Artists–A

Hans [Johann; Joan] von Aachen [Aach; Ach; Acha]

German Mannerist painter and draughtsman Hans von Aachen was active also in Italy and Bohemia. He was one of the foremost painters of the circle gathered at the Prague court of Emperor Rudolf II. His portraits, mythological scenes, genre pictures and allegories display an eclectic mixture of Italian and Netherlandish influences. Aachen was born in Cologne (1552) and died in Prague (1615).

  • A Man with a Raised Tazza and a Woman Playing a Lute, preliminary drawing, Hans von Aachen (1552–1615). Private collection. Ref. Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch (1971, 33: 123); Heiden (1979, 49: 452–453); Rasmussen (2002, Lute). “He seems to tap on a music book with his index finger as he raises the tazza. There are prominent grapes [i.e. in the painting]. The man is considered a self-portrait. Painted in Rome … In the drawing there is an unplayed recorder which, in the painting, is replaced by a bunch of grapes” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Not seen. A painting with this title auctioned by Christie’s, London, 8 July 1927, no. 103, attributed to Andrea Schiavone (ca 1510–1563), is now in a private collection. More recently, another version of the painting was sold at Sotheby’s  Auction NO8404 on 15 January 2008, under the title  Donna Venusta (Lady Venus).

Pedro de Abajo Cordero

Contemporary Spanish painter Pedro de Abajo Cordero’s subjects include interiors, still-lifes and landscapes. He was born in 1986.

  • Still-life with a Flute. Pedro de Abajo Cordero (1986–). On a desk are two sheets of musical manuscript on top of which are stacked  two leather-bound books, and an open notebook. Against this pile leans a slender neo-baroque recorder. Behind, is an oil lamp. This composition bears a striking resemblance to Desk with a Recorder by Javier Cano (undated) and to Eduardo Rosado’s Still-life with Flute and Books (2010). Perhaps these guys attended the same art-school.

Masséot Abaquesne

French ceramicist Masséot Abaquesne was the first grandmaster of faience (fine tin-glazed pottery) at Sotteville-lès-Rouen where he worked between 1535 and 1557. He was the maker of the remarkable paving in the Chateau de Ecouen, which has been attributed both to Luca Della Robbia and Palissy. Abaquesne also made a large number of pharmacy jars. His name appears for the first time in a deed of Rouen dated October 1526  in which he is described as a ‘packer’. He died in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (1564) after which his son Laurent (fl. 1545–1590) continued his work at the castles of Ecouen and Chantilly.

  • Tiles, from the chapel of the Château de la Bastie d’Urfé, Rouen (1557), Masséot Abaquesne (fl. 1526–1564). Paris: Louvre. Ref. Chastel (1995: 42–43); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Two of the tiles shown have musical trophies. On the left is a drum; protruding above are the lower parts of three wind instruments. The latter have slightly flared bells with a crenelated design; the finger-holes are not in line, which could indicate double holes near the bell end; there are 4–5 holes on each instrument. To the lower right of the drum, a duct-flute protrudes with the head end showing (window/labium is visible). It is not in line with the instruments protruding above. On the right, a tile shows a hurdy-gurdy as its main design. At the top right there protrudes what looks like the end of a duct-flute, with a slight bell flare and two holes in line. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Niccolò [Nicolò] Dell’Abbate [Abate]

Italian painter of the Bolognese school Niccolò Dell’Abbate, along with others, introduced the post-Renaissance Italian style of painting known as Mannerism to France and helped to inspire the French classical school of landscape painting. He was born in Modena (1509–1512) and died in ? Fontainebleau (1571).

  • A Man Playing a Flute (c. 1540), pen & ink with brown wash, heightened with white body colour, 26.2 × 30.8 cm, Niccolò Dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Windsor: Windsor Castle, RL 12995. Ref. Popham & Wilde (1949: no. 46, fig. 17); Béguin (1969: 56). Preliminary cartoon for the ceiling fresco in the Gabinetto dell’ Eneide in the Rocca di Scandiano, near Modena, Italy (see below). A musician (? Giulio Acanio Boiardo) plays a tenor-sized wide-bore, cylindrical recorder. RLs 12996 and 12007 are likely to be other fragments of the cartoon.
  • Concerto (ca 1540), octagonal fresco (oculus), transferred to canvas, 84 × 84 cm, Niccolò Dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Modena: Galleria Estense, Inv. 493. Ref. Besseler (1931: 285); Béguin (1969: 53–56, pl. 4); Archiv Moeck; Cosetta (1985, 1: pl. 11); Melver (2001: 166, fig. 2, b&w); Rowland-Jones (2003b: 37, fig. 2, col.); Wikimedia Commons (2009, col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2369 (2023, col.) Originally part of the ceiling in the Gabinetto dell’ Eneide in the Rocca di Scandiano, near Modena. Thirteen singers, musicians and dancers peer down at their audience below. One of the musicians, a bearded man with a conical hat, holds a lute; another plays a wide-bore, cylindrical recorder; one plays a bass viol; two sing. It has been suggested that three of the performers were members of the Boiardo family, namely Giulio Boiardo, Silvia Sanvitale and Laura Pallavicino, and a further three figures resemble those depicted in a Musical Company by Sebastiano Florigerio (ca 1500–p.1543).
  • Recorder Player (1540), fresco (transferred to canvas), Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Modena: Galleria Estense. Ref. Cosetta (1985, 1: pl. 26); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A man with a huge beard within a floral surround plays a bulky cylindrical tenor recorder, right hand uppermost. The window/labium is clearly depicted, and there are three large finger-holes showing, one above the right hand, and two between the hands. The third and fourth fingers of the lower (left) hand reach just within the edge of a massive barrel-shaped fontanelle with extruding decorative rings at top and bottom. The reproduction is not clear, but it seems that the bell-end opening is at the foot of the fontanelle. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
  • La suonatrice di flauto (1540), fresco (spandrel), 98 × 74 cm, Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Modena: Galleria Estense, Inv. 2781. Ref. Béguin (1969: 61–63, pl. 14); Cosetta (1985, 1: pl. 31); Paris RIdIM (1999); Bridgeman Art Library (2001: Image AII78645, col.) A young girl plays a near-cylindrical recorder which has double finger-holes at the partially closed bell end; part of a score is in front of her. Originally part of the ceiling in a room of the Rocca di Scandiano, near Modena.”The bell end fitting seems to be a sort of foot-joint” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000). “In my opinion this recorder could have two venting holes instead of the common bottom one; in other words it could be a partially closed instrument, a type of recorder documented in the Middle Ages (see the Würzburg fragment) and also in present times in the folklore of many countries” (Angelo Zaniol, pers. comm. 2003).
  • Cavalieri e dame che suonano (1550–1552), mural, Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Bologna: Musei di Palazzo Poggi, Sala dei concerti e delle fatiche di Ercole di Nicolò dell’Abbate. Ref. Fabbri (1964, 1: 211); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2000); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003); Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Lute Iconography, Image 2369 (2023, col.) The murals in this room comprise four scenes of court life alternating with four scenes depicting the Labours of Hercules, flanked by the coat of arms of the Poggi family. Here, a woman plays a harp, a man a lute, and another man a small pipe (possibly a recorder, though only the head is visible) to three listening ladies. In another of the court scenes a man plays a viol, another a lute, a lady plays a spinet, and three other ladies sing.
  • Il Parnaso, 29.9 × 29.9 cm, Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Paris: Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux Arts. Ref. Villa I Tatti, ND 623 A24 B4 (1969); Beguin (1969: fig. 58, b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Apollo plays his viol, accompanied by the Muses who sing and play viola d’arco, lute, cornetto, tambourine, harp, ? straight trumpet, and pipe (possibly a flageolet or recorder), whilst Pegasus gallops out of the picture.
  • Apollo on Parnassus, engraving, by Etienne Delaune (1518/9–1595) after Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). London: Victoria & Albert Museum, Inv. 28361:3; Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, Inv. 1982.20.1. A reproduction of the original – see above. Apollo plays his viol, accompanied by the Muses who sing and play viola d’arco, lute, cornetto, tambourine, harp, ? straight trumpet, and pipe (possibly a flageolet or recorder), whilst Pegasus gallops out of the picture.
  • Concerto, Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). UK: Collection R. Cosway. Ref. Villa I Tatti, ND 623 A24 G63 (1976); Godi (1976: fig. 4, b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A woman plays the virginals to accompany three men who play cello (or viol), and two pipes, one of which appears to be a duct-flute (the window/labium and several finger-holes clearly depicted), the other of which is ambiguous but very possibly represents another recorder.
  • Concerto, oil on canvas, 127 x 205 cm, after Niccolò dell’Abbate (1509–1571). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2001, b&w); Website: Music in Paintings (2016, b&w).; Website: art.com (2019-b&w). A woman with her back to us plays a spinet, another facing us plays a lute, and a man with his back to us plays a viola da braccio. Behind them, an older man plays a duct-flute (probably a recorder) only the head of which is visible (the remainder hidden behind the lutenist’s shoulder).

Herbert von Achternbusch

Herbert von Achternbush is a contemporary German filmmaker, dramatist, director, novelist, poet and artist who lives and works in Vienna. He was born in Munich (1938).

  • Musik des Marsyas: Athena wirft die von ihr erfundene Flöte weg [Athene Drops the Flute she Made] (2004), watercolour on Nepalese paper, 240 × 280 cm, Herbert von Achternbusch (1938–). Vienna: Galerie Fichtegasse (2005). Marsyas picks up an ambiguous cylindrical pipe on which can be seen five finger-holes, not in line. He is watched by Athene who seems to be throwing another two similar pipes in the air. In another painting in this series, Marsyas übt Flöte [Marsyas Plays the Flute], Marsyas is seen playing a double pipe (aulos).

Michel Victor Acier

From 1764, French-born sculptor Michel Victor Acier worked alongside Johann Joachim Kändler (1706–1775) as Modellmeister in the Meissen porcelain factory where he instigated the neo-classical style adopted there. After Kändler’s death, Acier bore sole responsibility for the artistic design of Meissen porcelain He was born in Versailles (1736) and died in Dresden (1795).

  • Musical Children (ca 1750), porcelain figurine, 27. 5 cm high, modeled by Michel Victor Acier (1736–1795). Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Inv. 1922.362. Ref. RIdM Munich (2009, Hmkg – 166). A group of 2 boys and 2 girls on a multi-part base. At the top a boy blows a hunting horn, holding a roll of music in his hand. In the middle, another boy plays flute and a girl plays guitar. At the base are a violin bow, a recorder or oboe, and some closed notebooks. Not seen.

François-Gaspard-Balthazar Adam

François-Gaspard-Balthazar Adam was a French sculptor employed by Frederic the Great at Sans Souci, Potsdam, where he executed numerous statues for the decoration of the park. His work, though unoriginal, helped to spread the French Rococo style in northern Europe. He was born in Nancy (1710) and died in Paris (1761).

  • Venus, Apollo and Three Musicians, sculpture, white Carrara marble, François-Gaspard-Balthazar Adam (1710–1761). Potsdam: Sans Souci Palace, Marble Room, above the architrave (facing the terrace). Ref. Postcard: Rainer Gaertner, Berlin P. 207 (2001, col.); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A monumental group in which musicians play theorbo, organ and, inevitably, a transverse flute. Other instruments protrude below them, including a trombone and a late baroque alto recorder, correct in all details.

Robert Adam

Scottish architect and designer Robert Adam, with his brother James (1732–1794), transformed Palladian Neoclassicism in England into the airy, light elegant style that bears their name. Robert Adam was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland (1728) and died in London (1792). He was the son of the architect Wiliam Adam (1689-1748).

  • Garland (1774–1780), stone carving, Robert Adam (1728–1792). Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England: Top left panel at SW corner of the facade of the Old Town Hall. A garland with a mask surrounded by musical instruments, including baroque-style recorders.

