Artists–P

Girolamo del Pacchia

Italian painter whose religious frescoes  been confused with that of his teacher Giacomo Pacchiarotti (1474 – p. 1540); born Siena (c.1477), died ? Siena (p.1533); he was the son of a Hungarian cannon-founder.

  • Ascension of Christ (1512), Girolamo del Pacchia (c.1477–p.1533). Siena: Chiesa di San Niccolò al Carmine. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Wikimedia Commons (2019, col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2351 (2023, col.)  Watched by the Apostles below, Jesus, in a mandorla surrounded by cherubs, ascends to Heaven which he himself is indicating with one of his hands. He is surrounded by angel musicians playing rebec, lute, porcine psaltery, harp, and a long and slender cylindrical pipe, probably a recorder. The bottom part of the painting shows the Virgin Mary among the apostles; almost all the characters have their head and eyes fixed on the figure of the Resurrected Christ, which occupies the upper half of the painting.

Padovanino II [Alessandro Varotari]

Italian artist; a follower of Titian whose works he often copied; he later developed his own personal style with the use of Baroque elements and precious decorations; his works include religious, mythological and allegorical subjects; born 1588, died Venice 1648.

  • A Concert (ca 1580), oil on canvas, 99.1 × 125.1 cm, ? Padovanino II (1588-1648). London: National Gallery, NG3. Ref. Robbins Landon & Norwich (1991: 57 – b&w, detail). A young woman listens to a group of musicians. A young boy sings, another plays a recorder of which only the beak is visible, a third plays a cello, a fourth (on whose shoulder the young woman leans) appears to be conducting. This work is attributed by the National Gallery to an imitator of Titian. There is another version of it in a private collection in Venice (see below); there is an engraving by Thomas Garner (1789-1868) in the British Museum, London, in which the recorder is reduced to little more than a straw; and there is a woodcut based on it by John Linnell (1792-1882) in the Tate Gallery, London, in which the recorder is omitted altogether.
  • A Concert (ca 1620), attributed to Padovanino II (1588-1648). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Ruggeri (1993: 9, 88 – col.); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A young woman listens to a group of musicians. A young boy sings, another plays a recorder of which only the beak is visible, a third plays a cello, a fourth (on whose shoulder the young woman leans) appears to be conducting. This work has been attributed to Titian. There is another version of it in the National Gallery, London (see above).
  • A Concert / Group of Five Musicians, oil on canvas, attributed to Padovanino II (1588-1648). Location unknown, possibly the same as the above (ie Venice: Private Collection). Ref. Gabrius Databank (2002). A young woman listens to a group of musicians. A young boy sings, another plays a recorder of which only the beak is visible, a third plays a cello, a fourth (on whose shoulder the young woman leans) appears to be conducting. This has also been attributed to Titian. There are other versions of this in the National Gallery, London, and in a Ventian private collection (see above).
  • A Concert / A Music Party (1836), print, 21.5 × 27.2 cm, etching & engraving by Thomas Garner (1789-1868), after Padovanino II (1588-1648). London: British Museum, Inv. 1861,1214.54. Ref. Gabrius Databank (2002). A young woman listens to a group of musicians. A young boy sings, another plays a recorder of which only the beak is visible, a third plays a cello, a fourth (on whose shoulder the young woman leans) appears to be conducting. There are versions of the original in the National Gallery, London, and in a Venetian private collection (see above) which have been attributed to Titian (see above).

Paesch (? 17-18th century)

  • Rest on the Flight to Egypt, Paesch (? 17-18th century). Location unknown. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Includes a shepherd playing a slightly conical soprano-sized pipe (possibly a recorder) which is narrow at the mouth and has a hole beside the little finger of the lowermost (left) hand. One finger hole shows between the hands.

Benedetto Pagni

Italian painter of the mannerist period active in Mantua and Pescia; he was part of the team of assistants of Giulio Romano in the decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and he painted a Martyrdom of San Lorenzo for the church of Sant’Andrea, and a Marriage of Cana for the cathedral in Pescia which is considered his finest work; active 1524, died 1578.

  • Portrait of a Young Man, oil on wood, 17.5 × 78.1 cm, Benedetto Pagni (fl. 1524 – m.1578). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 56.51. Ref. Zeri (1971: 208); Fredericksen & Zeri (1972: 212, 527, 609); Rasmussen (1999, Lute); Website: Metropolitan Museum of Art (2016 – b&w); Website: Lute Iconography LI-236 (2023, b&w.) This arresting portrait has been incorrectly attributed to the Lucchese artist Paolo Zacchia (op. 1519 – ca 1561). In the background are vanitas objects: (at left) music books, an oil lamp, a recorder (only the foot visible), and a trumpet; (at right) a porphyry chalice, a quill pen in an ink-stand, a seal, a pair of scissors, and a lute. The sword is either German or North Italian. The dog, whose left foreleg is held by the young page, probably symbolizes fidelity.

Anthonie [Antonie] Palamedes [Palamedesz.]

Dutch baroque painter known for his portraits and genre works, notably ‘Galant Companies’ and military scenes; born 1601, died 1673; brother of Palamedes Palamedesz. (1607-1638), a painter of battle scenes.

  • Party in a Park, Anthonie Palamedes (1601-1673). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Depicts a group of men and women around a table at the end of a meal. At the corner at the near end of the table a man plays a violone and another a lute. At the other end of the table a couple are deep in conversation; behind them a man seems to be playing a long slender pipe: it may be a recorder, but he might just as well be smoking.
  • A Bal Masque with Figures in an Interior (1634), oil on panel, 84.0 × 114.2 cm, circle of Anthonie Palamedes (1601-1673). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Sale Old Master Paintings, 30 November 2010, Lot 82. A man and a woman dance to music provided by musicians playing viol, lute and a slender pipe, possibly a recorder. The remainder of the company look on.

Isaak Paling [Palingh] (op. 1664-1719), Dutch

Dutch artist who specialized in genre subjects and elegant portraits; in 1682 he moved to England where he produced portraits in the fashion of Sir Godfrey Kneller; born Leiden, died 1719.

  • Musical Concert on a Terrace with a Young Couple, oil on panel, 82.6 × 66.0 cm, Isaak Paling (op. 1664-1719). Location unknown: sold Sotheby’s (New York), Sale NY7481, Old Master Paintings, Thursday, 25 May 2000, Lot 38. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002-col.); Website: Artnet (2009 – col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-239 (2023, col.) Two gentlemen and a lady, sing and play instruments around a table watched by a young couple. One of the men sings, another (his back to us) plays the lute, and the woman plays a very small slender pipe, right hand uppermost. No details of the pipe are discernible. From the way the young man grasps his companion’s arm, and she in turn leans her head on his shoulder, her hand outstretched across her mid-riff it seems that they are expecting. The recorder and lute and the harmonious music-making serve to reinforce this happy impression. This work has formerly been attributed to Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682) and to Jacob van Loo (1614-1670).

Andrea Palladio (original name Andrea di Pietro della Gondola)

Italian sculptor and architect, regarded as the greatest architect of 16th-century northern Italy; his treatise I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570) made him one of the most influential figures in Western architecture; born Padua (1508), died Vincenza (1580).

  • Organ case: gilded wood decoration, Andrea Palladio. Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore, above altar. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) Two groups of gilded wooden instruments decorate pillars and arch over the organ in typical Palladian style. Instruments included are trombones, cornetti, shawms, lutes, a violin and two recorders – one on each side. Both recorders are cylindrical with very little or no flare. They have long beaks, and the window/labium of each is very clearly depicted. The lowest finger holes are mainly covered by other instruments. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)

Bernard Palissy

French portrait-painter, glass-painter, potter, land-surveyor and natural historian who spent much of his life in a failed attempt at discovering the secret of Chinese porcelain, succeeding only in creating the popular glazed terracotta rustic ware that bears his name; a personal favorite of Catherine de Medici, and of her sons, he was able to set up his kilns in Paris on the site that was to become the gardens of the Tuileries where he produced figurines and a large number of dishes and plaques ornamented with scriptural or mythological subjects in relief, in many cases reproductions of the pewter dishes of metal workers of the period; in the fanatical anti-Protestant outburst of 1588 he was thrown into one of the dungeons of the Bastille until his death; born Saintes or Agen (1510), died Paris (ca 1589). Nearly 250 years after Palissy’s death, Charles-Jean Avisseau (1796-1861), a middle-aged French ceramicist, rediscovered the techniques of Palissy which energized a revivalist movement that would last until the beginning of the twentieth century.

  • Shepherd and Shepherdess (18th century), lead-glazed polychrome plate, after a design by Bernard Palissy (1510 – ca 1589). Chateau d’Ecouen: Musée National de la Renaissance. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A shepherd plays his pipe, which may represent a recorder but the details are unclear.
  • Shepherd and Shepherdess (early 19th century), lead-glazed polychrome plate, 5.2 cm high × 23.7 cm diameter, after a design by Bernard Palissy (1510 – ca 1589). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 53.225.35. Made in Lot-et-Garonne. A buxom shepherdess minds the sheep whilst a shepherd leans against a tree playing his pipe, which may represent a recorder but the details are unclear. In the background is an imposing building with a dome, possibly a church.

