ref. Jurod (1997: 55, fig. 3 – b&w); Angelo Zaniol ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). 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 (fl. 1752-ca1770). 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 rhinocerous and a pistol.

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

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

[Title unknown], 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.
Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

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 Paris (1619) died Paris (1690).

The Elements: Air (1666-1669), tapestry, 338 × 640 cm, Lefebvre atelier, 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, cornetts, 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 cheeks puffed up with air 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).
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 buldings (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 manufactury 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, cornetts, 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, cornetts, bagpipes, oboes and duct-flutes – the latter short with few finger-holes and thus probably flageolets rather than recorders.
Grand Staircase, Versailles (ca 1683), engravings by Étienne Baudet (ca 1636-1711) after frescos by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Melbourne: National Art Gallery of Victoria, Print Collection. Ref. Ref. Exhibition, Picture to Print: Reproductive Prints in the NGV Collection, 13 October 2006 to 25 March 2007. A series of six engravings meticulously depicting the architecture and frescos 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, which depicts Apollo, a personification of Music, Euterpe and Uranie, includes the figure of a young man playing a flared-bell duct-flute, probably a recorder. Lully in his Tradéies-lyriques twice uses recorders in scenes with Apollo and these same musicians.
The Marriage of Moses and Sephora (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.
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: Mus´e 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 musicans comprise six boy singers, a fautist 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 Moeck, Lebrun's drawing clearly depicts a cornett 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 (119-1690). 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 cornett, 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 (1619-1690), this painting is now seriously damaged.
Histoire du Roi: Baptisme de Louis de France, Dauphin, St-Germain-en-Laye: The Musicians' Platform (1716), tapestry, Manufacture des Gobelins, Atelier de Delatour, after Joseph Christophe (1661-1748), after Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Chateau de Versailles. Ref. Moeck (1983: December – col.); Moeck Catalogue (1984); Pottier (1992: 12, pl. I); Archiv Moeck. 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 seems to preclude the cornett.
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 pegbox and the top of the neck are shown" (Ford, loc. cit.)
Hearing, tapestry, designed by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). 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 decorations in the style of Dupuis, and a larger (basset) recorder with a characteristic windcap 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 finest garden, and 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, painter Charles Le Brun and gardener Andre Le Notre. In the Salon des Muses, Euterpe 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 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).

Anthonie [Anthony] Leemans

Dutch trompe l'oeil painter who had a reputation for violent behavior; born 1631, died a.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.
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), 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 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, Accession Number 66.391. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2000: image 140369). Before a derilict 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 (1642-1708)

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

Three Ages of Man (1680), engraving by Valentin Lefebre (1642-1708), after Titian. Uppsala: Universitet, Bibliotek, UUB G 1917/49; RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Lefebre has engraved an early version of Titian's Three Ages of Man (see below), painted between ca 1510 and 1516. Shows three slender, flared-bell recorders; the one held by Daphnis is more clearly shown than in the original. There is an almost identical painting by Salvi Giovanni Sassoferrato in the Borghese Gallery, Rome.

Stefano Maria Legnani [called 'Il Legnannino']

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

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

Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), English

Rustic Music, Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). Roy Miles Fine Paintings. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image ID BAL 13725). A country boy in a smock and hat holds a small cylindrical duct-flute, probably a tin whistle.

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).

Portrait of a Boy (Abraham Cowley), Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680). London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 563. Ref. Manifold (1948: cover – b&w); Early Music 10(2): 182 (1982, b&w); The American Recorder 25(4): front cover (b&w); Dulwich Picture Gallery, London: postcard (col.) Shows a slender, early-baroque style recorder, the flared bell of which is decorated with turned beads.
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 Valliere and her Children / Potraite 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.

Jean Lemaire [called Lemaire-Poussin]

French painter; born 1597, died 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. Blaffer Foundation Collection (2000). Mercury sits on the fallen cornice of a decaying temple playing on a slender pipe 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.

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

French designer and engraver active in Paris; born 1660, died 1774; brother of sculptor Antoine Lepautre (1621-1679

Interior of the library, Cabinet des Beaux Arts, Paris, engraving by Charles Perrault, after Pierre Lepautre (1660-1774). 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 (protracter, set-square, etc.), an artist's pallette 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.

Claudia Lerwick

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

Recorder Chopsticks (2004), Claudia Lerwick (contemporary).

American Recorder

Eustache Lesueur (1617-1655), French

Detail from Triumph of Bacchus: Menad Blowing a Wind Instrument, Eustache Lesueur (1617-1655). Le Mans: Téasé Museum , Inv. 1820. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A menad 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 cornett, 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 buidings aspiring toward the sky, or of Jerusalem as a heavenly city; born Transylvania, Hungary (1901), died Jerusalem (1968).

A Woman Playing a Recorder, gouche 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.

Jan Levensz. [Leivens]

Dutch painter and draughtsman who worked in England and Antwerp, returning to Holland in 1644; known for his life-size half-length figures which were often historicizing portraits in which their subjects were placed in a biblical scenes or classical landscapes; born Leiden (1607), died 1674

Boy with a Reed Pipe, Jan Levensz. 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.