Aelteste Volkstedter

Aelteste Volkstedter has been making traditional German porcelain monkey band figurines for well over 100 years now. Like Italian comedy figurines, porcelain monkey bands are extremely collectible today and remain as popular now as they were when they were first introduced in the mid-18th century. The workshop also produces porcelain bands featuring other animals such as cats and frogs, as well as Moors, clowns, dwarfs, vagabonds, etc.

  • Monkey Musician (21st century), figurine, Meissen porcelain, Aelteste Volkstedter (contemporary) Ref. Website: The Best Things (2007, col.) A standing monkey plays a pipe which may be a duct-flute, possibly a recorder.

Jorge Afonso

Jorge Afonso was an important Portuguese renaissance painter of church banners and altarpieces who held a key position in Portuguese art of the first half of the 16th century. He was nominated royal painter in 1508 by King Manuel I and again in 1529 by John III.  A whole generation of Portuguese painters was educated in his workshop. Affonso was born ca 1470 and died in Lisbon (1540).

  • Adoration of the Shepherds (1515), oil on panel, 164 × 140 cm, attributed to Jorge Afonso (ca 1470–1540). Detail. Lisbon: Convento da Madre de Deus. Ref. Recorder Magazine 18 (4): front cover (1999, col.); Rowland-Jones (1999: 127–128, fig. 2, b&w); Toldrà i Vilardell (2007: 12); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-3011 (2023, col.) Surrounded by hovering angels singing and playing viol, pipe and tambour, and lute, the shepherds pay homage to the holy infant. In the foreground, in front of one of the kneeling shepherds, is a basket of eggs on top of which is a small flared-bell duct-flute (quite possibly a recorder).

Agostino [d’Antonio] di Duccio

Italian sculptor and architect Agostino di Duccio was the most original if not the greatest sculptor of his time, and he was the only 15th-century sculptor born in Florence who owed little to Donatello or Ghiberti; his fresh and lively style was linear and graceful with distinctive swirling draperies. Di Duccio was born Florence (1418) and died in ? Perugia (after 1481).

  • Glory of St Bernardino, sculpture and bas-relief, Agostino di Duccio (1418–p. 1481). Perugia: Oratorio di San Bernardino, facade. Ref. La Rassegua Musicale 5 (July 1928); Angelo Zaniol ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Della Porta & Genovesi (2000: 145, pl. 6, b&w & pl. 32, b&w); Jenny & Christopher Maguire (ex Rowland-Jones 2006); Website: Anges Musiciens (2010, col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1583 (2023, col.) The sculptures depict the life of St Bernadino who brought good government of the previously feuding city of Perugia – one of the scenes is a Bonfire of the Vanities in which St Bernardino, ringed by fire, is surrounded by seraphim and musical angels. The musical angels are in two identical series on the left and right of the tympanum. In each series, one angel plays a duct-flute probably intended to represent a recorder: its profile is conical, the window/labium is clearly visible, and the lowermost finger-hole is offset. The other angels in each series sing and play bagpipe and ?shawm. On each of the two columns beneath the tympanum there are six angels, beautifully carved, in graceful positions and with swirling drapery, as multi-coloured marble and terracotta bas-reliefs. Not all of the latter have instruments, though on the right two on one panel play nakers and triangle, the two below play vielle and psaltery, and the bottom pair play lute and tambourine. Our interest is in the second down of the three outward-facing panels on the left (North) shaft with two angels who seem to be singing. The angel on the left plucks a lute with the fingers of her right hand. The other holds a tambourine in her right hand and a soprano-sized duct-flute (window/labium visible) in her left, held gracefully between the first and third fingers. The instrument is slightly outwardly conical with no bell flare, but the sculptor shows the open end of a more or less wide bore. The angel’s second finger lies along where one would expect the lower finger-holes but reveals what appears to be a lowermost finger-hole, offset to the player’s right. In this position, it would not be possible to see a corresponding paired little-finger-hole if there were one (as we would expect). Agostino seems to have intended this to be a recorder. Some of his instruments, such as the vielle, are very carefully shown. As the sculptured angels are in marble they probably have never needed retouching by restorers.
  • Musica, relief, Agostino di Duccio (1418–p. 1481). Rimini: Tempio Malatestiano (San Francesco), Chapel of Liberal Arts. Ref. Winternitz (1979: 44–46, pl. 5a); Warburg Institute (2016, b&w). “She [Music] is singing and holding two instruments, one a flute à bec and the other … a cetra” (Winternitz, loc. cit.). Even Homer nods! The wind instrument here is narrowly conical and has a strangely offset finger-hole second from the end. However, no window/labium or beak are depicted. Indeed, there is a very clearly illustrated reed (without a pirouette), making this a shawm rather than a duct-flute.
  • Angels with Tambourine and Recorder, marble relief, Agostino di Duccio (1418–p. 1481). Rimini: Tempio Malatestiano (San Francesco), Chapel of Isotta degli Atti. Ref. Della Porta & Genovesi (2000: 145, pl. 6, b&w); Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image BEN85125, col.); Wikimedia Commons (2013, col.) A standing angel plays a tambourine (with jingle rings) and a putto plays a slender, flared-bell pipe, quite possibly a recorder. Another putto seated in the foreground has picked a flower. Rimini was founded by the Romans in 268 BC., the city was ruled by the Malatesta family from 1295 until 1500. Isotta degli Atti (1432–1474) was the mistress and later the third wife of  the condottiero and lord of Rimini, Sigismond Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–1468).
  • Putti on a Barge (ca 1454), relief, Agostino di Duccio (1418–p.1481). Rimini: Tempio Malatestiano (San Francesco), Chapel of the Infants. Ref. Della Porta & Genovesi (2000: 149, pl. 16, b&w). Three putti on a barge play tambourine and small and large duct-flutes respectively. Although that on the left is held in the little player’s left hand only, 7 finger-holes are visible the lowermost of which is offset indicating that this is a recorder. In the foreground two putti straddle rocks, holding on to some reeds for dear life. A couple of ducks swim in front of them. The Chapel was completed in 1454.
  • Putti in a Boat (ca 1454), relief,  Agostino di Duccio (1418–p. 1481). Rimini: Tempio Malatestiano (San Francesco), Chapel of the Infants. Four putti seem to be gathered on a rather small boat. Two are perched precariously on the sides; the other two are standing. One of the latter holds a flower in his left and and steadies himself against his companion who gazes heavenward with a look of alarm on his face as he clutches a small conical pipe in one hand and with the other the head of one of the seated putti who alswo clutches a small conical pipe. The remaining putto seems about to fall out of the boat and is flapping his wings around his ears: perhaps he will be able to get airborn in time!
  • Putti on a Sarcophagus, (ca 1454), relief, Agostino di Duccio (1418–p. 1481). Rimini: Tempio Malatestiano (San Francesco), Chapel of the Infants. Ref. Della Porta & Genovesi (2000: 148, pl. 15, b&w). Three winged putti stand on a sarcophagus. One, with his back to us, plays a triangle; the other two play slender pipes, possible duct-flutes. The Chapel was completed in 1454.

Agostino Veneziano [Agostino dei Musi]

Italian engraver working in Venice, Florence, Mantua and Rome; although he made many original prints of his own, his many prints after Raphael and Giulio Romano were the best known of his works in his own day; born Venice (1490), died ?Rome (1540).

  • The Old Shepherd, Agostino Veneziano (1490–1540). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 14: 307/408). Landscape with a bearded shepherd lying playing a slender duct-flute (described as a petit flageolet by Bartsch (loc. cit.), the window/labium and ? five holes showing. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. com., 2000).
  • The Old Shepherd, Agostino Veneziano (1490–1540). Ref. Bartsch (1854–1870, 14: 308/409). Landscape with a bearded shepherd lying playing a slender duct-flute (described as a petit flageolet by Bartsch (loc. cit.), the window/labium and ? five holes showing. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. com., 2000).

Martin Agricola, originally Martin Sore, or Sohr

German composer, teacher, and writer on music; born Schwiebus, Silesia [now in Poland] (1486), died Magdeburg, Archbishopric of Magdeburg [Germany] (1556).

  • [Recorder Quartet] (1529 & 1545), from Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch, Martin Agricola (1486–1556). Published in Wittenberg in 1529 and again in 1545. Ref. Linde (1962/1974: 53); Hettrick (1980–1983). Shows a very similar quartet to that of Virdung (see below).
  • [Recorder Duo] (1529 & 1545), from Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch, Martin Agricola (1486–1556). Published in Wittenberg in 1529 and again in 1545. Ref. Hettrick (1980–1983).
  • [Fingering Chart for Recorders and Crumhorns] (1529 & 1545), from Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch, Martin Agricola (1486–1556). Published in Wittenberg in 1529 and again in 1545. Ref. Hettrick (1980–1983).

Jean Pierre Alaux

Contemporary French magazine, radio and television journalist, writer of detective stories, biographies, a cookbook … and a surrealist painter; he lives in Quercy in the former castle of the Bishops of Albas; his paintings follow no particular style other than his own and he modestly hopes that the diversity he brings to each of his works adds to the audience’s visual and spiritual satisfaction by removing boredom, the source of many evils; born La Ciotat; he is a direct descendant from a family of painters or architects dating back to the beginning of the 18th century. Artist’s website here.

  • Euterpe Sleeping (ca 2005), oil on canvas, Jean Pierre Alaux (1955–).  Ref. Website: Corale Euterpe (2005, col.); Blog: One surrealist a day (2012, col.); Website: Tutt’ art, a meeting place for Artists (2014, col.) On a sheet of music manuscript paper, Euterpe (Muse of music and lyric poetry) lies amidst a panoply of instruments ancient and modern, including tympani, regal, harpsichord, virginal, organ, piano, harp, viol, lyre, mandolin, lute, violin, cello, double-bass, serpent, horn, trumpet, tuba, cor-anglais, clarinet, flute, and a baroque-style alto recorder. There is a metronome and a music stand, too. Corale Euterpe is the Associazione Siciliana d’Arte e Cultura.

Francesco Albani

Italian painter and draughtsman; distinguished artist of the Bolognese school, deeply influenced by Annibale Carracci’s classicism, painting altarpieces, frescoes and and cabinet pictures; his fame rests on his idyllic landscapes and small mythological pictures, the lyrical qualities of which earned him the soubriquet ‘the Anacreon of painters’; born Bologna (1578), died Bologna (1660).

  • Landscape with Adoration of the Shepherds, Francesco Albani (1578–1660). Rome: Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Cat.260. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A commission of Carraci’s, completed after his death by Albani. At the top of the picture is a very small semicircle of seated musical angels singing and playing lute, two small pipes, and ?violin. The pipes, each played by an angel, are of the same length and held in a recorder-playing position. Both play left hand uppermost with the right hand (visible on one of the pipes) fairly close to the foot, which has a slight flare.
  • Christ appearing to the Virgin Mary (c.1587-9), with watercolour and white heightening, on discoloured/buff paper, 34.2 × 27.5 cm, Francesco Albani (1578–1660), London: Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 905523. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1977 (2023, col.) A study for Albani’s altarpiece of c.1597–99 for the Oratorio di San Columbano, Bologna (on deposit at the Pinacoteca, Inv. 834. Ushered in by Gabriel, Christ drops in on his mother, to her surprise. Above, a host of musical angels sing, clap and play lute, violin, cello, timbrel, and  what might a recorder. The lutenist must be out of tune: Christ is poking him in the knee with an enormous spear! 
  • Assumption of the Virgin, attributed to Francesco Albani (1578–1660). Toledo: Cathedral. Ref. Sopeña Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 203). “The cathedral of Toledo has an Albani, attributed by Perez Sanchez, that depicts the Assumption of the Virgin, the angel musicians of which echo those in works by Reni (1610) and Lanfranco. “In the Toledo Assumption, two angels of the first play lute and viol, and … other musicians play viola da braccio and duct-flute, all of them perfectly in accord with those of Reni” (translated from Ibañez & Gallego, loc. cit.)
  • A Woman Listening to a Satyr Piping, oil on panel, 19.4 × 29.2 cm, in the style of Francesco Albani (1578–1660). Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Royal Collection, Inv. RCIN 403005. A naked woman leans dreamily on her elbow listening to a satyr who plays a conical pipe, possibly a recorder. Behind the satyr, a putto seems to be falling out of a tree.