Palma il Giovane [Jacopo Negretti, Nigreti or Nigretti] (1544-1628), Italian

Italian Mannerist painter who collaborated with Titian and was influenced by Raphael and Tintoretto; he painted religious subjects and mythologies; born Venice (1544), died Venice (1628); great-nephew of Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1480?-1528).

  • Glorification of Saint Cecilia (ca 1620), oil on canvas, 380 × 220 cm, Palma il Giovane. Detail. Venice: Chiesa di San Nicola da Tolentino, volta della cappella di santa Cecilia o dei Foscari. Ref. Goulaki-Voutira et al. (2003 – col.) St Cecilia ascends to heaven in a glory of angels and putti. The two angels on the left who are accompanying her carry a lute and a portative organ, symbols of the art of which Cecilia is a patron. The instruments are taken to Paradise, so that Cecilia can perform celestial music in her apparitions. At her feet, a putto holds a recorder in his right hand (some finger holes are visible) which might symbolically allude to the earthly, sensuous life, which Cecilia has renounced. The characteristic beak of the recorder is clearly depicted and it has a flared bell.

Jacopo Palma il Vecchio [Jacopo d’Antonio Negreti, Nigreti or Nigretti](1480-1528), Italian

Italian painter of the Venetian school; his paintings frequently feature his (so-called) daughter Violante, of whom Titian was said to be enamoured born; his lasting influence is seen in his pupil, Bonifazio Veronese (1487–1553), who is said to have influenced Tintoretto (1518–1594); Serina-Alta, near Bergamo (1544), died Venice (1528).

  • Adoration of the Shepherds (c.1518-1520), oil on panel, 105 × 136 cm, Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1480-1528). Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza, Inv. 269. Ref. Sopeña  Ibañez & Gallego (1972: 111-112). Shepherds pay homage to the Holy Family. One of the shepherds (between Mary and Joseph) holds in his hand two flared-bell duct flutes (possibly recorders). There is no entry for this work in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza’s online catalogue, and Inv. 269 is a Crucifixion by the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines. A sacra conversazione by Palma il Vecchio entitled The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor, Inv. 309, does not include musical instruments.

Marco Palmezzano

Italian painter and architect, mostly active near Forlì, who painted in a style recalling earlier Northern Renaissance models; born Forlì (ca 1458), died Forlì (1539).

  • The Mystic Mariage of Saint Catherine with the Archangel Raphael and Tobias (1537), oil on panel, 258.4 × 182.2 cm, Marco Palmezzano (ca 1458-1539). Private Collection. Ref. Grigoni (1956: pl. XLII); Rasmussen (1999, Lute); Bridgeman Art Library, Image CH827750 (2016-col.); Website: artnet.com. (2016); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2341 (2023, col.) St Catherine, (dressed as a princess and carrying a matyr’s palm), kneels on the predella before the enthroned Madonna and Child as the latter reaches out to grasp her finger. St Peter and St Anthony (meditating on an open book and holding a lily) stand on either side, and the archangel Raphael points to the scene for the benefit of a small boy beside him, recognizable as Tobias by virtue of the fish he holds. In front of the predella, three putti play an unusally wide vielle, a plucked lute and a slender, cylindrical duct flute (possibly a recorder).
  • Madonna col Bambino in trono tra i Santi Severo e Valeriano con tre Angeli Musicanti, painting, Marco Palmezzano (ca 1458-1539). Detail. Forli: Pinacoteca Civica “Melozzo degli Ambrogi”. Ref. Website: flickr, Alessio Bacci’s photostream (2014-col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2342, (2023, col.) Standing at the foot of the Madonna’s throne between the two saints, three winged putti play a trapezoid triangle (without jingle rings), conical duct flute, and an unusually wide vielle. The duct flute, possibly a recorder, has several finger holes visible and there is the hint of a window/labium.

Jonas Palmquist (1667-1702), ? Swedish

  • Recorder, drawing attributed to Jonas Palmquist (1667-1702). In a handwritten copy of Paulus Matthysz’ Vertoninge en Onderwyzinge op de Hand-fluit (1649). Ref. Legêne (1984); Carpenter (2005: 30). Shows a flared-bell recorder of the ‘Rosenborg’ type and thus somewhat different from that depicted by Matthysz. Note that the window of this instrument lacks side-walls.

Giovanni [Gian] Paolo Pannini [Panini]

Italian architect, designer, draftsman, and painter; best known for his innovative vedute (view paintings); also produced portraits, decorative frescoes, stage designs, architecture, carvings, festival decorations, and ecclesiastical furnishings; his views of festivals, ceremonies, and dignitaries’ visits offered lively documents of contemporary events; born Piacenza (ca 1692), died Rome (1765).

  • Architectural Fantasy with a Concert Party (ca 1716-1717), oil on canvas, 99.1 × 73.6 cm, Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1692-1765). Toledo (USA): Museum of Art, Inv. 1964.30. Ref. Gorney (1978: 96, fig. 7); Paris RIdIM (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2000); Website: Lute Iconography, Image 2343 (2023, col.) Musicians sing and play around a table. In the foreground, a theorbo player has his back to us. To the left is a consort of viols (treble, tenor, bass – the treble and tenor played on the shoulder!) Opposite the theorbist and facing us, two ladies sing and a lutenist (standing behind them) plays from a shared score. Beside them, to the right, a young man plays a large pipe with an ornate flared bell. Gorney (loc. cit) identifies this as a shawm, but surely that would be out of place in the present company. Since the instrument has a distinct beak it seems far more likely that it represents a tenor recorder.

Pietro Paolini (1603-1681), Italian (Lucca)

Italian painter of religious and historical works, portraits and still-lifes; he also created an original style, in which he painted cabinet pictures, often on musical or allegorical themes; born Lucca (1603), died Lucca (1681).

  • Pastore che suona la zufolo [Shepherd Playing a Pipe] (1650-1660), oil on canvas, 153.5 × 101.5 cm, Pietro Paolini (1603-1681). Lucca: Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi, Palazzo Mansi, Sala con Allegoria di Minerva. Ref. Warburg Institute, London; Website: cultura italia (2015-col.)  Formerly in a private collection in Casalmaggiore, Cremona. An elderly, bearded man, a cloth tied around his hair, wearing a leather jerkin, a tunic and sandals, plays a tenor-size, cylindrical duct flute (flageolet or recorder) with an elongate beak, the window/labium clearly visible. Although ‘zufolo’ refers to the flageolet or other usually six-holed pipe, the player seems to be using all fingers of his lowermost (right) hand, indicating that this may be a recorder.
  • Bacchic Concert (1625-1630), 117.5 cm × 174.6, Pietro Paolini (1603-1681). Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, The Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle Collection, Inv. 1987.17. Ref. Moir (1967); Pitman (2000: 150-col.); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003); Website: Lute Iconography LI-240 (2023, col.) Bacchus plays a cylindrical duct flute (recorder or flageolet) with three singers and a lutenist. The little finger of piper’s lowermost (left) hand is poised high in the air. The narrative of the painting is ambiguous, hinging perhaps on the sidelong glance of the figure at the right and the turned back of the woman at the far left who studies a sonnet by Petrach, a cittern slung across her back. Another possible key to the peculiar (and typically Caravaggist) mixture of the everyday (the group of musicians) and the mythological (the god of wine) apparently lies in the typical entertainments at grand weddings in seventeenth-century Rome where musicians frequently donned costumes from the wine harvest.

Paolo Fammingo = Pauwels Frank

Bernardino Parentino [Parenzano, da Parenzo, Pareçan; Bernardo Parenzano]

Italian artist whose highly unusual style was influenced by Mantegna together with some elements drawn from Ferrarese painting; born Parenzo [now Porec, Croatia] (1437), died Vicenza (1531). Some of his works are confused with those of Fra Lorenzo (aka Bernardo Parentino).

  • Three Putti Dancing Around a Vase / Grimacing Cherubs (p. 1482), pen and brown ink with traces of red wash, 18.8 × 20.3 cm, Barnardino Parentino (1437-1531). Location unknown. Ref. Website: Aspire Auctions, Works on Paper, Lot 88 (2002). A page from a collector’s album known as the “Moscardo Album”, belonging to the Veronese Badile family of artists. Three grimacing putti cavort around an urn, one holding a slender, flared duct flute. The window/labium is clearly visible, and the instrument has a turned and beaded foot.
  • Musicians, painting on canvas, 35.1 × 52.8 cm, Bernardino Parentino (1437-1531).  Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie 1628A. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2344 (2023, col.) A man in an extravagantly folded hat plays a long-necked lute; his female companion plays a long reed pipe. On the ground is a small drum. Leaning against a seat are a triangle and beater, and a slender duct flute (possibly a recorder). Magnified, however, the latter appears to represent a double pipe with one instrument longer than the other.
  • Musicians, painting on canvas, 36.0 × 52.8 cm, Bernardino Parentino (1437-1531).  Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, 1628. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). A man in Moorish dress with a turban plays a sigmoid (tenor) cornetto, and a boy plays a small slender duct flute. Another boy in a red smock dances in front of them.