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). 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 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 bave 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.

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 Leiden (1489), died Leiden (1533).

The Month of April (1688-1689), tapestry, designed by Lucas van Leyden (1489-1533). 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.
Musical Angels (1509-1533, drawing, Lucas van Leyden (1489-1533). Linz-Nordico: State Museum. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 12250 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Of the ten musical angels, two play what look like alto recorders; a third plays a tenor. Others play harp, clavichord, etc.

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 128527); Bouterse (2001: Appendix C.1); Rowland-Jones (2004: 41, fig. 2-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: 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, circular, 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 indistictly) in his hand; personification of hearing, allegory of the five senses, great light and dark contrast. Currently for sale.

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). Beneath a tree, a winged putto with a tambourine dances and a seated putto plays a small flared-bell pipe (no details visible). In the background two more putti are frolicking.

Bernardino Licinio da Pordenone

Italian renaissance painter; born Poscante (ca 1498), died Venezia (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 Civico Borgogno. Ref. Limberg (1992: 121, fig. 7 – b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A patrician young man and a woman play cornetts and two young women hold cylindrical duct-flutes (probably recorders). The women on the right holds an open score which is probably readable.

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 shpherdess. 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 whose work has often suffered by comparison with that of Rembrandt, with whom he was closely associated early in his career; 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, engraved by Franc v. Wÿngaerde, Düsseldorf, after Jan I Lievens (1607-1674). 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 heiffer) 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.

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). 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 pegbox) 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 canldestick 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), aquatint, 25.5 × 32.8 cm (plate), Norman Lindsay (1879-1969). San Francisco: de Young Museum 4043202410800013 A043313 (on loan from California State Library). On a mound a horned figure sits cross-legged playing a flared-bell pipe (possibly a recorder) whilst naked revelers cavort in the moonlight.

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, drawing, 44 × 27.7 cm, John Linnell (1792-1882). Location unknown. 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 ID YBA 165948 - 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 (1594/5-1667)

Hendrik Frans van Lint

Flemish artist; born Antwerp (1684), died Rome (1763).

Italian Landscape, Hendrik Frans van Lint (1684-1763). Location unknown. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 18903 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm. 2001). Includes a flute-playing shepherd whose instrument is too small to identify but which may be a recorder.

Pieter [Pierre, Peter] van Lint

Flemish painter and draughtsman, active also in Italy; he frequently copied the more famous paintings in Antwerp’s churches; born Antwerp (1609), died Antwerp (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.) 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). 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.) There is an identical painting in the Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldergalerie, Berlin.

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

Two Musicians, drawing on paper, 13.5 × 13.3 cm, Jan van Linteloo (op.1600- d.1631/2). 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 (1406/7-1469) and of Lucrezia Buti, the nun Fra Filippo abducted in 1456.

Coronation of the Virgin, Filippino Lippi (ca 1457-1504), Alonso de Berruguete, and others. Paris Louvre. Ref. Nielson (1938: fig. 89); Post (1930-1966, XIV: 6); Scharf (1950: fig. 142); Rasmussen (1999b); Rasmussen (1999c). "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, 1999b) This painting has been variously attributed to Alsonso de Berruguete, Piero di Cosimo and others.
Portrait of a Musician, attributed to Filippino Lippi (ca 1457-1504). Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland. Ref. Boydell (1985: 28-29, fig. 20). "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 lira da braccio with its bow, and two small wind instruments, probably recorders … The inscripiton 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). Rounded top of 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 concial with a short slight widening at the bell end. No other details are visible, but the angel player does not have puffed cheeks and the lower (right) hand is too close to the foot for the instrument to be a shawm or cornett.

Johann Liss

Shepherd Playing a Flute, oil on canvas, 65.5 × 49.5 cm, circle of Johann Liss. Location unknown: Sotheby's (New YOrk), Sale NO8282, Important Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art, Lot 380, 26 January 2007 (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.

Richard Livesay

English artist known from a number of portraits and occasional paintings; born 1753, died 1823.

The Grand Review of Troops at Hatfield by King George III on 13th June 1800, watercolour, Richard Livesay (1753-1823). Hatfield House (Hertfordshire). Ref. Cecil, D. (1975: 206-207 - col.) Against the background of Hatfield House (home to the home of the Marquess of Salisbury), cavalry and footsoldiers parade before the official party. On a rise in the foreground left a family observe the event, father reading from a programme of some kind. In the foreground right another family are shepherded out of harms way by an officer on horseback. Amongst the latter family a young lad holds a baroque recorder of alto size and his two brothers clamber up a sapling to get a better view.

Andrea Locatelli [Lucatelli]

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

A 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.

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; flourished ca 1467-1524/5.