Antonio Alberti [Alberti da Ferrara, Antonio di Guido]

Italian painter and frescoist who worked in Ferrara, Montone, Bologna, Urbino, and Carpi; born ? Ferrara (ca 1395), died a. 1449.

  • The Madonna of Humility with Music-making Angels and a Male Donor, tempera on gold ground panel, 31.7 × 31.7 cm, Antonio Alberti (ca 1395–a. 1449). Location unknown: auctioned Christie’s (New York), Sale 1194, Old Master Paintings, 24 January 2003, Lot 26 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002, col.) A donor offers praise to the Madonna and Child above whom angels sing and play lute and an ambiguous pipe with a flared bell. Formerly attributed to the Venetian artist Jacobello del Fiori (1370–1439).

Alessandro & Giovanni Alberti

Italian brothers, both painters. Alessandro is credited with painting the long walls of the Galleria degli Antichi, Palazzo del Te, Sabbioneta with a fictive architectural scheme supporting decorative motifs derived from his studies in Rome; born Borgo San Sepolcro, now Sansepolcro (1525), died 1598; brother of Cherubino (1553–1615)and Giovanni Alberti. Giovanni is credited with the design of the architectural perspectives in the fresco decorations he painted in collaboration with his brothers; also painted putti and ornamental figures; he painted the fictive colonnades on the end walls of the Galleria degli Antichi; born Borgo San Sepolcro (1558), died Rome (1601); brother of Alessandro and Cherubino (1553-1615) Alberti.

  • Trophy (1584–1586), fresco, Alessandro Alberti (1525–1598) & Giovanni Alberti (1558–1601) and assistants. Sabbioneta: Palazzo del Giardino, Galleria degli Antichi, near North end of the West side. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2006). A trophy of musical instruments with a slender duct-flute, rather like the one in Titian’s Concert Champêtre in the Louvre, with little or (more likely) no bell flare. The central part of the instrument, which lies right across the trophy at the angle of a clock’s hands at twenty-past-nine, is obscured by the other instruments but three (perhaps four) finger-holes are visible in the upper part of the body, despite the mêlée.
  • Trophy, (1584–1586), fresco, Alessandro Alberti (1525–1598) & Giovanni Alberti (1558–1601) and assistants. Sabbioneta: Palazzo del Giardino, Galleria degli Antichi, ca half way along the West side. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2006). A trophy of musical instruments based primarily on a wind-instrument case, long enough to hold tenor instruments and spacious enough to hold up to six of them. It is roughly rectangular – it is viewed horizontally but nevertheless one sees the openings at the top – and apparently made of unstained leather. Out of the top protrude some four or five instruments, probably straight cornetti. However, the sixth instrument on the left-hand side is clearly a duct-flute, sticking out about 7–10 cm if it were an alto recorder, at an angle not quite face-on so that you can see the inner curve of the mouthpiece up to the windway entrance. This may be a portable case belonging to a member of the town waits who played alto or tenor parts. During the day, waits played cornetti and sackbuts, but in the still hours of night they moderated their signal playing by switching to recorders.

Mariotto [di Biagio di Bindo] Albertinelli

Italian painter associated with Fra Bartolomeo, and an artist whose style upheld the principles of the High Renaissance in Florence a decade after its leading exponents had moved to Rome; born Florence (1474), died Florence (1515).

  • Annunciation to the Virgin (1510), wood, 335 × 230 cm, Mariotto Albertinelli (1474–1515). Florence: Galleria dell’ Academia, Inv. (1890) 8643. Ref. Freedberg (1961: fig. 259); Burlington Magazine 113: 363 (1971); Borgo (1976: cat 1, 20, pl. 29); Humfrey & Kemp (1990: 132, pl. 71); Bonsanti (1992: 9, col.); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.Al14.31A; Rasmussen (1999, Lute; 1999, Tambourine); Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Website: Alinari Archives, Image FIN-S-FIA000-0067. From the Company of San Zanobi in the Chapter House of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence. Commissioned and begun 1506; delivered and dated 1510; has been drastically cleaned. Christ appears over the central scene with angel musicians playing harp, lute, viola da braccio, tambourine, and (in centre place) a tenor-sized cylindrical duct-flute. The mouthpiece of the latter is beaked, a shadow represents the window/labium area, possibly three finger-holes are visible on the lower part, and there is a slight flare at the bell, so this is very likely a recorder (Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.) Actually, given the very long distance from the player’s hands to the bell of this instrument seems rather more likely to represent a shawm than a recorder.

Pictor Albertus [Albert the Painter]

Sweden’s most renowned medieval artist to whom have been linked over 30 large and densely populated painting sequences of biblical scenes – some signed, but most identified through his distinctively luxuriant style and rich range of colours; also a liturgical embroiderer and organist; he was the head of a workshop and had many collaborators; he was possibly of German origin; active 1440/45–1509.

  • The Wheel of Fortune (ca 1470), fresco, Pictor Albertus (op. 1440/1445–1509). Härkeberga, Uppland (Sweden): Kyrka, star vault (ceiling). Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Fortune’s wheel crushes members of the nobility to an accompaniment provided by a musician who plays a drum with one hand and a cylindrical duct-flute (flageolet or recorder) with six finger-holes in the other (Anthony Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.) Other instruments depicted elsewhere in this ceiling fresco include lute, fiddle and bagpipe. The Church was built in the 14th century. The porch and three star vaults were added in the late 15th century, both decorated by Albertus. These paintings are considered to be among the most important and best preserved late-medieval plaster-paintings in Sweden.

Alessandro Albini

Italian painter, pupil of Annibal Lodovico Agostino Carracci; born 1580, died 1646.

  • St Cecilia, engraving, Domenico Maria Fratta (1696–1763) & Giovanni Fabbri (op. 1736–m. 1777) after Alessandro Albini (1580–1646). ? Location. Ref. Negro & Pirondini (1994, 1: 39); Rasmussen (2002, Lute). “She holds a portative organ (upside-down, à la Raphael). At her feet are a lute (rendered in deep perspective), a recorder, and perhaps a slender flute. Angels above play lute, flute (tapering a bit like a straight trumpet) and tambourine” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Not seen.

Enrico Albrici [il Fiammenghino]

Italian Rococo painter; born Vilminore di Scalve (1714), died Bergamo (1775). Albricci specialized in fresco painting and was particularly adept at trompe l’oeil; he worked on important projects in Bergamo and Brescia and painted monumental frescoes for churches and public buildings. For his private clients he painted bambocciate di nani or arte pigmeo scenes in the style of Faustino Bocchi (1659–1742) in which dwarfs drink, dance or perform pseudo-heroic acts, such as hunting giant earlobes, fighting frog battalions or cutting up a piece of cheese. These bizarre genre scenes were highly appreciated by collectors and brought fame and prosperity to Albrici.

  • Concert, tempera on card, 16 × 21 cm, Enrico Albrici (1714–1775). Genoa: Wannes Art Auctions. Old Master and 19th-century Paintings, Lot 323, 29 May 2019 (sold). Ref. Website: Invaluable (2019, col.) Auctioned with a pendant, Departure of the Groom. A horde of dwarfs crowd into the yard of a country estate to celebrate a wedding. From an upstairs window of the house the matrimonial couple and their family look out at two teams of musicians. Immediately below them three dwarfs operate the bow of an enormous violin as others are fretting the strings. Opposite them, a dozen or so dwarfs are carrying an enormous renaissance-style recorder which one of them is blowing whilst several reach out to cover the finger holes, and others sing from broadsheets. A larger midget in a white coat is waving a stick in the air either to conduct the musicians or to scare away a gigantic bird which looks as if it is about to peck them. Albrici’s debt to Faustino Bocchi is patently obvious, here.

Alexei Antonov

Contemporary Russian graphic artist and illustrator and painter of still-lifes, landscapes, portraits, etc. that embody hyper-realism informed by the work of Renaissance masters; living and working in the USA since 1990; born 1957.

  • Girl Playing a Recorder, oil painting. Alexei Antonov (1957–). Location unknown. A young girl sits in a high-backed chair playing a neo-baroque soprano recorder which is very clearly depicted. She wears a hat with a carnation.

Balthazar Augustin Albrecht

German painter and administrator; his works are mostly of sacred subjects, including many schurch frescoes; born Berg am Starnberger (1687), died Munich (1756).

  • Dancing Children, oil on panel, 104 × 132 cm, Balthazar Augustin Albrecht (1687–1756). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Schloß Schleissheim, Alte Pinakothek, Inv. 43 (1731). Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Munich RIdIM, Mstag – 5 (2013, b&w). A child seated in the centre of a ring of children, some naked, dancing with raised joined hands, plays a soprano/alto sized recorder. His cheeks and lips are relaxed; the fingers of his upper (right) hand are all down; fingers 1 and 4 of the left hand are raised, and the hole shows under the little finger. The instrument is cylindrical, perhaps narrowing slightly by the little finger before a short bell flare. In the background, a torso of ?Bacchus survey’s the scene. This is one of a pair of over-door paintings which, with many others, were part of the original palace decoration, in this case for the Yellow Room in the Electress’ Appartments. The pendant is of children playing at dice and shuttlecock – and quarrelling.

Juan Alemàn (15th century), Spanish

  • Door of the Lions: Angel Musicians (1452–1465), Juan Alemàn (15th century). Toledo: Catedral Primada Santa María, South entrance. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). “The doorway itself was designed by Master Hanequin of Brussels and built from 1452–1465. There are three courses of angel musicians on small plinths within the Gothic framework of the portal. Four include possible recorders.“One group has a hurdy-gurdy, a damaged instrument which looks like a lute, and a single pipe held vertically but with no detailing visible. Another group has two seated angels, one with a triangle (with beater) and two ring snares, another with what looks like a small portative organ. Behind them a standing angel plays a pipe in the shape of a recorder, with a Virdung-type bell.“A group of two angels, in the middle course near the point of the arch, play a single pipe and a double pipe. The single pipe shows three finger-holes before the hands, which are close together. The bell end may be damaged. A mark near the mouthpiece is almost certainly a window/labium.“A group of two angels at lower right play two larger wind instruments, one with a fontanelle which looks like a shawm as the bell end is very extended and flared. The other angel plays a long pipe with the slightly flared bell end at mid-thigh level, and both hands centrally placed. There is no sign of a window/labium and the whole of the blowing end appears to be in the angel’s mouth. Of the four, this is the least likely to be a recorder” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)

Antonio Aleotti

Italan artist born and educated artistically in the Ferrara area; active from 1494, died ca 1530.

  • Virgin and Child, Antonio Aleotti (op. 1494–m. ca 1530). Argenta: Museo Civico, Pinacoteca e Museo Archeologico. Ref. Beltramelli (1905: 91); Mezzetti (1964, fig. 15); Rasmussen (1999, Lute). A putto on the left of the central figures plays a lute and one on the right plays a slender cylindrical pipe, probably a duct-flute (possibly a recorder).

David Allan Jr

The “Scottish Hogarth”, painter and book illustrator, famous for his studies of science and people both in Italy, where he travelled, and Edinburgh, where he settled in 1780; illustrator of Burns’s work, for Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd, and for an edition of James Thomson’s Seasons (the latter never published), he excelled in his handling of peasant life and costume, and is much admired for the truth with which he delineated nature, and the characteristic humour which distinguished his pictures, drawings, and etchings; born Alloa (1744), died Edinburgh (1796).