Romano Parmeggiani

Contemporary Italian painter … born 1931.

  • Venetian Pipe Player, oil on canvas, 38.2 × 25.4 cm, Romano Parmeggiani (1930/1931-). London: Christies, Sale 9375, 20 May 2002, Lot 189. Against a background of Venice, a harlequin figure sits playing a baroque-style soprano-sized recorder.

Etienne [Stefano] I Parrocel [Parrocel le Romain]

French painter and frescoist who spent most of his working life in Rome; he owed his reputation less to secular, decorative work than to his religious paintings, most of which were intended for the churches of Rome and the surrounding area and for the churches of southern France; born Avignon (1696), died Rome (1775); member of a family of painters and engravers extending over six generations.

Pierre Parrocel

French painter and etcher of the late baroque known from his religious and mythological paintings and portraits; born Avignon (1664), died Paris (1739).

  • Duet, engraving, Pierre Parrocel (1664-1739). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). In the forest, a woman sits on a ledge playing a mandolin and looking over her shoulder to a male admirer who has cast his violin aside on the ground. In front of them, his bow and quiver of arrows behind him, sits a winged cupid playing a very slender, cylindrical pipe which might represent a recorder.

Parmigianino [Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola or Mazzuoli]

Italian Mannerist painter, frescoist and etcher; known for his originality and sophistication, particularly his love of special effects including elongated forms, chill lighting, and a disjointed sense of space; his range included religious and secular works, especially portraits; he was the first Italian artist to make etchings from his own designs; born Parma (1503); died Casal Maggiore (1540); cousin of painter Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (ca 1500 – ca 1569).

  • [Musical Angels], fresco, Parmigianino (1503-1540). Parma: Abbazia di San Giovanni Evangelista, Capella di San Niccola, apse cupola. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Musical angels play flute, lute, trumpet and an alto-sized pipe which is cylindrical except for a short slight bell flare. The pipe is played right hand lowermost and all fingers are down. It is seen from the side, so no finger holes or window/labium are apparent, but the instrument is held in an excellent position for recorder-playing. It has two incised rings close together near the bell.

Johan Pasch

Swedish decorative painter who was court painter from 1748; common motifs in his work are allegorical representations of the four seasons or the four continents in typical French rococo style; born 1706, died 1769; brother of portraitist Lorens Pasch the Elder (1702-1766), uncle of artist and teacher Lorens Pasch the Younger (1773-1785) and of portraitist Ulrica Fredrica Pasch (1735-96).

  • Wall painting, Johan Pasch (1706-1769). ‘Painted by Taraval, Kring. 1750’ written on panel. This may refer to the French painter, Guillaxume Thomas Raphael Taraval (1701-1750). Fogelvik: Hornsberg Manor, octagonal summer house. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Brandell (2001). A fine array of musicians stand on a balcony, including two violinists, two french horn players, a cello, male and female singers, a man playing a transverse flute, and another holding a late baroque, alto recorder with curved over beak (Anthony Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)”… Horn had an octagonal summer house built, which was intended for musical gatherings. In its roof were paintings made (probably by Johan Pasch Jr) that partly describe the four seasons, partly depict the same amount of scenes from musical performances: one singer, a conducting ensemble leader and a basso continuo cellist, flute and recorder players, two violinists and two horn players.”The musicians and the instruments are realistically painted. The traverso- and recorder-players are reasonably correctly depicted as well as the violinist and the continuo musicians – and in the conductor’s hand one can glimpse a Sonata by Quantz (op 1:I:1). By comparing the painting with other portraits it has been established that the conductor is Adam Horn, the singer his wife, the cellist their son and the recorder player the vicar in Tryserum parish. If one of the violinists is [Johan Helmich] Roman one can only speculate – there is no preserved portrait of Roman with which one can compare” (Brandell 2001).

Christian Paschold

Contemporary German sculptor working in Erfurt / Tiefthal; born 1949. Artist’s website here.

  • Recorder Player, sculpture, Christian Paschold. Karlsruhe: Musiklädle Schunder. A young girl sits playing a perfectly depicted neo-baroque recorder.

Otto von Passau

German theologan whose Die vierundzwanzig Alten, a collection of the writings of more than 100 Christian and ancient authors addressing all areas of the Christian faith, was conceived as a guide to meditation and contemplation; his work strongly influenced 15th-century sermon cycles and meditative manuals, and continued to be read until the 19th century; born ca 1330, died ca 1386.

  • Miniature from the manuscript of Heinrich Czuns’: The 24 Elders and the Lamb of God (1448), after Otto von Passau (ca 1330-1396). Coburg: Casimirianum Gymnasium, Library, MS Cas. 43, Fol. III. Ref. Moeck (1984: November – col.); Buchner (1961: pl. 122 – b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-241 (2023, col.) Kings play many different instruments for the Holy Lamb, including triangle, trumpet, lute, vielle, shawm, lute, harp, nakers, regal, symphonie, organ, bells, dulcimer, tromba marina, cornetto, and a duct flute with a long mouthpiece and window/labium and four lower finger holes visible, the last very near the bell.

Crispinn [Crispiaen, Crispin] I (van) de Passe [van de Pas; Passaeus]

Member of a Dutch family of engravers, draughtsmen and publishers; he produced many prints, often in the form of series, which he engraved from his own or other painters’ designs (especially those of Martijn de Vos), most of which he published himself; he often signed his works with the monogram CP; born Arnemuiden (1564), died Utrecht (1637); father of Crispin II de Passe (c.1594 – 1670) and Simone de Passe (?1595-1647).

  • From Gabriel Rollenhagen, Nucleus emblematum, No. 70: Amor docet musicam, engraving, Crispijn I de Passe (1564-1637). Published by J. Janson, Cologne. Ref. Exhibition, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Tot Lering en Vermaak (1976: 60); Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1979, 69: 326); Brown (1984: 48); Henkel & Schöne (1967: col. 1299); Johngh (1967: 51); Exhibition, Palais Harrach, Vienna: Dipingere la musica … (2001: 244, no. IV); Rasmussen (2002, Lute); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-242 (2023, b&w). In the foreground, Love (a winged putto) holds a lute. A miniature scene in the background depicts a woman who sings and two men who play lute and a flared-bell pipe which might be a recorder. A Latin inscription in a circular frame reads AMOR DOCET MUSICUM (Love teaches music). Rollenhagen’s couplet to accompany this emblem is:

    Oblectant animos cytharae, cantusque, lyraeque;
    Musica blandus amor plectra movere docet.

    Gabriel Rollenhagen (1583-1619), published two collections of Latin emblems: Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum (1611) and Emblematum centuria secunda (1613). Even more famous is the English version by George Wither (1588-1667), A Collection of Emblemes (1635), which combines the emblems from both of Rollenhagen’s books. Withers supplied the emblems with lengthy poems, along with additional verses. His couplet for Amor docet musicam (not a translation of the original) is:

    Love, a Musician is profest
    And, of all Musicke, is the best.

  • Vanitas, engraving, Crispijn I de Passe (1564-1637) after Martin de Vos (1532-1603). Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Ref. Austern (2003: 300, fig. 13.5); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2346 (2023, b&w.) A putto sits blowing bubbles before a bridge leading over a river to a large building. All around him are vanitas symbols including crown, a sword, books, a mask, a broken statue, a flaming urn, a lute, and two pipes, possibly duct flutes.
  • XX. De mens op twintigjarige leeftijd [Of Man’s Life at Twenty Years Old], engraving, tondo, 12 cm diam., Crispijn I de Passe (1564-1637). From Tien leeftijden van de men [The Ten Ages of Man]. Loc. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-1908-5632. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-667 (2023, b&w). An elaborately dressed young couple sit comfortably together on a balcony overlooking an estate. She holds an open music book in one hand and a posy in the other. He holds a cittern. To the left of them is a round table on top of which are a ewer, a glass, and fruit. On the ground to the right of them are a slightly larger lute, a pipe of some kind, and a wind instrument case of the kind used to store flutes or recorders: it has seven tubes. In front of them is a herb, possibly Mercurialis annua, used in the treatment of rheumatism, dropsy, diarrhoea, disorders of the gall bladder and liver, and other ailments of age. What looks like a small calf is clambering over the balustrade towards them. A border bears the Latin inscription Cum primum teneri firmantur robore nerui, Et mores vituli luxuriantis habent: Musica, Bacchus, amor, iftis quaeruntur in annis, Nobilis atque aetas mobile gramen amat.