Barcaiuoli Altarpiece (ca 1497-1498), Giovanni Agostino da Lodi (op. ca 1467-1524/5). Venice (Murano): San Pietro Marrire. Ref. Humfrey (1993: 267, pl. 249-col.) Two red-winged angel musicians stand precariously on columns. One plays a fiddle. The other, at the top right, plays 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. This work is not in the catalogue of San Pietro Marrire nor present in the church itself at present. It may be one of the pictures that has gone for restoration recently” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000, 2001).

Jan van Logteren

Dutch sculptor working mostly in Amsterdam and Haarlem; executed organ decorations, interior stucco work, and garden statues; born Amsterdam (1709), died Amsterdam (1745); son of scuptor 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). A half-length figure of a man plays a 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 organcase received a new coat of paint and gilding.

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).

[Venus and] Mars as a Shepherd (1645), Jacob Lois (op. 1643 - m. 1676). Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Ref. Schadee (1994: 73, pl. 27); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A slightly embarrassed Mars, 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. Venus has a shepherd's crook and a dove on her hand.

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 which includes metaphysical discussions of the philosophy of artistic creation; born Milan (1538), died Milan (1600).

A Young Man, red chalk on ochre paper (pasted on yellowed, stained, paper), 17.5 × 13 cm, attributed to Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo. 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, 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 correspondances 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 Venice (1733), died Venice (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 slighlty, with no decoration. Although the instrument is in shadow the windowlabium and seven finger-hoels, all in line, can just be made out.

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-?).

The 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 (2007 - 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), Jacob van Loo (ca 1614-1670). Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. 225. Ref. Heinemann (1969: pl. 147 – b&w); 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, Jacob van Loo (ca 1614-1670). Bamburg: Neue Residenz, Art Gallery. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). Includes 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), print, Hans Lopatta (20th century). Regensburg: Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Inv. 339. 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 (1452-1508), Italian

The Marriage of Saint 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 chruch of S. Lucia, Fabriano. Saint Dominic raises his hands in amazement as Saint Catherine has a ring placed on her finger by the Christ Child. Saint 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 puffed out as if playing a shawm, but this would seem out of place in this ensemble and so a recorder remains a possibility.

Claude Lorrain(e) = Claude Gellée

Alfonso Loschi, Italian

The Madrigalist's Table, Alfonso Loschi. 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 (ca 1460-1540), Italian (Parma)

Madonna, with Child Receiving a Rose from St John the Baptist (1548), follower of Bernardino Loschi (ca 1460-1540). Modena: Galleria Estense. Ref. Cosetta (1985, 1: pl. 36). Three putti sit on the step of a 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. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

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 (before 1630), 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 puffed. 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 puffed.
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 (2007 - col.) A young boy in a brown shirt and loose cape plays a flared-bell soprano/alto recorder, left hand uppermost, with slightly puffed cheeks.

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 cornett, 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.) 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 strugling 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. 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, slighly out of parallel, with the heand 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 (1545–50), oil on canvas, 44.5 × 74 cm, Lorenzo Lotto (ca 1483-1556). Ref. Halápy (1973: 246); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). Budapest: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Inv. 947. The literary source of this subject (if any) is unknown. As Apollo falls asleep clutching his viol 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 trumpet unplayed. The deeper meaning of the scene may be that without reason personified by Apollo, art goes astray. This painting, executed around 1545-50, 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; from all accounts a most unpleasant character; he was know as Piombo because his first employment was as plumber to the Pope; born Venice (ca 1485), died Rome (1547).

Flute Player, circle of Sebastiano Luciani (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 (Gabrius Databank). 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 three works would indicate that a recorder is intended in this painting, though it clearly transmogrified into a shepherd's staff in Portrait of a Man with a Staff. Auctioned 19 January 1994, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
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 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). 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 1480/5), died ?Lugano (1532).

St Cecilia, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/5 – 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 1480/5 - 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, panel, 35.5 × 28.2 cm, Bernardino Luini (ca 1480/5 – 1532). Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. No. 634. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image ID FIT 63089 - col.); Postcard, Fitzwilliam Museum Enterpirsed Ltd. CC39 (2003, detail - col.) A fragment of a larger panel. 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 1480/5 – 1532). 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 1480/5-1532). Location unknown: Auctioned by Sotheby's, 21 May 1998 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank (2002 - b& w). Seated beneath three ariel 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, Luini, Bernardino (c.1480-1532) New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image TBM 105043 - col.); Website: klassiskgitar.net (2007 - 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).

Vasco Pereira Lusitano

Portuguese artist; 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). 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, cornett, 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), Benedetto Luti (1666-1724). 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.
Young Flute-player, oil on canvas, 49 × 37.5 cm, Anonymous, after Benedetto Luti (1666-1724). Location unknown: Auctioned by Sotheby's, 7 June 2000 (unsold), 28 November 2000 (sold). Ref. Katalog Neumeister, München Auktion (2 July 1986: pl 461); Archiv Moeck. 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.
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). Den Haag: 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

Trade Card of Coenraad Rÿkel (ca 1699), 12.7 × 16.5 cm, Ignatius Lux (1649/1650 - 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. 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 cornett. 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 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 pu