  • Portrait of the Artist’s Father (c. 1760), pen, black ink & grey wash in a ruled border on paper, 18.6 × 13.0 cm, David Allan (1744–1796). Edinburgh: National Gallery of Modern Art, Accn D 4940. Ref. Smith (1969); Recorder Magazine 27 (2): front cover, b&w (2007); Galbriath (2007, b&w). Depicts the artist’s father, also David Allan, holding a baroque alto recorder with ivory mounts during leisure time as shore-master in the small harbour of Alloa, Central Scotland. Until the nineteenth century the sketch was accompanied by the actual recorder shown in the drawing. Unfortunately, the instrument itself no longer exists, due to woodworm damage.

Alessandro Allori [Alessandro Bronzino, Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo Allori]

Italian painter of the Florentine school; one of the last notable exponents of Mannerism, painting in a style that had become outmoded by the time of his death; born Florence (1535), died Florence (1607); father of the painter Cristofano Allori (1577–1621).

  • Allegorical Portrait of a Young Man in the Guise of Mercury Slaying Argus, oil on panel, 144.8 cm × 88.9 cm, Alessandro Allori (1535-1607). Cambridge (USA): Fogg Art Museum, 2000.272. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2000, col.) As Argus lies sleeping on the ground, watched by Io (as a heifer), a triumphant Mercury does a victory dance with his caduceus in one hand and his recorder in the other. The recorder is clearly recognizable by its beak, window/labium and gently conical body. Several finger-holes are visible, but the foot is out of frame. Why anyone would want their likeness painted in the guise of Mercury in this singularly unattractive role is baffling.

Gilles Allou

French architect and painter well-known for his portraits in his day but little known now; born Paris 1670, died Paris (1751).

  • Nymph, engraving after Gilles Allou (1670–1751). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w) A nymph wearing a laurel wreath holds in her right hand a perfectly depicted renaissance recorder against her naked breast. With her left she points as if to bid us quiet.

J. Alsina (op. 1900), French

  • Children Listen to a Shepherd Playing a Flute (1907), oil on canvas, 69.6 × 60.5 cm, J. Alsina (op. 1900). Vienna: Palais Dorotheum, 19th Century Paintings and Watercolours, Lot 199, 12 September 2012. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image BAL98638, col.). Two young children and their older sister sit beside a path in the middle of a field listing to an elderly bearded shepherd playing a pipe (probably a flageolet, but possibly a recorder.

Albrecht Altdorfer [Altdorffer]

German painter and graphic artist, the leading exponent of the so-called Danube School; born ca 1480, died Regensburg (1538).

  • The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1510), oil on panel, 57 × 38 cm, Albrecht Altdorfer (ca 1480–1538). Berlin: Staatliche Museen, No. 638B. Ref. Walter Bergman, Slide Collection (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2005, col.); Klessmann (1971: 94–95, pl., col.); Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz (1968: 11, pl. 11, b&w). The Virgin rests on a throne-like chair by a richly ornate fountain, while Joseph proffers a basket of cherries. Two putti perch on the rim of the fountain’s basin playing a small rebec and a cylindrical duct-flute (flageolet or recorder) and the child Jesus tries to reach into the water. Beyond the fountain the shores of a lake stretch far away, shores crowded with gateways, roads and towers, houses, ruins and decaying roofs.
  • Mary and Child in Glory (1510), oil on wood, 57 × 38 cm, Albrecht Altdorfer (ca 1480–1538). Detail. Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Inv. 665. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2013: Mstag – 7, b&w)l Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1416 (2023, col.) Mary with the Child standing on her lap is surrounded by a host of musical angels singing and playing pipes, lutes, trombone, viol. One of the pipes, next to a lute on the far right, is slightly flared and all fingers of the player’s lowermost (right) hand are in play, may represent a recorder.

Sunol Alvar

Contemporary Spanish (Catalan) painter, draughtsman, print-maker and sculptor living and working in Tiana, near Barcelona; known largely for his lithography in a unique and distinctive style in which textures are superimposed on upon images and images upon other images to create illusions of translucency and immateriality; many of his works depict angel-women, virgin-muses, celestial musicians and poets in idyllic scenes; born Montgat (1935),

  • Figures with Dove, lithograph, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. One person holds a dove on her shoulder whilst another plays a slender pipe with a flared bell. The bent thumb of the left hand and the use of all four fingers of the right hand to cover their holes suggests a recorder. Identical to Flute and Muse (see below), but here the overall tone is cyan.
  • Flute and Muse, lithograph, 23.5 × 30.5 cm,, Sunol Alvar (1935–). USA: Intrinsic Values Fine Art (2007, col.) Identical to Figure with Dove (see above), but here the overall tone is violet.
  • Violin and Flute, lithograph, Sunol Alvar (1935–) East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. One person plays a violin and another a slender pipe with a flared bell. The disposition of the fingers and thumb suggests a recorder.
  • Imatges de Varema, embossed lithograph with hand-watercolored panoramic tableau, 63.5 × 36.2 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. Two lovers stand on a wall, one holding a bunch of flowers. A mother and child gaze up at them. A figure at a table plays a narrowly cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder.
  • Blue Sinfonia, embossed lithograph with water-colored border, 50.8 × 73.7 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. A woman places a leafy branchlet on a large sheet of paper (as if to preparing a herbarium specimen). She is serenaded by musicians playing a mandolin and a slender pipe with a flared bell, possibly a recorder.
  • Dawn Concert, embossed lithograph in 14 colors with watercolored panel, 80 × 60 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. In a field of tulips, a woman greets the dawn, her arms upstretched. Floating above a town, three musicians sing and play violin and a narrowly cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder.
  • Noon Concert, embossed lithograph in 14 colors with watercolored panel, 60 × 80 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. A figure places a dove on a table on which is a vase of flowers. Musicians play cello and a slender pipe with a flared bell, possibly a recorder.
  • Red Concert, oil on board, 35.6 × 45.8 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing, Michigan: Saper Galleries. Against a red background, musicians play mandolin and a slender pipe with a flared bell, possibly a recorder.
  • Concert for Fruits, painting, Sunol Alvar (1935–) Nevada: ArtBrokerage.com (2007). A figure plays a cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder), watched by a second figure standing before a table on which is placed a bowl of fruit.
  • Night Concert, embossed lithograph in 14 colors Paper size: 56.5 × 48.3 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing: Saper Galleries (2007, col.) Two panels. On the left, one person embraces another playing a narrowly cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder), a town with a church in the background. On the right, a pianist plays from an open score of music by Chopin, a second figure looking over the player’s shoulder.
  • Figures with Flute and Fruit, drawing, 26.7 × 35.9 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing: Saper Galleries (2007, col.) A figure plays a slender pipe with a flared bell, a second figure looks over the player’s shoulder. On a shelf behind them is a slice of melon, and other fruit.
  • Trio, from Lyric Suite, embossed lithograph, 24.5 × 32 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). East Lansing: Saper Galleries (2007, col.) Three musicians play piano, violin, and a slender, flared-bell pipe (possibly a recorder).
  • Two Ladies with Flute and Dove, 60 × 60 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). Scotsdale, California: S R Brennen Galleries (2003, col.) Depicts three ladies: one holds a dove, another plays a narrowly cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder, judging by the disposition of the fingers). The ‘dove’ looks more like a dog with a blue head!
  • Peace Concert, 66 × 60 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). Scotsdale, California: S R Brennen Galleries (2003, col.) Depicts three ladies: one holds a dove, one plays a narrowly cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder), a third plays the cello.
  • Two People with Flute and Violin, drawing, 28 × 25.4 cm, Sunol Alvar (1935–). Scotsdale, California: S R Brennen Galleries (2003, b&w). One figure plays the violin, another a narrowly cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder).

Carlo Amalfi

Italian painter working in Sorrento; his works include sacred and secular themes as well as portraits; born Vico Equense (1707), died Naples (1787).

  • Musical Gathering (ca 1725), oil on canvas, 180 × 240, Carlo Amalfi (1707–1787). Detail. Milan: Museo d’Arte Antica (Castello Sforzesco). Ref. Hindley (1971: 208, b&w); Moeck (1983: July, col.); Moeck, Celle: TIBIA, – Musikbilder auf Postkarten, Series (2), Moeck Nr. 1101 (col.); de Avena Braga (2015: 228–230, fig. 3.14, col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1222 (2023, col.) A group of nine beautifully attired male and female musicians pose around their harpsichord holding their instruments which include a small lute, guitar, cittern, violin and a baroque three-piece alto recorder. Several of the women appear to be singers and the one standing in the middle is stroking her cat. This has also been attributed to an unknown Neapolitan master. There is said to be another version in Naples.
  • Musical Gathering (ca 1725), oil on canvas, 180 × 240 cm, Carlo Amalfi (1707–1787). Naples: Museum of Ancient Art (donation from Carolina Buschini, 1929). Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). A group of nine beautifully attired male and female musicians pose around their harpsichord holding their instruments which include a small lute, guitar, cittern, violin and a baroque three-piece alto recorder. Several of the women appear to be singers and the one standing in the middle is stroking her cat. This has also been attributed to an unknown Neapolitan master. There is another version in Milan.

Pomponio Amalteo

Italian painter of the Venetian school whose works consist chiefly of frescoes and altarpieces and many of which have suffered the ravages of time; born Motta di Livenza (1505), died San Vittore al Tagliamento (1588); brother of  painter Girolamo Amalteo (1505–?) who is supposed to have assisted him in his labors; father of portraitist Quintilia Amalteo.

  • Angel Musicians (ca 1538), fresco, Pomponio Amalteo (1505–1588). Prodolone: Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, cupola pendetive. Ref. Cohen (1975: 64–67); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2002). One putto plays a transverse flute. To his right another holds a cylindrical pipe with a slight flare towards the foot, possibly a recorder. To the flautist’s left a third putto sits with his back to us.
  • Angel Musicians (ca 1538), pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white, over red chalk, on blue paper, 6.3 × 6.3 cm, Pomponio Amalteo (1505–1588). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 1977.249c. Ref. Cohen (1973: 256–57, fig. 14; 1975: 64–67); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2002). One of several preparatory designs compressing groups of musical putti inside the tapering trompe l’oeil pendentives of a planned cupolo-fresco for the Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, Prodolone. One putto plays a transverse flute. To his right another holds a cylindrical pipe with a slight flare towards the foot, and a horizontal line hints at a window/labium, so this is possibly a recorder. To the flautist’s left a third putto sits with his back to us.
  • Angel Musicians (ca 1538), pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white, over red chalk, on blue paper, 6.0 × 6.0 cm, Pomponio Amalteo (1505–1588). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 977.249b. Ref. Cohen (1973: 256–57, fig. 13; 1975: 64–67, fig. 47); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2002). One of several preparatory designs compressing groups of musical putti inside the tapering trompe l’oeil pendentives of a planned cupolo-fresco for the Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, Prodolone. One putto plays a pipe and tabor and two play long, slightly conical pipes. No details of the latter or visible, but all four fingers of one of one of the player’s lowermost hands are covering their holes, and a horizontal line hints at a window/labium, so these may represent recorders.

Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio – see Pietro

Pseudo Ambrogio di Baldese = Lippo d’Andrea

Irving Amen

American artist with a focus on genre, still-life and religious works, producing murals, paintings, woodcuts, etchings, sculpture, stained glass, silk-screen prints;  a positive attitude, love of mankind, and his religious background emanate from his work; born New York (1918), died Coconut Creek, Florida (2011). Artist’s Home Page.

  • Musicians, oil, 61 × 76 cm, Irving Amen (1918–2011). A young girl listens to a boy playing a red guitar, another playing a neo-baroque alto recorder, a girl playing an ambiguous pipe (possibly a second recorder).
  • Flute Player and Dog, woodcut, 86 × 46 cm, Irving Amen (1918–2011). Ref. Website: PicassoMio (2014). A young girl walks beside her dog, playing a slender, cylindrical duct-flute (probably meant to be a recorder).
  • Flutist (ca 1970), silk-screen print, Irving Amen (1918–2011). Ref. Website: Art of the Print (2005). A young boy plays a slender, cylindrical duct-flute (probably meant to be a recorder, though there are rather more holes than fingers).