Crispijn [Crispin] II (van) de Passe [van de Pas]

Member of a Dutch family of engravers, draughtsmen and publishers; he worked in Paris, Utrecht and Amsterdam; from the 1640s he published broadsides and was questioned by the government in 1665/1666 for the pro-Orange broadside “Sinne-Beeld.Ter eeren van Sijn Doorluchtighste Hoogheyt Wilhem de III. Prins van Oranjen”; in his later years he suffered from insanity; born Cologne (c.1594), died ?Amsterdam (1670); son of Crispijn de Passe I (1564-1637).

  • Den Conincklijcken Morgen-Wecker / The Kingly C[l]ocke (1636), engraving, 34.6 × 32.1 cm, Crispijn II de Passe (ca 1594-1670). London: British Museum, Inv. 1850,0713.19.1-2. From a broadside on Charles I’s dealings with Spain in 1636 and his failure to retrieve the Palatinate on behalf of his nephew, Charles Louis of Bohemia.  Charles I sleeps on his throne; on the right, the Ambassador from Spain, plays a pipe to lull him to sleep, gesturing with his left hand to a chest of treasure and a basket of toys; on the left, the “Hispaniolized courtier” (Lord Cottington, erroneously identified in the later state of the print as the Duke of Buckingham) extends his hands to restrain Louis XIII of France who, wearing full armour, touches the sleeping king’s arm to awaken him; on the left, Charles Louis urging Louis XIII forward, leads his brother Rupert and other siblings; in the right background, a doorway with the Earl of Arundel entering; with engraved inscriptions, and numbering 1-6 linked, not always accurately, to a key in the lower margin; and, on a separate sheet, Dutch and English letterpress titles and Dutch verses in three columns. The pipe is a duct flute, the window/labium clearly visible; six finger holes are visible, the lower-most offset, so the Royal Morning Alarm is probably a recorder, played one-handed. The text can be found here.

Simone [Simon] (van) de Passe [Passaeus; Passeus; Paßeus; Pass]

Dutch engraver and medallist who also worked variously in London and Paris; in his youth he contributed to various of his father’s series of prints, but soon began to specialize in portraits; born Cologne (?1595), died Copenhagen (1647); son of Crispijn I de Passe I (1564-1637).

  • Musical Company (1612), copper engraving, 10.4 × 13.8 cm, Simone de Passe (?1595-1647). Coburg: Kunstsammlungen Veste, Inv. Nr. VII 308.26; Ref. Salmen (1980: pl. 71); Ian Harwood (pers. comm., 2002); Website: Theatre of Music: Cittern Picture Gallery – Artwork (2012-b&w). Signed “VP Inyent” and “Sim. Paßeus sculp.” Around a large square table a woman plays a cittern, and her three male companions play violin, viol and bandora. A fourth man who has just entered at the door, doffing his hat, holds what appears to be a small cylindrical pipe, possibly a recorder. Oddly enough, there is no lute player – that would have completed the picture for a typical English “broken consort” formation. Perhaps he is yet to arrive. To the right are a dog and a lamb underneath which is an inscription reading:

    Door Godts vrede met goet accoort
    Den wolf by t schaep leijt soo t o[o]c hoort

    Through God’s peace in good harmony
    The wolf lies with the sheep, as it should be

Giovanni Battista Passeri

Italian painter and writer, best known for his biographical study of 17th-century Roman artists, Vite dei pittori, scultori ed architetti che anno lavorato in Roma morti dal 1641 al 1673 (1772); born 1610, died 1679.

  • Musical Party in a Garden (1640s), oil on canvas, 72.4 × 97.8 cm, Giovanni Battista Passeri (1610-1678). Austin: University of Texas, Blanton Museum of Art, The Suida-Manning Collection S-M 438.1999. Ref. Burlington Magazine (July 1999: 99, pl.XLVII – col.); Website, flickr: Mike Fitzpatrick’s photostream (2010-col.) With its open courtyard, Mediterranean light, and fragments of ancient sculpture, the setting here is typical of a garden on the outskirts of Rome. A gentleman at the right in contemporary attire addresses the viewer and presents several incidents. A woman in the blue mantle, a man in the orange tunic, and a semi-clad recorder player leaning against a pedestal seem engaged in a musical performance of classical inspiration. A group of women in modern costume accompanies them on a spinet. At the left two servants ready a table for dining. The precise meaning of the scene is obscure. Clearly, however, it expresses an ideal of the most elite intellectual circles in Rome: past and present have been brought to simultaneous pictorial life, then transformed again by the ideal ordering of the classical tradition. Myth, idyll, genre, and probably even self-portrait (the proprietary gentleman) are compounded in this fascinating and poetical picture.

Bartolomeo Passerotti [Passarotti, Passarotto]

Italian painter, draughtsman, engraver and collector; a prestigious portraitist of popes and Roman cardinals; the focus of his collecting interests was in anticaglie (miscellaneous antiquities); born Bologna (1529), died Bologna (1592); four of his sons were painters, including Tiburzio Passerotti (1555 – ca 1612).

  • Three Men with Two Dogs (1529), Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529-1592). Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Collezione Torlonia. Ref. Frattelli Alinari, Collection Chauffourier (1964: B98); Fulbourn: Slide collection of Walter Bergmann, WB 111 (2002); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). Over a glass of wine, two men discuss the merits of their pugnacious-looking dogs whilst a third man pipes away on a flared-bell recorder. The bottom four finger holes (inline) for the lowermost (right) hand are clearly shown.

Tiburzio Passerotti

Italian artist active in Bologna and Venice; his subjects include animals, architecture, genre paintings, portraits, religious and mythological themes, and still-lifes; born Bologna 1555, died ca 1612; son of Barolomeo Passerotti (1529-1592); father of artists Gaspare and Archangelo.

  • The Pierides are Transformed into Magpies, panel, 51 × 153 cm, Tiburzio Passerotti (1555 – ca 1612). Bologna: Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ref. Emiliani (1969: 279, no. 186) [Villa I Tatti N252OE41967]; Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2347 (2023, col.) From Ovid we learn that so great was the acclaim given the nine daughters of King Pieris that they deigned to challenge the Muses. But Calliope on her own out-sang them. They did not accept their defeat (judged by an impartial jury of water-nymphs) gracefully, and abused the Muses so much that, in their bickering, they found themselves turned into chattering magpies. On the right side the Pierides play cymbals, harpsichord, bass viol, tambourine (with jingle rings), viola da braccio, lute, flute, cornetto and a cylindrical duct flute, probably a recorder. In the centre, three water nymphs judge their playing. On the left, the Pierides are shown sprouting wings and beaks; some have already completed their transformation into magpies.

Johannes Pässler (1917-), German

  • Heimatdankfest zum Besten des Vereins Heimatdank (1917), poster, lithograph on paper, 120.0 × 87.5 cm, Johannes Pässler. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum Inv. No. P 64/335 (MfDG). Ref. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (2002: DISKUS-Objekt-Dokument 03190507 – col.) Surrounded by winged putti, a boy with a cap sits beneath a shady tree playing a narrowly conical pipe. The disposition of his fingers and the thumb of his uppermost (left) hand are suggestive of recorder playing.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater

French painter of fêtes galantes executed in a sensitive, lyrical style, much influenced by Watteau; born Valenciennes (1695), died Paris (1736).

  • Gallant Gathering in a Park, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736). Brussels: Private Collection. Ref. Leppert (1978: fig. 26, p. 63). A fête galante filled with love-making and courtship rituals; shows a recorder, on the ground next to some music, and a vielle.
  • Elegant Company Making Music near a Fountain, oil on canvas, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.); CD cover: Nocturne, Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. Beneath a tree before a fountain a gentleman is teaching a lady to play a flared-bell pipe (probably a recorder). A maid with a basket sits beside her; a young lad leaning on a stick, stands behind.
  • Elegant Company Making Music near a Fountain, engraving, ? 18th century, after Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736). ? Location. Seated beneath a tree in a garden before a fountain, a gentleman is teaching a lady how to play the recorder. A maid with a basket sits beside her; a young lad leaning on a stick, stands behind. Very similar but not identical to the painting above; here, a statue of a man leans out from the trees behind the young lad.
  • The Flute Recital, oil on canvas, 15.5 × 20.5 cm, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736). Saint Petersburg: State Hermitage. In the countryside, beneath a spreading tree, two young couples amuse themselves. One of the youths has abandoned his musette, which lies on the ground, in order to pay more attention to his girl-friend, though she seems more interested in the other couple. The other youth plays a tenor-sized baroque recorder made of black wood with ivory mounts whilst he gazes into his rather prim-looking girl-friend’s eyes. A third youth peers at the others through a gap in the vegetation. In the distance can be seen a ruin.

Demetz Patrick & Co.

Firm of contemporary Italian wood-carvers working in Santa Cristina (Val Gardena, South Tyrol), fl. 2008). Website here.

  • Girl with a Recorder (2008), coloured wood-carving, Demetz Patrick & Co. (20-21st century) Santa Christina: Demetz Patrick & Co. A girl in traditional Ladin dress plays a perfectly depicted alto-sized baroque-style recorder. Details of beak, window/labium, finger holes are clearly depicted and the hands and fingers are disposed appropriately for recorder-playing.
  • Flute Player (2014), coloured wood-carving, Demetz Patrick & Co. (20-21st century) Val Gardina: Demetz Patrick & Co, SA1460. A girl in traditional Ladin dress plays a perfectly depicted alto-sized baroque-style recorder. Details of beak, window/labium, finger holes are clearly depicted and the hands and fingers are disposed appropriately for recorder-playing.

Horatius Paulyn [Paulin, Paulijn]

Dutch painter working in Amsterdam who is said to have made something of a specialty of dubious subjects; born 1644/5, died after 1682.

  • Interior with a Lute Player (ca 1670-1680), oil on canvas, 40 × 52 cm, Horatius Paulyn (1644/5 – p.1682). Milan: Museo d’Arte Antica (Sforza Castle). Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.); Website: Lombardia Beni Culturali (2015-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2248 (2023, col.) A young man plays a lute from music on a table before him. Also on the table are scattered the scuptured head of a young boy, some books and a soprano flared-bell recorder. The head of the latter is hidden behind the music, but seven finger holes (including the lowermost offset for the little finger) are clearly visible.
  • Vanitas Still-life, Horatius Paulyn (1644/5-p.1682). Private Collection. Ref. Bernt (1970, 2: 904); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). The outline of the lower part of an ?alto hand-fluyt shows against an open book of music (not quite legible).
  • Vanitas Still-life, oil on canvas, 51.6 × 38.7 cm, Horatius Paulyn (1644/5-p.1682). Sothebys, Old Masters Day Sale, 4 July 2019, Lot 112. Ref. Website: artnet (2022, col.) On a draped table a pile of music and papers are presided over by a bust of the Medici Venus and a large feathered helmet. Amongst the papers the foot of a dark-coloured pipe can be seen, probably a small recorder.

Dan Pearce (contemporary), English

  • Divisions on a Ground, LP record cover, Dan Pearce (contemporary). Ref. Divisions on a Ground: An Introduction to the Recorder and its Music, Richard Harvey, Transatlantic, TRA 292 (1975); Website: Gryphon Home Page (2016). A likeness of Richard Harvey in period costume sits at a table with a chessboard, wine bottles, cigarettes, a shell, dividers and a Moeck Rottenburgh recorder with ivory ferrules.
  • Richard Harvey, cartoon, Dan Pearce (contemporary). Ref. Website: Gryphon Home Page (2016). A caricature of the English recorder player and composer Richard Harvey playing a decidedly conical recorder.

Giovanni Antonio [Giannantonio] Pellegrini

Italian artist; the most important Venetian history painter of the early 18th century, his graceful decorations were particularly successful with the aristocracy of central and northern Europe; he painted in Italy, England, France, Germany, and Austria; born Venice (1675), died Venice (1741).

  • Herminia Among the Shepherds, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741). Conegliano: Private Collection; Padua: Special Exhibition (1998). A shepherd boy holds a small, slender duct flute with a beaked mouthpiece and a slightly flared bell. Only the two lowermost holes (in line) are visible and the window/labium is uncertain. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)
  • The Four Elements: Air (1709-1712), fresco, Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741). York: Castle Howard, Great Hall, dome ceiling. Ref. Charles Rowland-Jones (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2011). The Great Hall is the crowning masterpiece of Vanbrugh’s design. Viewed from outside the 21.3 metres high dome gives Castle Howard its unique silhouette. The painted decoration beneath the dome executed by Antonio Pellegrini depicts the Four Elements, the Figures of the Zodiac and Phaeton Falling From his Father’s Chariot. It was rebuilt in 1960-6192 after a fire in 1940 destroyed much of Castle Howard including the dome.

Jeffrey Pelo (contemporary), USA

Contemporary American designer, illustrator and inventor. Artist’s Web Page

  • Cover: American Recorder 37 (1): Unitled (1998), Jeffrey Pelo (contemporary). Mr Cool in a bowler hat, suit, tie and thick-lens glasses mellows out on his neo-baroque recorder.

Georg Pencz [Monogrammist GP]

German artist, generally regarded as one of the greatest original engravers of his time, the only recorded student of Albrecht Durer; born Nuremberg (ca 1500), died Breslau (1550).

  • The Seven Liberal Arts: Musica (ca 1541), Georg Pencz (ca 1500-1550). Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Musique, VM PHOT MIRI-20 (124); Art of the Print (2016, sold). Ref. Bartsch (1854-1870, 8: 356/114); Website: gallica (2012-b&w as by “G. Perrez”, in error). A female personification of Music sits at a small organ pumped by a helpful putto. Music’s left foot treads on a tenor-sized, one-pieced, cylindrical recorder with the beak, several finger holes and flared bell clearly depicted. Lying on top of the recorder is a case made to hold five wind instruments. In an alcove behind the appears the text: MVSICA / P / G.
  • The Children of Venus (1531), woodcut, 29.5 × 20.5 cm, Georg Pencz (ca 1500-1550). London: British Museum, Reg. No. 1895,0122.300. New York: Swan Auction Galleries, Sale 2460, Lot 44, 2 November 2016 (hand-coloured). Ref. Trottein (1993: 170, fig. 75-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2349 (2023, b&w). Amorous couples disport themselves in a garden with a bathing pool and terraces to the accompaniment of musicians playing lute, viol, harp and a long narrowly conical pipe (cornetto or duct flute), probably a recorder given the fact that the lowermost (right hand) finger is covering its hole. Above, Venus seated in her chariot is drawn across the clouds by two doves guided by a conspicuously blindfolded Cupid. This is very similar to prints by Bartel Beham (1502-1540), Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550) and Gabriele Giolito de Ferrare (ca 1508–1578).
  • The Five Senses: AUDITUS (1542-1546), engraving on paper, plate edge 7.6 x 5.2 cm, Georg Pencz (c.1500-1550). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-11.059; London: British Museum, Inv. 1881,0611.294; Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1198 (2023, b&w). A half-naked woman personfying Hearing sits at a table on which a number of books are spread. Hanging on a wall behind her is a lute. Before her, on the grouind, are a vielle, a harp and a musical wind-instrument case. Beside her is a wild boar (not a boer)! A caption reads: TRVX PER AVDITV (Hearing with a wild boar).

Luca Penni [Romanus]

Italian painter and designer who executed designs for engravers in France, Italy and Flanders; born in Florence (ca 1500 – 1504), died Paris (1557); brother of the painter and draughtsman Giovan Francesco Penni [detto il Fattore] (ca 1496-1528).

  • Mars and Venus, ink on paper, 8.1 × 19.4 cm, Anonymous, after Luca Penni. Rennes: Musée des Beaux Arts, Inv. 794.1.3019. Ref. Joconde Website (1999). Mars and Venus embrace, whilst Cupid dozes with his head in his hands. Cherubs frolic around the frame; those in the bottom left- and right-hand corners play ambiguous pipes (possibly duct flutes).

Perigal & Son

Celebrated family of English horologists (clock- and watch-makers); Francis Perigal, the founder of the family, worked in London between 1741 and 1756.

  • Gold and enamel watch, 4.5 cm diam., Perigal. London: Christie’s, Clocks and Watches, 28 May 1986. Ref. Sale Catalogue, Christies, 1986: 59 – col.) Signed Perigal London 482. The lid bears an enameled image of three women: one holds a dove, a second stoops beneath a load of wood on her back; a third plays an ambiguous pipe. ” … the pipe is slender and the lower little finger is under, not on, the instrument, but I still think that it is likely to represent a recorder because of the position of the hands and the shape of the bell end” (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm.)

Bernard Perlin

American artist primarily known for creating pro-war art during World War II and magic realism paintings of urban American life; born Richmond, Virginia (1918), died Ridgefield, Connecticut (2014).

  • Man Playing a Recorder (1942), oil on board, 29.8  × 20.3 cm, Bernard Perlin (1918-). Location unknown. Ref. Website: artnet (2014-b&w). In front of a music stand, a man in a T-shirt stands playing a baroque-style tenor recorder, left hand uppermost.

Thomas Perritt

English plaster from York; born 1710, died 1759.