Jacopo [Giacomo] Amigoni [Amiconi]

Italian Rococo painter and etcher active in Venice, Bavaria, England, Flanders, France and Spain; for a time was court painter to Ferdinand VI of Spain; his works include portraits, decorative frescoes for churches and palaces, historical and mythological subjects; many were reproduced in prints, and these served as models for tapestries and for the decoration of clocks, wardrobes and porcelain; born Naples (1675), died Madrid (1752).

  • Four Putti with a Lamb (ca 1735), oil on canvas, 112.5 × 125.4 cm, Jacopo Amigoni (1675–1752). Richmond: Hampton Court Palace, The Queen’s Bedroom, over a door, OM 528. Three winged putti hold a sheep and a fourth (at right) plays a short soprano pipe. The finger-position suggests a recorder, but the window/labium area is in shadow. The instrument is slightly outwardly conical. The right hand is held lowermost. There is no flare or decoration at the bell. All the putti are shown with the same chubby cheeks, as if inflated. This is one of a pair of paintings of sporting cherubs (OM 528-9, 405811-2), which are first recorded at Kensington Palace in 1818. They were probably commissioned during the artist’s London period (1730–1739) as part of the decoration of an interior.
  • Fête in a Garden, Jacopo Amigoni (1675–1752). Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, Inv. 2477. Ref. Sopeña Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 245 & pl., col.); Paris RIdIM (1999). Four gentleman musicians play horns,  cello and a flared-bell pipe of alto/tenor size (oboe or recorder). The musicians are said to include portraits of Farinelli and Domenico Scarlatti. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001).
  • Mercury and Argus, Jacopo Amigoni (1675–1752). Dresden: Stadtmuseum. Detail. Leaning against a dead tree, Mercury plays his pipe to Argus who sits in front of a white heifer (Io). Mercury’s pipe is an alto-size duct-flute with a beak and a small window/labium, but no finger-holes visible. The lower right-hand is fairly high up the instrument, so one would expect finger-holes to be visible. There is a short but sharp bell flare. A recorder seems more likely than a large flageolet (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
  • Mercury and Argus (1729–1736), mural, Jacopo Amigoni (1675–1752). Detail. Rickmansworth: Moor Park, Entrance Hall, opposite main entrance. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). Moor Park as built from 1720 for Benjamin Styles who was advised by Sir James Thornhill. However, the actual architect was more probably Giacomo Leoni who also built Lyme Park. The Entrance Hall is the main room, going up the full height of the house, with a balcony all round at first-floor level. It has four large oil paintings by Giacomo (or Jacopo) Amigoni, who lived in Engalnd from 1729 to 1736), illustrating the story of Io, from Ovid. In this mural Mercury plays a pipe as Argus watches. The pipe is alto-sized, fairly slender, but with an expanding bell. The playing position is as if for a recorder.
  • Mercury and Argus (ca 1732), oil on canvas, 77.5 × 64.8 cm, Jacopo Amigoni (1675–1752). Seattle: Seattle Art Museum. Leaning against a dead tree, Mercury plays his pipe to Argus who sits in front of a white heifer (Io), his dog curled up beside him.. Mercury’s pipe is an alto-size duct-flute with a beak and a small window/labium, but no finger-holes visible. The lower right-hand is fairly high up the instrument, so one would expect finger-holes to be visible. There is a short but sharp bell flare.
  • Putti Making Music, painting, Jacopo Amigoni (1647–1752). Location unknown: auctioned 10 December 2004 (unsold). Ref. Gabrius Databank (2007, col.) A winged putto plays tambourine (with jingle rings); another (wingless) holds a pipe covering the head with his left hand leaving only the body and four finger-holes clearly visible.
  • Hearing (1764), faience tiles, 220 × 142 cm (total of 187 tiles, each tile side length of 13 cm) after an engraving by Jacopo Amigoni (1647–1752). Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Inv. 1874.86a. Ref. RIdM Munich (2009, Hmkg – 21). One of 4 painted designs from Rotterdam after engravings by Amigoni forming a sequence of the Five Senses. In the foreground is a gallant scene in the park of a castle. A standing man at the right plays a recorder; a couple sing from a music book; and a sitting couple, the man holding a small recorder (or galoubet) in his hand. Not seen.

Jost Amann [Amman]

Swiss draughtsman, woodcutter, engraver, etcher and painter, perhaps the most prolific book illustrator of his day; valued for his depictions of everyday life, including a wealth of evidence on contemporary crafts and techniques; born Zurich (1539), died 1591.

  • Title Page of Zinkfeisen Kirchen Gesäng … by Eucharias, published by Sigmund Feyerabend, Frankfurt im Main (1584): David Dancing Before the Ark / Transporting the Ark of the Covenant (1584), woodcut, Jost Amman (1539–1591). Ref. Fraenkel (1968: pl. 48); Early Music 2, 1: front cover (1974); Rice (1992: fig. 1.3); Archiv Moeck; Paris RIdIM (1999); Rasmussen (2002, Lute). The highly ornamented border includes a window at the bottom in which David plays his harp accompanied by musicians playing lute, viola da braccio, buisines, cornetti, trumpets and kettledrums. A young woman kneeling plays a cylindrical pipe (possibly a recorder); a man standing plays a flared bell recorder with the right hand lowermost and the window/labium clearly shown.
  • Musica (1579), print by Jost Amman (1539–1591) from a household book of Bernhard Ketzler (Mainz). Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Inv. HS 140 350. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Ngm 700); Rasmussen (2007, Flute); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Music plays a portative organ, below which are a flute case, a shawm and a conical duct-flute with 5 finger-holes, possibly intended to represent a recorder. The same image appears in editions dated 1589 and 1750.
  • Title Page, Wenzel Jamnitzer’s Perspectiva corporum regularium (1568), etching, 25.9 × 18.0 cm, Jost Amman (1539–1591). London: British Museum, Inv. 1904,1022.3. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012, b&w). Title-page ornamented with symbols of the element of air: ornamental border with a face blowing wind at top centre with four putti, one playing a pipe or recorder, another blowing air and two holding wind gauges. They sit on heaps of symbols of wind such as bellows, birds, portative organ, bagpipes, horn and shawm with flying insects out of scale above. Two large eagles on lower left and right. Musical instrument trophies in lower corners include lute, recorder and shawm to the right and fiddle, serpent, hurdy gurdy, bagpipes and natural trumpet to the left. Also feathers of various birds such as peacock, pheasant, ostrich, and an angels wing along the bottom border. Without letterpress title in the cartouche. Illustration to Wenzel Jamnitzer, Perspectiva corporum regularium, published by Jamnitzer himself in 1568.
  • From Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auff Erden … (Frankfurt am Main, Sigmund Feyerabent, 1568): Der Holtzdrechßler (The Woodturner), woodcut, Jost Amman (1539–1591). Ref. Hirth (1972, no. 1247); Rasmussen (2007, Flute); Wikisource (2012). A woodturner works at his lathe. On the wall beside him hang his chisels. On a bench and some shelves before him are examples of his wares: several cylindrical pipes (flutes or recorders), a duct-flute with a highly flared bell, possibly meant to represent a recorder. There are also a flute-case, some table-legs, platters and containers in various shapes and sizes. A caption beneath reads:

Ich dreh von Buchßbaum büchßlein klein
Zu kleinot vnd Edlem gestein
Auch Futteral zu Gülden Scheuwrn
Predigstül dran man sich kan steuwrn
Köstlich Stolln zu Tisch vnd Betten
Hämmerstiel so die Goldschmid hettn
Auch für die Bauwrn Kugel vnd Kegl
Wellen vnd auch Steynmetz Schlegel.

Antonio (Mercurio) Amorosi

Italian painter and fresoist; primarily a genre painter, but also provided altarpieces for Roman churches; born Comunanza, near Ascoli Piceno (1660), died (1738).

  • Boy Playing a Flute (a. 1710, oil on canvas, 36 × 26 cm, Antonio Amorosi (ca 1660–p. 1736). Nancy: Musée des Beaux-Arts. Against a black background, a small boy with a distinctive “widow’s peak” and wearing a jacket tied across the chest plays a cylindrical duct-flute (flageolet or recorder), possibly a recorder given that the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is shown covering its hole.
  • Boy Playing a Flute, oil on canvas, 35.6 × 25.4 cm, Antonio Amorosi (ca 1660–p. 1736). Location unknown: exhibited Gallery Lasson, London, May-July 1968. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002, col.); Website: gallica (2012, b&w). Against a landscape background, a small boy with a distinctive “widow’s peak” and wearing a jacket completely open at the chest plays a cylindrical duct-flute (flageolet or recorder), possibly a recorder given that the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand is shown covering its hole.
  • An Old Shepherd Playing a Flute to a Young Shepherd, oil on canvas Antonio Amorosi (ca 1660–p. 1736). Location unknown: Auctioned by Christie’s, 4 December 1991 (unsold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002, col.) Beneath a rocky overhang, an old man sits on a ledge playing a small flared-bell pipe to a young lad sitting opposite him leaning on a basket. In the background can be seen a town. The piper’s hand and finger-positions are perfect for recorder playing and the little finger of his lowermost (left) hand is covering its hole, so this may well represent a recorder.
  • Boy with a Flute, attributed to Antonio Amorosi (ca 1660–p. 1736). Location unknown. Ref. Dutch University Institute for Art History, Florence. A young lad leans on his left hand gazing soulfully into the distance. In his right hand he holds a perfectly depicted baroque soprano recorder.
  • Shepherd Boy Playing a Flute, oil on canvas, 64 × 56 cm, circle of Antonio Amorosi (ca 1660–p. 1736). Location unknown. Ref. Website: MutualAart (2002, col.) A boy plays a narrowly flared recorder, left hand uppermost.

Alexander Anderson

US American painter, draughtsman, and engraver; pioneer of wood engraving in America; born New York City (1775); died Jersey City (1870).

  • [Lovers Under a Tree], wood engraving, 7.8 × 6.1 cm (image), Alexander Anderson (1775–1870). San Francisco: de Young Museum, Inv. 1963.30.25969. A woman dances, watched by a man who sits beneath a tree holding a walking stick and a small flared-bell pipe, possibly a recorder.

Max Pauli Christian Andersen

Danish sculptor who produced fountain figures and statuettes earlier in his career, but seems to have made something of a speciality of puiblic monumental works in relief; born Copenhagen (1892), died Copenhagen (1972).

  • Singing and Playing Children (ca 1935), relief sculpture, Max Andersen (1892-1972). Frederiksberg: Søndermarkskolen. Ref. Website: Frederiksberg Stadsarkiv (2021, b&w). Seven girls sing accompanied by five boys playing musical instruments: cello, flute, violin mandolin, banjo and a perfectly depicted recorder. A girl and a boy look on. Søndermarkskolen is a public school in Frederiksberg

Philip Anderson (contemporary), USA

  • Untitled cover illustration (1994), Philip Anderson (contemporary). Ref. American Recorder 38 (2): front cover (1994). A stylised girl plays a stylised recorder wreathed by a stylised cat under a stylised tree.

Sophie Gengembre Anderson

French-born Pre-Raphaelite lithographer and painter who lived and worked in America, England and Capri; her works include genre paintings of children and women, landscapes and portraits; born Paris (1823), died Falmouth (1903); wife of English artist Walter Anderson (m. 1903).

  • Shepherd Piper (1881), oil on canvas, 30.5 × 35.9 cm, Sophie Anderson (1823–1903). Private Collection. Ref. Powers & Gere (2001, col.); MacMillan (2008: 134).  A young boy sits on a hillside playing a crudely made recorder. All three fingers of the upper (right) hand cover their holes, and the little finger is touching the instrument. The first finger of the lower (left) hand is raised above its hole; fingers two and three cover their holes, and the little finger is raised awkwardly, the lowermost hole clearly visible.