  • Trophy of Musical Instruments (1738-1756), stucco, Thomas Perritt (1710-1759). Staindrop (Co. Durham): Raby Castle, State Dressing Room, ceiling decoration. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). A trophy comprising trumpet, ? oboe or post-horn, and a perfectly depicted alto baroque recorder. Thomas Perrit was paid in 1737 for plaster work at Raby Castle and again in 1757.
  • Trophy of Musical Instruments (1738-1756), stucco, Thomas Perritt (1710-1759). Staindrop (Co. Durham): Raby Castle, State Dressing Room, wall decoration. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). A trophy comprising a violin, trumpet, ? oboe or posthorn, and a perfectly depicted alto baroque recorder. Thomas Perrit was paid in 1737 for plaster work at Raby Castle and again in 1757.

Norman Perryman

English painter who lives and works in Amsterdam; he has long been involved in the world of music; he has won international acclaim for his many dynamic watercolours of great musicians in action; and he has made something of a speciality of  live ‘kinetic’ paintings in response to musical performances; born Birmingham 1933. Artist’s website.

  • Frans Brüggen (1983), watercolour, Norman Perryman (1933–). Unknown location. Sketchy portrait of the Dutch virtuoso recorder player and conductor Franciscus (‘Frans’) Jozef  Brüggen (1934–2014) playing the recorder, seated. The instrument looks to be an alto baroque-style recorder.

Il Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, Le Pérugin)

Italian early Renaissance painter of the Umbria school whose style is characterized by purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition; born Città della Pieve, near Perugia (ca 1446), died Fontignano, near Perugia (1523); teacher of Raphael.

  • Apollo and Marsyas (1483-1491), wood, 39 × 29 cm, ‘Il Perugino’ (ca 1446-1523). Paris: Musée de Louvre, RF 370. Ref. Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris (1996): postcard IC-00-7843 (col.); Wyss (1996: 58, 182, fig. 30 – b&w); Gowing (1987: 155 – col.); Berenson (1952: vol. 2, 82, pl. vii); Joconde Website (1999); Warburg Instititue, London (2013-b&w). Watched disdainfully by Apollo, Marsyas seated plays an ambiguous pipe that may be a slender, cylindrical duct flute (flageolet or recorder. However, although details of the beak and window characteristic of duct flutes are lacking, the lower little finger is exactly in the recorder position. The subject of this painting has been questioned in favour of Apollo and the shepherd Daphnis, paradigm of pastoral poets; but this hypothesis has been soundly rejected by Wyss (loc. cit.)
  • Apollo and Marsyas, metal point, pen, ink and wash, with heightening, on prepared rose-salmon-tinted paper, 32 × 27 cm, ‘Il Perugino’ (ca 1446-1523). Venice: Galleria del Accademia, Inv. N 198. Ref. Wyss (1996: 59, fig. 32); Ferino-Pagden (1984: 143-col.); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2001); Warburg Instititue (2013-b&w); Website: ICONOS (s014-col.) Preparatory drawing for Perugino’s painting of the same subject (Louvre, Paris). Watched disdainfully by Apollo, Marsyas seated plays an ambiguous pipe that may be a slender, cylindrical duct flute (flageolet or recorder. However, although details of the beak and window characteristic of duct flutes are lacking, the lower little finger is exactly in the recorder position.
  • Children Playing, drawing, attributed to ‘Il Perugino’ (ca 1446-1523). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Four children amuse themselves. One parades with an urn on his shoulder; one urinates into a saucer held by his companion; another plays a very slender, cylindrical pipe which might represent a recorder.

Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi

Italian architect, painter and draughtsman; a transitional figure between the early Renaissance and the High Renaissance in Italy; born Ancaiano, near Siena (1481), died Rome (1536).

  • The Labours of Hercules, fresco, Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (1481-1536). Rome: Villa Farnesina, Sala del fregio. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). One of four mythological scenes. A winged figure plays a small cylindrical pipe (left hand lowermost) with a very slight bell flare. The position is suitable for recorder playing, but no details are visible.
  • Apollo and Marsyas (1509-1511), fresco, Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (1481-1536). Rome: Villa Farnesina, Sala del fregio. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). One of four mythological scenes. Apollo directs the executioner about to flay Marsyas, who is tied to a tree. On the ground beside Apollo is an alto-size cylindrical duct flute with a beaked mouthpiece, window/labium, and six finger holes visible; the bell-end is hidden.
  • Hercules Chasing Avarice/Envy from the Temple of the Muses (ca 1516), chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks, 29.8 × 22.9 cm, by Ugo da Carpi  (op. ca 1502–1532) after Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (1481-1536). New York: Metropolitan Museum, Inv. 20.24.76; San Francisco: Legion of Honour Museum, Accn. 1972.53.300. Hercules, symbolizing virtuous strength, drives Avarice—a woman holding a hoard of precious objects—from the temple of the arts. The traditional protectors of artistic pursuits, Apollo and Minerva, look on with satisfaction, surrounded by the Muses. The nine muses, of which eight are visible here, were also associated with learning, particularly with poetic inspiration. The message, which may have had topical significance, is that avarice undermines the cultivation of the arts—and perhaps that someone powerful has recently rectified the situation. One of the Muses, presumably Euterpe, holds a flared-bell pipe upside down, the head hidden, but probably a recorder.
  • Hercules Chasing Avarice/Envy from the Temple of the Muses (ca 1516), engraving, 25.6 × 18.0 cm cm, Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (1481-1536). New York: Metropolitan Museum, Inv. 20.24.76; Orléans: Musée des Beaux-Arts; San Francisco: Legion of Honour Museum, Accn. 1963.30.2847. Hercules, symbolizing virtuous strength, drives Avarice—a woman holding a hoard of precious objects—from the temple of the arts. The traditional protectors of artistic pursuits, Apollo and Minerva, look on with satisfaction, surrounded by the Muses. The nine muses, of which eight are visible here, were also associated with learning, particularly with poetic inspiration. The message, which may have had topical significance, is that avarice undermines the cultivation of the arts—and perhaps that someone powerful has recently rectified the situation. One of the Muses, presumably Euterpe, holds a flared-bell pipe upside down, the head hidden, but probably a recorder.

N.L. Peschier


Dutch Golden Age painter of whom nothing more is known of besides his signatures on dated paintings; he influenced David Bailly and is known for vanitas paintings in the manner of Vincent van der Vinne and Edwaert Collier; active 1559-61.

Vanitas, oil on panel, 42 × 51 cm, N.L. Peschier (op. 1559-61). National Museum in Poznań , Inv. Mo 821. Ref. Wilimedia Commons (2013); Anna Dobrzycka (1958). Małarstwo holenderskie XVII-XVIII w. Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, p. 123. On a cloth-covered table lies an assortment of vanitas objects, including a violin, an open book, a human cranium, an inkwell and quill, a document with four seals, a lantern with a candle, and a soprano hand fluyt, the beak, window/labium and fingerholes clearly depicted. On the wall behind are a watch and a sketchy portrait of a man.

Antoine Pesne

French-born Rococo painter of historical, mythological and religious subjects and portraits who was the most important artist in Prussia in the first half of the 18th century; born Paris (1683), died Berlin (1757); son of the portrait painter Thomas Pesne (1653-1727).

  • Musical Couple (ca 1718), oil on canvas, 118 × 90 cm, Antoine Pesne (1683-1757). Potsdam: Neues Palais. Ref. Moeck (1984: January – col.); Moeck, Celle: Musikbilder auf Postkarten, Series 3, Nr 3 – Ed. Moeck Nr. 1103 (1987, col.); Pottier (1992: 57, pl. XLIII). A young man plays a baroque recorder, accompanied by a young woman (strongly resembling the artist’s wife, Ursule-Anne Gayot Dubuisson) at the harpsichord on which lies a music book containing only the solo and unmarked bass line. A maker’s mark can be seen on the head of the recorder just beneath the window/labium.
  • Youth with a Flute (1712), oil on board, 64.5 × 31.0 cm, Antoine Pesne (1683-1757). Dessau: Staatliches Museum Schloss Mosigkau, Cat. 60. Ref. Dauer (1988: fig. 66-b&w); Archiv Moeck; Wikimedia Commons 2015-b&w). A portrait of a young lad holding a recorder.
  • Flute-player (ca 1715-1720),  oil on canvas, 80 × 150 cm, Antoine Pesne (1683-1757). Dessau: Staatliches Museum Schloss Mosigkau. Ref. Dauer (1988: fig. 69-b&w); Wikimedia Commons 2015-b&w). A young man looking over his shoulder at an open score, holds a clearly depicted baroque recorder which is turned towards us to show the beak and finger holes.

Johann Anton de Peters

German painter, and etcher; he was raised to the rank of noble by the king of France, and appointed court painter by the Danish king, Christian IV, as well as by Prince Charles of Lorraine; the French Revolution drove him back to his native country, where he lived in poverty until his death; born Cologne (1725), died Cologne (1795).

  • Landscape with Shepherds, print, 20.6 × 15.6 cm, Johann Anton de Peters (1725-1795). Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Z 917. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: KNwr 255). Before a crumbling castle keep a shepherd and shepherdess sit beside their beasts. He plays a duct flute (flageolet or recorder) of alto/tenor size to his admiring companion.

Mathew William Peters

English portrait, genre and religious painter who later became an Anglican clergyman and chaplain to George IV; many of his early paintings were erotic, which he later regretted; born Freshwater, Isle of Wight (1742), died Kent (1914).

  • A Pastoral, painting, Mathew William Peters (1742-1814). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A shepherdess and her young daughter are entertained by her son who plays a clearly depicted alto baroque recorder. Their sheep and dog are enjoying the music, too.

Astolfo Petrazzi

Italian painter of religious works, still-lifes and genre scenes; born Siena (1580), died Siena (1653).

  • Lute Player with a Still-life of Musical Instruments, oil on canvas, Astolfo Petrazzi (1580-1653). Siena: Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ref. Chelazzi Dini et al. (1998: 439 – col.); Website: Lute Iconography LI-235 (2023, col.) A woman plays a lute surrounded by musical instruments, including theorbo, shawm, cittern, violin, harp, and a flared-bell recorder of alto size.
  • Eros Triumphant (1620-30), oil on canvas, 163 × 120 cm, Astolfo Petrazzi (1580-1653). Athens: National Gallery – Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Inv. Π.525. The painting illustrates an excerpt from Virgi’s Idylls (X. 69) which lauds the invincible power of Love: “Amor vincit omnia et nos cedamus amori”. Eros as a naked winged youth holding a bow in his hand gazes at us sarcastically. On the floor are scattered objects of worldly satisfaction and knowledge which Eros disdains, amongst them an astrolable, armor, books, a scuptured bust, a painter’s palette, an open msic book, and musical instruments. Amongst the latter are harp, pellet bells, violin, crumhorn and a flared-bell recorder, details of the beak, window-labium, finger-holes all clearly visible.

Negri Petri (1635/40-ca 1679), Italian

  • Mercury and Argus, Negri Petri (1635/40-ca 1679). Caen: Musée des Beaux Arts. Ref. Website: Greek Mythology Link, Catalogue of Images, by Carlos Parada (2002). Watched by Io (as a heifer), Mercury plays a cylindrical, flared-bell recorder of soprano/alto size to lull Argus asleep. The window/labium of the recorder and six finger holes are clearly depicted; and although the fingering seems haphazard, the first finger hole seems to be covered, giving seven holes in all.

Peyo [Pierre Culliford]

Belgian cartoonist who created the Smurfs, a tribe of blue dwarfs living in a village of mushroom houses deep in the forest; born Brussels (1928), died 1991.

Smurfs have appeared in a total of 25 languages; the Smurf craze spread to the world of toys, lunch-boxes, video games, colouring books and any other merchandising tie-in imaginable; they became so popular that, after appearing in nine 13 mm films, in 1976 they starred in the feature-length La Flute à Six Schtroumpfs. Peyo then introduced the wise old Papa Smurf and the coquettish Smurfette, who long-remained the only woman in the dwarfs’ adventures; in 1984 the movie travelled across the Atlantic with dubbed voices as The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.

  • Flautist Smurf (1978-1992), PVC figurine 2.0048, Peyo (1928-1991). Wales: Blue Imps Smurf Collection. Ref. Website: Blue Imps Smurf Collection (2005 – col.) A Smurf wearing a red shirt, white cap and boots, plays a clearly depicted duct flute larger than himself. The instrument was probably intended to be a recorder, though only four finger holes are visible. Smurf figurines were manufactured by Schleich in Germany and Hong Kong.
  • Johan & Pirlouit (1958), comic book, Peyo (1928-1992). Ref. Website: Toonarific (2005). On 23 October 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the Johan & Pirlouit series. This alone caused no great excitement, as the brave duo constantly encountered strange new people and places. This time, they had the mission of recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they met a Schtroumpf. Johan and Pee Wee (aka Peewit, aka Pirlouit), a brave human prince and his page are trying to retrieve Johan’s stolen magic flute, endowed with the power to make all listeners dance uncontrollably. With the help of a hypnotizing wizard named Homnibus, Johann and Pee Wee recruit Papa, Brainy, Hefty and the bunch to aid their cause. The ever-generous Smurfs build a duplicate flute, helping Johan prepare for a showdown with the thief, a villain named McCreep (aka Oilycreep).
  • La Flûte à six schtroumpfs / The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1972/1983), animated cartoon, playing time 74 minutes (Belgium) and 89 minutes (USA), Peyo (1928-1992), Yvan Delaporte & John Rust. Ref. Website: Toonarific (2005). Johan and Pee Wee (aka Peewit, aka Pirlouit), a brave human prince and his page are trying to retrieve Johan’s stolen magic flute, endowed with the power to make all listeners dance uncontrollably. With the help of a hypnotizing wizard named Homnibus, Johann and Pee Wee recruit Papa, Brainy, Hefty and the bunch to aid their cause. The ever-generous Smurfs build a duplicate flute, helping Johan prepare for a showdown with the thief, a villain named McCreep (aka Oilycreep). Based on the comic book (1976), see above, the film was directed by Eddie Lateste. First aired on Belvision in 1976, it was brought to the United States by Stuart R. Ross who acquired the North American rights to the film and produced the dubbed English language version at the Hannah-Barbera Studios. It was presented to US audiences by Ross and Atlantic Releasing Corp.
  • The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1983), poster 68.6 cm × 104.1 cm, Peyo (1928-1991). Advertising poster for the Smurfs’ full-length cartoon film (see above). In their village, the Smurfs have just finished constructing a replica of the stolen flute. One of the Smurfs holds the finished instrument, a large duct flute, probably a recorder though only six finger holes are visible.

Maximilian Pfeiler [Pfeiller] – see Christian Berentz

Daniel Pfisterer (1651-1728), German

Protestant minister at Köningen near Stuttgart, Germany; used the sketch-book he began on April 14th 1716 mainly as a personal collection of things and sights. Plants, insects, birds fill the pages, groups of people are a second genre, memorable events a related one – moral reflections usually give the necessary reasons to offer the pictures. Musical instruments appear on two double pages (83-84 & 89-90). Pfisterer obviously designed these pages as ensembles to deal explicitly with the role of music in the world.

  • From Barockes Welttheater (1716-1727: 84): Musical Instruments, coloured drawing, Daniel Pfisterer (1651-1728). Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Inv. VK 1979/31. Ref. Munich RIdIM (2003 – Slm 348); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2350 (2023, col.) On a table lie a clavichord, viola, cello, two shawms, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, cornetto, and three recorders. Leaning against the right edge of the table is a double bass. On chairs before the table are a lute and a harp. Between them are kettledrums and a picnic hamper! At the right centre of the table is an alto/tenor flared-bell recorder, the window/labium and beak clearly visible. Two more recorders lie side by side on the left of the table; both have fontanelles and are thus probably tenors. An accompanying verse reads:

    Wie die Son[n] und Regen thun in dem Feld das allermeiste,
    Also bej den Musicis ein vom Wein befeuchter Geiste;
    Diß geschlechte Korah kan ohne Ihren Nassaph nichts;
    Wan[n] der nur das Zeichen giebt mit dem Glase so geschichts;
    Alsbald fangt der Jeduthun mit dem Githith an zu klingen,
    Als wan[n] alles von dem blas und den fingern müsste springen.

    Die Musica ist eins von sieben frejen Künsten,
    Die setzet Junge Leut bei Jedermann in günsten,
    Studenten sonderlich! dann welcher die nicht kan,
    Der [ist ein hal]b Student, Ja nur ein halber Mann.

    As the sun and rain contribute the most to the harvest
    So too the musician moves the wine-intoxicated soul.
    Korah can do nothing without his Assaph;
    He needs only to give the sign with his glass and the music starts;
    As soon as Juduthun begins to play the Githith
    It is as if all creation must spring from the piping and strumming.

    Music is one of the Seven Liberal Arts,
    It brings young people into everyone’s good graces,
    Especially students! Because whoever cannot make music
    Is but half a student, indeed half a man.

    Korah – Levitical musician and psalmist, who rebelled against Moses
    Nasaph/Assaph – the orator of Tyre
    Juduthun – Ethan, the sage who was wiser than all men
    Githith – ? a plucked string-instrument

Johannes Phokela

South African painter living and working in London; his unsettling parodies on iconic images by Rubens, Jacob de Gehyn, Jacob Jordaens and others challenge nationalistic and ethnic narratives around contemporary and historical art, shining reciprocal light on the violent and twisted history of the Dutch in Africa; born Soweto (1966).

  • Say Cheese (1998), oil on canvas, Johannes Phokela (196–). Cape Town: South African National Gallery Ref. Tableau 26 (3): 71 (2004); Constance Scholten (pers. comm., 2005). A parody of Jordaen’s many depictions of the Dutch proverb “As the old ones sing, so also the young ones pipe; As the old Cock crows, the young one learns”. Here a family sing around the dinner table to an accompaniment on slender pipes played by a sallow man and a toddler. An owl watches from its perch on a wicker screen; a man goads a singing bird in a cage hanging from the ceiling. A woman wearing only a lap-lap and anklets dances lasciviously before them!