Thor Andersson (1896-1941), Swedish

  • Musician, drypoint, 25 × 17 cm, Thor Andersson (1896–1941). Stockholm: Moderna Museet, NMG 170/1959. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). An old man in his suit begs at the roadside, playing an ambiguous pipe (6-holed pipe, recorder), his hat on the ground before him. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Andrea del Sarto [Andrea d’Agnolo di Francesco]

Italian painter whose epithet ‘del sarto’ (of the tailor) is derived from his father’s profession, he excelled at fresco and painted superb altar-pieces; held to be one of the greatest masters of his time, his works are characterised by grandeur, gracefulness and a feeling for colour and atmosphere; born Florence (1486), died Florence (1530).

  • The Holy Family with St John the Baptist, St Elizabeth and Two Angels (ca 1514), Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung 501 (4150). Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Mstag 571); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999); Paris RIdIM (2000, colour postcard). Mary has her arm protectively around the infant Jesus as he is introduced to John. Behind Mary, a third child looking heavenward, holds a small cylindrical recorder of which the window/labium is clear with one finger-hole next to the little finger of the upper (left) hand, and despite two right-hand fingers down their finger-holes are visible beside them, and three more can be seen below.

Hendrik [Manken Heyn] Andriessen

Flemish Baroque still-life painter who was known as Mancken Heyn, or crippled Henry; born Antwerp (1607), died Antwerp or Zeeland (1655).

  • Vanitas (1653), oil on canvas, 59 × 85 cm; Hendrik Andriessen (1607–1655). Munich: Weinmüller (auction house), 7 May 1958, Lot 319. Ref. Bernt (1948–1980, 4: pl. 2); Griffioen (1988: 438–39); Ruth van Baak Griffioen (pers. comm., 2001); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 11356 (2010, b&w). On a table lie scattered a sceptre and crown, a globe, a vase of flowers, a skull (upper part only), a candlestick, a sword, a watch, a purse, a nautilus shell, some stems of wheat, flowers, a violin, and a renaissance-style recorder. Of the latter, only the upper body and head can be seen, with its distinctive beak and window/labium, and the maker’s mark. Bubbles float above.
  • Vanitas Still-life with Portrait / Still-life with Negro (ca 1650), oil on canvas, 95 × 116 cm, Hendrik Andriessen (1607–1655). Ithaca: Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 88.6; auctioned Colnaghi, London (1985); formerly London: Muensterberger Collection; formerly Brasted, Kent: Cohe (? private collection). Ref. Bergström (1970: cover & #13); Pictura, Maastricht (1985: pl.); Griffioen (1988: 440–41); Legêne (1995: 120, pl. 8, b&w); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 11370 (2010, b&w), The Hague ex Ruth van Baak Griffioen (pers. comm., 2003); Debra Pring (pers. comm., 2006); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-506 (2023, col.). Formerly attributed to Jacques de Gheyn III (ca 1596–1641), and to David Bailly (1584–1657). On a round table are the upper part of a skull, books, papers, dice, an artist’s palette, an hourglass, smoking equipment, a watch, a candlestick, a statue of a dancing putto, and a perfectly depicted hand-fluyt. Behind, on the right, a Moorish servant holds an oval miniature portrait of the patron up for us to see. Soap bubbles float above.
  • Vanitas, painting, Hendrik Andriessen (1607–1655). Locality unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w). On a draped bench are a skull, books, a crumpled sheet of music, a document with a seal, a guttering candle and holder, a compass, a violin, an alto-sized recorder with a metal-sheathed beak.

Giuseppe Angeli

Italian painter of the late baroque, active mainly in Venice; born 1710, died 1798.

  • Shepherd Lad with a Flute, oil on canvas, 71 × 53 cm, Giuseppe Angeli (1710–1798) OR Domenico-Fedeli Maggiotto (1713–1794). Stockholm: Stockholms Universitet, No. 64. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A shepherd leans on his left elbow holding a late-baroque alto recorder in his right hand cradled in the crook of his left elbow. The lower end of the recorder is out of frame.
  • Recorder Player, oil on canvas, 57.0 × 48.0 cm, Giuseppe Angeli (1710–1798). Venice: Galleria Civica di arte Medievale, Moderna e Contemporanea Vittorio Emanuele II, Inv. 488. A boy in a brown cap leans slightly backwards holding a small baroque-style recorder in his left hand.

Pieter Angellis

German painter active in Düsseldorf, Antwerp, London, Rome and Rennes who painted conversation-pieces, and landscapes with small figures into which he often introduced fruit and fish; born Dunkirk (1685), died  Rennes (1734).

  • Elegant Company Making Music on a Terrace (1719), oil on canvas, 74 × 62 cm, Pieter Angellis (1685–1734). London: Sotheby’s, 13 June 2002, Lot 4. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische, illustration 17522 (2014, b&w). A group of men and women listen to a woman seated at a table playing a guitar. Before her, a man leans back on his chair, a violin in one hand, a score in the other. Beneath his chair are a taille d’hautbois (a tenor oboe) and an alto baroque recorder, the head and body separated. A boy stands in front of the musicians, a parrot perched on his outstretched hand. There is a meaningful exchange of glances between the two musicians. A pendant to this, auctioned at the same sale, depicts a similar scene around a dining table.

Shirley Venit Anger (contemporary), USA

Shirley Venit Anger won her first award in 1978. After receiving many awards and honors in the years thereafter, her name was entered into the International Who’s Who of Contemporary Art in 1985, Cambridgeshire, England. Her latest achievements were the First Prize winners at the Fiber [sic.], Pen and Brush Club for 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1995. Shirley Venit Anger graduated at Cooper Union Art School in New York and gained her B.S. degree in Art Education from New York University. She also taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School for six years.

  • Recorder Player (1999), batik on silk, 26 × 34 cm, Shirley Venit Anger (contemporary). Ref. Website: Sarah’s Gifts (no longer available). A young girl plays a stylised, flared-bell recorder.

Christof [Christoph] Angermair

German ivory-carver and sculptor, the first in a line of 17th-century south German ivory-carvers who served the taste of princely and aristocratic patrons for small-scale carvings for their Kunstkammern; his works reveal a high degree of virtuosity in which minute details are worked with a precision reminiscent of the goldsmith’s art; born Weilheim, Bavaria (ca 1580), died Munich (1633).

  • Pan Making Music with Shepherds, (1618-1624), ivory relief carving from the inside of the lh door of the coin cabinet of Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria (1573– 1651), 18 × 13 cm, Christof Angermair ( c.1580–1633). Detail 1 (columnar bass recorder), detail 2 (small flared-bell recorder). Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung, Inv. R 4909. Ref. Munrow (1976: 39, b&w); Early Music 22 (3): 449, b&w (1994); Lêgene (2005: 343, pl. 9, b&w); Munich RIdIM (2009, Mbnm – 205 a).  Pan, the shepherd’s god, takes part in a pastoral concert, playing his syrinx. On the left in the foreground are a curved cornetto, a racket and a bass recorder (of columnar design). On the right, are a trombone and a small narowly obconical recorder played with all fingers of the lowermost hand covering their holes. In the background, are a small shawm, a flute and a crumhorn (played without a windcap). A small child in the foreground beats time. One of several panels on the door fronts of the cabinet. The rh door depicts an allegory of music in which women sing and play lute, bass viol, organ, violin, and harp.
  • Pan Making Music with Shepherds, (1618-1624), ivory relief carving copy after Christof Angermair ( c.1580–1633). Chicago: Loyola University Museum of Art. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography LI-840 (2023, col.)  Pan, the shepherd’s god, takes part in a pastoral concert, playing his syrinx. On the left in the foreground are a curved cornetto, a racket and a bass recorder (of columnar design). On the right, are a trombone and a small narowly obconical recorder played with all fingers of the lowermost hand covering their holes. In the background, are a small shawm, a flute and a crumhorn (played without a windcap). A small child in the foreground beats time. One of several panels on the door fronts of the cabinet. The rh door depicts an allegory of music in which women sing and play lute, bass viol, organ, violin, and harp.

Cornelis Anthonisz. [Cornelis Teunissen, Teunisz. or Theunissen]

Netherlandish painter, etcher, designer of woodcuts, and cartographer who experimented with anamorphosis (an ingenious perspective technique used to give a distorted image of the subject represented in a picture when seen from the usual viewpoint, but so executed that if viewed from a particular angle, or reflected in a curved mirror, the distortion disappears and the image in the picture appears normal); also painted group portraits; born ca 1499, died Amsterdam (1553); maternal grandson of designer of woodcuts and painter Jacob Cornelisz. van Ootsanen (1470–1533).

  • De bras penning maal tijd (1533), oil on panel, 130.0 × 206.5 cm, Cornelis Anthonisz. (ca 1499–1553). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum. Ref. Fischer (1982: 42–43). Group portrait of a company of crossbowmen, around a table. Whilst the man seated at the top right-hand corner of the table is taking what looks like a recorder out of its case, the man to his immediate right has in his hand the Discantus part of the song In mijnen sin, the words of which are:

In mijnen sin hadde ick vercoren
een suyver maechdeken ionck van daghen;
schoonder wijf en was noyt geboren
ter werelt wijt, na mijn behaghen.

Om haren wille so wil ick waghen
beyde lijf ende daer toe goet;
mocht ic noch troost aen haer beiaghen,
so waer ick vro, daer ic nu trueren moet.

In my thoughts I had chosen
A virgin young in days.
A more beautiful woman had
never been born
in all the world to my delight.

For her sake I would risk
both life and goods;
if I could I arouse some hope from her,
I would be glad whereas now I am in distress.

Apollonio di Giovanni (di Tomaso) [Dido Master; Master of the Jarves Cassoni; Virgil Master; Compagno di Pesellino]

Italian painter and illuminator influenced by Filippo Lippi, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Paolo Uccello; for much of his working life, from ca 1446 to 1458 and perhaps later, he was in partnership with Marco del Buono di Marco (?1403–p.1480); he specialized in secular work, painting cassoni (rich and showy chests, which may be inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso, ground then painted and gilded, usually given to a bride on her marriage), deschi da parto (birth trays), spalliere (panels attached to furniture or set into wall panelling), images for private devotion and other furnishings, as well as illuminating manuscripts; born Florence (ca 1416), died Florence (1465).

  • The Banquet of Dido and Aeneas, cassone, attributed to Apollonio di Giovanni (ca 1416–1465). Hannover: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). To the right of a table with three diners set on a dais (eight other diners are at two tables on each side of the steps up to the dais), two musicians play a small lute and an alto-sized recorder. The latter is held with all fingers on, left hand lowermost with the little finger extended. The instrument itself is not clearly depicted but seems to be cylindrical with a short, slight bell-flare, possibly with an ornamental ring at the end. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Frank Applegate

Early modernist American art-teacher, painter, sculptor, ceramicist; in 1921 he moved to Santa Fe where he was immediately drawn into the art of the Native American and Hispanic cultures and became a moving force in the Santa Fe art scene; his output includes figure and landscape paintings and wood carvings, many depicting Pueblo Indian life; born Atlanta, Illinois (1881), died Santa Fe, New Mexico (1931).

  • Penitentes (ca 1930), cottonwood sculpture, 33.8 × 52 cm, Frank Applegate (1881–1931). Santa Fe: Montez Gallery. Ref. GuestLife New Mexico (1999/2000: 86a, col.) Two Indian figures approach a standing cross. The first prays; the second plays a narrow flared pipe; the third flagellates himself. Whilst the pipe almost certainly depicts an American Indian love-flute (with which Applegate, as a cultural preservationist, would have been well familiar), there is no trace of the external windway characteristic of that instrument which thus just might represent an internal duct-flute of either European or native American origin.

Thomas van Apshoven

Flemish painter specialising in rural scenes; born Antwerp (1622), died 1643.

  • Landscape, oil on canvas, Thomas van Apshoven (1622–1643). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002, col.) A rocky landscape with cattle and sheep resting in a gorge, watched by a shepherd playing a flared-bell pipe (possibly a recorder), and by another with a mule.

Francesco Faraone Aquila

Italian line-engraver; born Palermo (1676), died Rome (1740); nephew and pupil of famous engraver Pietro Aquila.

  • Frontispiece: Pietro-Jacobo Martello, Opere: della Tragedia Antica e Moderna dialogo; Teatro; Versi e Prose, published by L. Dall Volpe in seven volumes (1723–1735), print, Francesco Faraone Aquila (1676–1740). Location unknown: sold by Maggs Bros Ltd, London, October 1968. Ref. Sale Catalogue 913 (1968: No. 130); Paris RIdIM (2000). A female figure stands beneath tasselled drapes between two walls before a garden. In the foreground, musicians play harpsichord, violin, lute and two similar-looking slender pipes one of which is completely visible, the other only partly so. The partially visible pipe could be a transverse flute (although the embouchure hole is not visible, the player appears to be blowing across the instrument), but the other seems to be held between the lips and thus may represent a recorder since all fingers of the lowermost hand seem to be occupied in covering their holes. It must be said that there are rather more finger-holes than digits to cover them.

R. Arnold

English painter about whom nothing seems to be known; active 1682.

  • Still-life , oil on canvas, 108.0 × 181.6 cm,  R. Arnold (op. 1682). Private Collection (currently with Peter Tilou, New York).  Sotheby’s (New York), Old Master and 19th-century European Art, 30 January 2015, Lot 406. Ref. Website: greatbassviol.com ; Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 272962 (2014, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-371 (2023, col.) On a harpsichord lie a candlestick, a goblet, a viola, a lute and a baroque recorder with ivory beak and mid-joint, only the head and first two finger-holes visible. To the left is a bass viol (with its bridge upside-down). To the right is a desk on which various objects are arranged including a globe, a clock, a platter of fruit, a shell, a portrait, papers, and a jar. An inscription lower right reads IDEM PRAES / TANT IN TABULA / ORDO ET DISPOSITIO / QUOD IN MUSICA / HARMONIA  which might be translated as ‘Just as in music there is harmony, so in painting there is order and there is composition.’ The only other work known by this painter depicts a bracket clock, a violin, some gold chains, and a sheet of music, and was inscribed Arnold 1682 (sold at at the auction of the Tyrwhitt-Drake Collection held at Christie’s on 25 July 1952.

Louis Arnould d’Arondeau

French artist born into a family that worked for the Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris; he worked as Haut Lissier, eventually becoming a Maître Tapissier; with his young brother François, he was introduced to the Court of the Prince Elector of Munich in 1718 where they were joined by Jean-François Petitjean and François Carré to form the group known as “The Four French Tapestry Makers”.

  • Bavarian Coat of Arms with Captured Turks and Military Trophies (1724), tapestry, Louis Arnould d’Arondeau. Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Inv. T 3818. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2002: Mbnm – 98); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Website: Alamy Stock Photo FFMB38 (2016, col.) Two bound Turks sit uncomfortably amongst a litter of weapons and military supplies in front of a plinth on which is carved a warlike scene. The plinth is surmounted by two female figures one (? Peace) holding a straight trumpet, the other (? Victory) a sword. A trophy to the left of the trumpeter comprises a folded trumpet, an oboe and a recorder crossed and tied with a tassel. The recorder is a three-piece baroque-style instrument of alto size, only the head and foot are visible. To the right of the swordswomen is a trophy in which a horn, an oboe and a sword are crossed. An ornamental border includes a number of musical instruments including a second baroque recorder, only the head of which is visible. Elsewhere are flutes, straight trumpets and a side drum. The association of the recorder with war here is a curious one; but both instruments are on the side of Peace. This is not the modern Bavarian coat of arms.

Jacques d’Arthois [or Artois]

Flemish landscape painter, draughtsman and collector specialising in large wooded landscapes with figures often added by other artists; made tapestry cartoon designer of the city of Brussels in 1655; born Brussels (1613), died Brussels (1686).

  • Landscape, canvas 114 × 187 cm, Jacques d’Arthois (1613–1686). Brussels: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 990. Ref. Leppert (1977: 6). A rustic country scene in which a shepherd plays a duct-flute, (possibly a recorder).

Jacques d’Arthois & Gonzales Coque

Flemish genre and portrait painter Gonzales Coque, known as the ‘little van Dyck’; a student of Pieter II Bruegel, the younger; born Antwerp 1618 (or less likely 1614), died 1684.

  • Picnic, Jacques d’Arthois (Brussels, 1613–1686) & Gonzales Coques (1614/1618–1684). Private Collection. Ref. BMRBA XVI (1967: 196, fig. 23); Leppert (1977: 7). At a bourgeois picnic, children play a small recorder, violin, viol & guitar.

David Adolf Constant Artz

Dutch collector and painter; member of the Hague School (1860–1890), a group of artists (including Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian) who rejected traditional views and the ‘history’ painting style that dominated art academies of the day – instead of idealizing their subjects, they tried to imbue their paintings with a realistic representation of what they saw; worked in Paris (1886-1874); born 1837, died 1890.

  • Idylle: A Happy Tune (19th century), oil on canvas, 111 × 81 cm, David Adolf Constant Aratz (1837–1890). Loc. Unknown, auctioned Christie’s (Amsterdam), 25 April 2007, Lot 124. Ref. Auction Catalogue: Sale 2740, 19th-century European Art (2007); Constance Scholten ex Anthony Rowland Jones (pers. comm., 2009). A shepherd boy plays a small slender pipe but with his hands in a position almost perfect for recorder playing. Some cows graze in the background.

Cosmas (or Kosmas) Damian Asam

German (Bavarian) architect, decorator, and fresco painter who developed further the dramatic light effects of Italian illusionism; worked mainly on large commissions, painting and sometimes also acting as architect, sometimes collaborating with his brother Egid Quirin; born Benediktbeuren (1686), died Munich (1739); son of Hans Georg Asam (1649–1711), brother of Egid Quirin Asam (1692–1750).

  • [Nativity], ceiling fresco, Cosmas Damian Asam (1686–1739). Weingarten: Abtei Weingarten (near Lake Constance, South Germany). Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). An angel at the right holds a small turned baroque soprano recorder in his right hand. All the instrument is visible with the exception of the foot-joint. Another angel plays a bass viol and a the left behind the shepherds an angel plays an oboe. Above the recorder player on the right an angel plays a lute held vertically.
  • Heaven  (1718–1720), ceiling fresco, Cosmas Damian Asam (1686–1739). Detail. Weingarten: Katholische Kirchengemeinde St Martin, Basilica, above the middle of the basilica crossing and transepts. Ref. eBay (Germany), item 291028427125 (December 2013, col.) Amongst the clouds, an angel sings, another holds an enormous key, and one holds a perfectly depicted baroque recorder. A putto holds an enormous spear, one holds a golden goblet, one holds a picture of Christ on a cloth, two hold open books, another holds a crown of thorns aloft.
  • Nativity (1717), fresco, Cosmas Damian Asam (1686–1739). Michelfeld: Langhaus (Orgeljoch). Ref. Hanfstaengl (1939: pl. 2); Rupprecht (1980); Bushart et al. (1986: pl. 10, col.); Rasmussen (1999). A shepherd blows an alphorn. Others play bagpipe and shawm. Angels play cello, lute, two recorders (?) and tambourine.

Cosmas (or Kosmas) Damian Asam & Egid Quirin [Aegidius Quirinus] Asam

  • Decoration on organ shutters (?1692–1750), Cosmas Damian Asam (1686–1739) & Egid Quirin Asam (1692–1750). Freising (near Munich): St Maria und St Korbinian Domkirche. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999). The shutters on each side are decorated with many musical instruments. On the right hand side, above the main group of instrumentalists, an angel dressed in blue looks down from a cloud playing a slender, slightly outwardly conical pipe. The lip and hand positions are correct for a recorder, but no finger-holes or window/labium are visible. The bottom of the instrument is hidden by cloud. The building itself dates from 1624; new additions, (possibly including the organ shutters) were undertaken from 1692–1750.

Egid Quirin [Aegidius Quirinus] Asam

Egid Quirin Asam was a German (Bavarian) architect, decorator, sculptor, painter and stuccoist; born 1692, died 1750; son of Hans Georg Asam (1649-1711), brother of Cosmas Damian Asam (1686-1739).

  • [Musical Angel] (1721), stucco-work, Egid Quirin Asam (1692–1750). Innsbruck: Domkirche zu St Jakob, side of window above Emperor’s gallery. Ref. Prof. Wolfram Köberl, Innsbruck ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm, 2002). “The Emperor’s gallery was originally in the Palace Chapel, so this part of the stucco-work is not visible from floor level. An angel plays a beautifully modelled late alto recorder of late baroque design, left hand lowermost, in perfect playing position with all fingers down.

Denys van Alsoot

Flemish artist who pioneered the Brussels landscape school; he joined the painters guild there in 1599, around the same time that he was named official painter to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, for whom he created landscape paintings, images of court festivities, and designs for at least one set of tapestries; born Malines (1570), died Brussels (1628).

  • The Ommeganck in Brussels on 31 May 1615: The Triumph of Archduchess Isabella (1616), oil on canvas, 117 × 381 cm, Denys van Alsloot (1570–1628). Detail. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. 5928-1859. Ref. CD cover, The King’s Noyse (director D. Douglass), Mascharada, Harmonia Mundi (? date); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). This great procession (or Ommeganck) was held annually in Brussels to commemorate the translation centuries earlier of miraculous image of the Virgin from Antwerp to a church in Brussels. In 1615 an especially splendid show was provided to honour the able and popular Archduchess Isabella (1556–1633), daughter of Philip II of Spain and sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, who in that year was Queen of the Fete. In this, the fifth in a series of six paintings by Asloot and commissioned by Isabella herself, a procession of triumphal floats and chariots on the Grand Place in Brussels with many colourful figures and banners; in the background are the typical narrow and high houses of Brussels, with people at the balconies. Musicians play from a balcony overlooking a triumphal barge. Their instruments include harps, tambourine (with jingles), triangle (with jingle rings), lutes, rebec, cello, and a cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder.

Rachid Assaiev

Russian painter who studied under I. Korolev at the Institute of Fine Arts, Moscow; many of his works are ultra-realistic in style; born Astrakan (1947).

  • Allegory of Music (1985), oil on canvas, 182 × 151 cm, Rachid Assaiev (1947–). Location unknown. Ref. Sale catalogue (? date: lot 72); Paris RIdIM (2000). A pipe organ is forced into a corner of a room by a grand piano. Other instruments are piled upon them and litter the floor, including double bass, cello, horn, trumpet, saxophone, drums, mandolin, cymbals and two small recorders (on the floor, bottom right. The beaks of both of the latter are clearly visible, and the nearest has seven finger-holes in line. A large drape hangs behind the organ, and sheet-music is littered everywhere and even stuck on the walls.

Gioacchino Assereto

Italian artist known for his depictions of religious and classical subjects and his vivid narrative painting; born Genoa (1600), died Genoa (1649).

  • The Duet, oil on canvas, 101.7 × 90.7 cm, attributed to Giocchino Assereto (1600–1649). Location unknown: offered for sale by Bonham’s (London), Old Master Paintings, 9–10 July 2003, Lot 336; auctioned 22 November 2005 (unsold).  Ref. Sale Catalogue (2003: 187, col.); Constance Scholten (pers. comm., 2005); Gabrius Databank (2007, col.) An old woman sings from a score held in one hand whilst she beats time with the other. She is accompanied by a young girl who plays a cylindrical, soprano-sized recorder, reading from music propped up against a table. The beak and window/labium of the recorder are clearly depicted, and the fingers disposed as for recorder player, with the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand covering its hole.

Michael Astrapas and Eutychios [Mihailo and Evtihij ] (op. 1294–1317/18)

Macedonian artists, possibly recruited from Thessalonika, who were court painters to the Serbian King Uros II Milutin (reigned 1282–1321); their dramatic expressiveness was the basis for the new trend in Byzantine art from this epoch, called “The Renaissance of the Paleologues”; their frescoes have been compared to the work of Giotto.

  • Ecce homo: The Mocking of Jesus (1315–1317/1318), fresco, Michael Astrapas and Eutychios. Staro Nagoričane (village E of Kumanova, Macedonia): Church of Sveti Djordje [St George], North wall. Ref. Đurić  (1976: pl. 33, col.); Bärenreiter, Musica Calendar (1986, col.); Archiv Moeck; Pejovic (1995); Marjanović (1995); Rowland-Jones (1998a: 129, b&w; 1999c: 14, fig. 5, b&w; 2006c: 13–15 & fig. 13a-b, col.); Bridgeman Art Library (2002: Image JB140730, col.); Wikimedia Commons (2012, col.); Lasocki (2023: 37). Michael and Eutychios began to decorate the church in 1315, after the defeat of the Turks by their patron King Stefan Uroš II Milutin, and completed their work in 1317 or 1318. After his arrest in Jerusalem and either just before or after his appearance before Caiphas, Christ was set upon by the Jews and subjected to various indignities. Some began to spit on him, blindfolded him, and struck him with their fists. Here, Christ is not only mocked but tormented by a crew of evil looking musicians: two blow enormous curved trumpets, one bangs on a huge snare drum, and a youth with a sly grin tweets away on a cylindrical duct-flute (quite possibly a recorder). Four young boys parody a dance of homage in a hypocritically submissive posture at Jesus’ feet, one of them clashing cymbals at the same time. The characteristic beak and window/labium of the duct-flute are clearly depicted. There are open holes for all four fingers of the lowermost hand (which is off the instrument), and holes for each of the three raised fingers of the upper hand are also clearly visible. Rowland-Jones (1998c: 129) doubts that the artist here has shown us the first recorder, arguing that “the length of the instrument between the lower hole to the bell-end, however, although there is no flare, is characteristic of shawms.” Later, Rowland-Jones (2006: 15) writes: “The instrument may be an early version of the short cylindrical six-holed frula, the most popular of present-day Serbian duct-flutes. The position of the player’s right thumb makes it unlikely that the instrument has a thumb-hole; there are no paired little-finger holes, and the hole very close to the bell-end is probably for tuning as it is out of reach of the player’s left little finger.” It is possible that Rowland-Jones’ observations were based on low-resolution images of this fresco. To my eyes, the instrument depicted here clearly has holes for seven fingers (see above) and, in my estimation, a recorder is a real possibility. Although the thumb of the player’s uppermost hand is held awkwardly at the side of the instrument, his purpose is to create noise rather than music. This fresco is very different from the stereotyped frescoes of the same period found elsewhere in the region, and it may record a theatrical performance of an earlier time. Data from the religious literature of thirteenth-century Serbia reveal that church authorities forbade their congregation to attend gatherings where actors performed. In the work Eulogy to Saint Simeon and Saint Sava, Teodosije (1264–1328), a monk at the Serbian monastery of Hilandar and a writer, pointed out that opposed to the heavenly beauty of the church was “the actor’s odious theatre” which had been organised on the street and to which people gathered, regardless of the weather, where they watched and listened insanely to harmful devilish songs and indecent, rude words all the way to the end. The traits of once-staged scenes and old sport festivities lived on in the Serbian milieu during the fourteenth century as well (Marjanović 1995). I further note that Matthias Grunewald’s (1470/80–1528) The Mocking of Christ (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) includes a pipe-and-tabor player amongst his torturers. And in The Mocking of Christ, School of Lucas Cranach (1472–1553), Lot 5 auctioned by Lempertz, Cologne, 20 March 2013, a Roman soldier mocks the partially blindfolded Christ by putting a recorder to his lips.

Margaret Alison Atkins

English artist and illustrator; born Fulham (1878), died 1919.

  • Listen to my Sweet Pipings pen and ink and watercolour over pencil on drawing board, 26.1 × 14.3 cm, Margaret Alison Atkins (1878–1919). York: City Art Gallery. Ref. Bridgeman Art Gallery (2005: Image YAG135533). A pixie-like girl sits beneath a flowering tree playing a slender, slightly flared pipe. In the foreground are foxgloves. A banner in the bottom right-hand corner give the title, and beneath is a strain of music.

Émile Aubry

Algerian-born painter of mythological and religious subjects as well as portraits; and born Sétif (1880), died Voutenay-sur-Cure (1964).

  • Bacchanale, oil on canvas, 89 × 116 cm, Émile Aubry (1880–1964). Paris: Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Inv. RF 1978-41. Ref. Joconde Website (1999). A mythological procession which includes a two leopards, a youth holding a cornucopia filled with fruit, three winged putti, a centaur holding a youthful Bacchus up in the air and also with a naked woman reclining on his back, a centaur ridden by a man; another naked woman dancing to music provided by a faun playing a long very narrowly conical pipe (featureless and hardly a recorder, as Joconde have it), and a ram bringing up the rear.

Benoit Audran

French engraver, from a family of distinguished French artists; his works comprise more than 200 prints, amongst them reproductions of paintings by such artists as Le Brun, François Verdier, Eustache Le Sueur and Pierre Mignard, but also numerous vignettes for books, among them a famous series (1718) for the Greek myth Daphnis et Chloé after compositions by the Regent, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans; born Lyon (1661), died Louzouer, Loiret (1721).

  • Chloé Calls the Cattle and Rescues Daphnis by Playing the Flute (late 18th century), ink on rose paper, 20 × 15.7 cm, Benoit Audran (1661–1721). Chantilly: Musée Condé, Inv. DE 451. Ref. Joconde Website (2007, col.) Chloé stands beneath a tree playing an alto-sized pipe with a flared bell, possibly a recorder. In front of her, Daphnis is carried ashore holding on to the horns of two bulls.

Baron von Aufsess [Aufsees, Aufseß]

Member of a German family whose original seat was at Unteraufseß castle in Aufsess, Upper Franconia. Members of this family held important Roman Catholic Church posts in Bamberg.

  • Peasant Wedding in Albania (1784), aquarelle and crayon on paper, 32.0 × 19.5 cm, Baron von Aufsess (18th century). Regensburg: Thurn und Taxis Zentralarchiv und Hofbibliothek, Inv. B VIII d.3. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Rttba 48). A rather naive picture of a street procession following a wedding. The people are in traditional dress. The instruments being played are eight lutes, a violin and a recorder. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).

Geoffroy Augustin & Jean-Pierre Pelissier

French stone masons working in Visan (Vaucluse), late 18th century.

  • Trophy, carved stone boss (1778), Geoffroy Augustin & Jean-Pierre Pelissier. Visan (Vaucluse): Chapelle Notre-Dame des Vignes, on the second span. Ref. Website: Iconographie de la cornamuse (2009). Depicts lyre, violin, recorder, flute, horn, trumpet, bagpipes, triangle, tambourine and a score.

John Austin (18th century), English

  • Recorders and Music (1703–1705), carved wooden trophies by ?John Austin. Cambridge: Christ’s College, organ case. Ref. Thomson & Rowland-Jones (1995: front cover, 150, fig. 35B). Two wooden recorders in each of two trophies at either side of the front of the organ case. In front of the crossed recorders are part-books of music. The trophy on the left of the console is headed Sinphony Flauto Primo; that on the right Sinphony Flauto Secundo. The music is possibly by Lord William Biron who composed some Symphonys for 2 Flutes, or by Charles Quarles, Organist of Trinity College and of Christ’s College who was responsible for the installation of the new organ in 1705.

Antoine Avernier, Arnould Bourlin & Alexandre Huet

French wood-carvers whose 16th-century gothic-style work is considered the finest of its kind.

  • Nativity (1508–1519), wood-carving, Antoine Avernier, Arnould Boulin & Alexandre Huet. Amiens: Cathédrale Notre Dame, choir stalls. Ref. Macrez (2006); Gilloire & Gense (2007); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). The carvings on these choir stalls comprise some 400 biblical and every-day life scenes, with several thousand figures, all full of character. Only two panels have musical angels, both on opposite sides of the stalls end-panels by the entrance to the choir from the nave. The south-side end panel has a Nativity scene with eight musical angels hovering above, playing nakers, bagpipes, portative organ (very clear in tiny detail), harp, lute, vielle (damaged) and two pipes. Both pipes are held with the hands close together towards the lower part of the instruments which are cylindrical but with marked bell flare. The pipe-player to the left has an alto-sized instrument, played slightly from the side of the mouth, but the face is relaxed. The pipe towards the right is the same length but is held at the top and appears to be a basset recorder with the upper part broken away. Interestingly, its angel player is represented as older than the alto pipe player. The context and the choice of instruments strongly suggests that the pipes represent recorders. It is all far too small for any detailing such as window/labium or finger-holes. The two angel musicians on the opposite bench panel are not playing pipes.

Avi

Pen name of Edward Irving Wortis, acclaimed US young adult and  children’s book writer; lives and works in Boulder, Colorado; born New York (1937).

  • Inside cover illustration: Crispin: The Cross of Lead, Avi (2002). Published by Hyperion, New York. Ref. Patrick O’Malley (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2003). Illustration for a story set in 14th century Italy. The inside cover depicts Crispin playing a neo-baroque recorder, right hand uppermost, whilst behind him Orson Hrothgar (alias Bear) juggles three balls.

Pieter [Peeter] van Avont

Flemish painter, draughtsman, printmaker and publisher active Mechelen and Antwerp; he collaborated with Jan Brueghel the Elder, David Vinckboons, Lucas van Uden and Jan Wildens, amongst others; born Mechelen (1600), died Deurne (1652).

  • ‘Sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus’ [Without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus would Freeze], oil on copper, 30.5 × 38.8 cm, Pieter van Avont (1600–1652). New York: Christies, Sale 1529, Old Master Paintings, 25 May 2005, Lot 234. Ref. Website: Christie’s (2012, col.) Venus sits between Bacchus (with a pitcher of wine and a large goblet from which a winged putto is sipping) and Ceres (with her basket of fruit and veg.) At their feet sit two putti, one exploring a basket of grapes, the other tootling away on a conical pipe, possibly a recorder, though no details are visible. A faun is delivering a basket of yet more grapes.
  • [Bacchantes] (ca 1647), etching on paper, 14.0 × 20.8 cm, by Wenceslaus [Wenzel] Hollar (1607–1677) after Pieter van Avont (1600–1652). London: British Museum, Inv. 1870,0709.738. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012). Four young boys carrying on their shoulders a fifth, crowned with a wreath of grapes, and a sixth approaching from right, playing a recorder. Not seen.
  • Putti and Satyrs (ca 1647), etching on paper, variously 13.3–14 × 20.5–20.8 cm, by Wenceslaus [Wenzel] Hollar (1607–1677) after Pieter van Avont (1600–1652). London: British Museum, Inv. 1853,0312.223, 1870,0709.737 & 1875,0710.619. Ref. Website: British Museum (2012). A young boy crowned with a wreath of grapes, holding a bunch of grapes, lifted by a young satyr and a boy over the back of a third boy, watched by a fourth, holding up a jug; a satyr playing a tambourine at right, and a boy playing a recorder; a goat grazing behind at left. Not seen.
  • Children’s Concert (1646), etching, 124 × 206 mm, Wenseslaus [Wenzel] Hollar (1607–1677) after Pieter van Avont (1600–1652). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-11.231. Ref. Website: gallica (2012, b&w); Website, flickr: Alessio Bacci’s photostream (2014, b&w). Eight winged putti make music. One conducts the others who play timpani, violin, cornetto, lute, cello and a recorder with a flared bell.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Artists–A. Last accessed 19 March 2024. https://www.recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/artists/