Giovanni Maria delle Piane [called il Molinaretto, il Mulinaretto]

Italian court portrait painter, residing with King Philip V of Spain and Princess Elizabeth Farnese and their family and relatives for over 60 years; active in Genoa, Naples, Parma and Rome, he introduced the emerging French style to Italian art; his nickname refers to the water-mills owned by his grandparents; born Genoa (1660), died Monticelli d’Ongina (1745); father of Giovanni Andrea, (died 1759), also a painter of portraits.

  • Portrait of a Gentleman, oil on canvas (oval) in an elaborate 18th Century French carved and gilt wood frame, 122.2 × 96.0 cm, attributed to Giovanni Maria delle Piane (1660-1745). London: Sotheby’s Sale: L00163, Old Master Paintings, 2 November 2000, Lot 75 (sold). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – col.) Three-quarter length standing portrait of a man elaborately dressed in a heavily decorated cloak, wearing a long flowing wig, holding a baroque-style recorder with ivory mounts and ebony studs. The instrument is probably a tenor or voice-flute and looks very much like those made by Dupuis (fl. 1692).

Giovanni Antonio Pianta (18th century) Italian

  • Organ case: Musical trophies (1768-1770),  gilt wood carvings, ? Giovanni Antonio Pianta (18th century). Tirano: Santuario Madonna di Tirano. Ref. Church Brochure; Postcard: Fot-Satmpa G. Gussoni, 24 via Stoppani, Como (s.dat. – b&w); Jan Bouterse ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2004). Tirano is a small Swiss town on the Southern side of the Bernina Pass, just before it finally descends to Italy, Poschiavo in the Valtellina valley. The church building dates from 1503; its rich decorations date from ca 1640, and ca 1750-1770. The highly ornately carved organ case has baroque swags of musical instruments among which there could be a recorder, for example in the trophy in front of the largest diapason pipe. This requires further investigation.

Prospero da Piappola

Italian painter active in Padua known by few documented works, amongst them the fresco decoration of the Capella Santa Maria degli Angeli, in the Palazzo Vescovile of Padua, erected in 1495, and frescoed by Piazzola and Jacopo Parisati  (ca 1440/1443 – 1499).

  • Madonna and Saints John the Baptist and Girolamo Worshipping the Child, Prospero da Piappola (op. 1472-1521). Padua: Museo Civico. Four child angel musicians hover above the central scene playing rebec, shawm and lyre. On a rocky plinth beneath the Mother and Child, a child angel plays a duct flute. The latter is of alto size, the window/labium clear but fingers half-covering covering five holes (two with upper right hand and three with the lower), the bell gently flared. The difference between the shawm and the duct flute is very clear. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.)

Callisto Piazza [da Lodi, de Toccagni]

Italian painter of religious subjects, genre scenes and still-lifes; his graphic style is often confused with that of Romanino, who exerted a deep influence on his work; born Lodi (ca 1500), died Lodi (1561).

  • A Group of Six Figures or The Concert, oil on panel, 90.5 × 90.5 cm, Callisto Piazza (ca 1500-1561). Philadelphia: Museum of Art, Cat. 234. Ref. Gregori et al. (1987: 78, 111, n.46 – col.) [Villa Il Tatti ND619L64P59]; Rasmussen (1999b); Angelo Zaniol ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000); Exhibition: Painters of Reality: The Legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (27 May –15 August 2004 – col.); Ausoni (2009: 172, detail – col.); Websites: gallica (2012-b&w); Wikimedia Commons (2013-col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-244 (2023, col.) Two women play viola d’arco and lute, and two men play recorders. The violist plays her instrument held almost horizontally. The recorder players stand behind the two women and a man holding a score; their instruments appear to be of alto or perhaps tenor size (only the head and upper body of each is visible); between them another man appears to be singing.
  • The Concert oil on canvas, 77 × 54 cm, Callisto Piazza (ca 1500-1561). Location unknown; sold by Finarte, Milan (1962). Ref. Sale Catalogue, Finarte, Milan (16 May 1962: No. 8). An elegantly dressed lady plays a lute accompanied by a second playing a viola d’arco held horizontally. Behind them, a young man plays a wide duct flute (almost certainly a tenor recorder), only the head of which (including the window/labium) can be seen. Appears to be a detail of a picture more or less identical to that with the same title in the Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
  • Lesena fra la cappella dei Santi Antonio e Paolo eremiti e quella della Passione, fresco, Callisto Piazza (ca 1500-1561). Milan: Chiesa dell’Incoronata. Ref. Sciolla (1989: 244, fig. – col.) [Villa I Tatti, ND622P53]; Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). Three decorative panels. That on the left contains putti, a sheep, apples on a branch, and a bird. The central panel contains a bearded man holding a bagpipe; a putto holding a swan by the neck in one hand and a sheep in the other, a sword over his shoulder and at his feet what looks like a viola da mano; piled on top of his head are books, a case of wind instruments (the feet of two of which can be seen), some fruit and vegetables, a lute, and sheet music, surmounted by another putto clutching what looks like a lyre of some kind in one hand and a pipe(only the body of which can be seen) in the other. The right hand panel contains a sheep, a cherub (winged head), a book of music, a putto playing a slender conical duct flute (the window/labium is visible, a snake, an hour-glass, dividers, a lute, and another putto holding a rattle of some kind.
  • [Assumption of Mary], Callisto Piazza (ca 1500-1561). Ref. ? Sciolla (1989: 92); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). Mary is surrounded by angel musicians who bear her up to heaven, singing and playing harp, straight trumpet, rebec, lute, tambourine (with jingles), and a small flared-bell duct flute (possibly a recorder) played with one hand.
  • Gambolling Putti with a Goat, Callisto Piazza (ca 1500-1561). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett. Ref. Sciolla (1989: 240, fig. – b&w); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). Three putti chase a pig, two blowing slender, cylindrical pipes. Another carries a goat on his shoulder, Three others run in the opposite direction; one blowing a similar pipe in his companion’s ear.

Cosimo Piazza

Member of an Italian family of painters whose workshop dominated art in Lodi in the 16th century; born 1557, died ca 1621.

  • Altarpiece, Cosimo Piazza (1557 – ca 1621). Detail. Innsbruck: Kapuzinerkirche. Ref. Websites: Bowed Bass Iconography (2016); Viola da gamba – Gesellschaft (2000); Website: Lute Iconography LT-2352 (2023, col.)  Angel musicians play cornetto, cittern, shawm, lute, violin, viol, and a flared-bell pipe, probably a recorder.

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (also called Giambattista Piazzetta)

Italian painter, illustrator, and designer whose art evolved from Baroque traditions of the 17th century to a Rococo manner in his mature style; painted altarpieces, genre works, history themes, and his portrait drawings and character heads which were much sought after by collectors; his figural work in painting and in drawing is characterized by a sculptural quality enhanced by his subtle use of chiaroscuro; born Venice (1682), died Venice (1754).

  • A Man and a Boy with Recorders, black chalk and wash, heightened with white, 32.3 × 44.4 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland, D.1849. Ref. Andrews (1961: fig. 43); Recorder & Music 3(2): cover – b&w (1969); Rowland-Jones (1995: cover); Wollitz (1982: 74). A man holds a baroque one-piece recorder and a boy plays a similar instrument. “The figures are probably master and pupil, reflecting the didactic nature of many recorder duets” (Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.)
  • Two Boys Making Music, oil on canvas, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Ref. Gabrius, OMP (2001 – col.) A boy in a striped jacket plays a baroque recorder while a young man holds a score for him to read. Possibly the original on which Giovanni Cattini’s engraving The Recorder Lesson (Venice: Private Collection) was based. Auctioned 5 August 2001.
  • The Recorder Lesson (1743-1764), engraving, 45.8 × 34.9 cm , by Giovanni Cattini (1752-1804) after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: Private Collection; Venice: Museo Correr; Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton Miller Flute Collection, 0164/X; London: British Museum, Inv. 1951,0714.252. Ref. Recorder & Music 1 (2): 49 – b& w. (1963), 4(11): cover – b&w (1974); Wiel (1996: 50, fig. 78); Website: British Museum (2012-b&w); de Avena Braga (2015-b&w.) This is plate number IX of a set of 14 large heads engraved by Cattini after Piazzetta. It depicts a boy in a striped jacket playing a baroque recorder while a young man holds a score for him to read. A caption reads:

    Excellentiss. Sebastiano Molin Senat. Ven.
    Bonarum Artium Cultori Eruditiss.
    in perpetuum observantiae pignus D.D.D.

    [To his excellency Sebastiano Molin, Senator of Venice,
    Most learned cultivator of the fine arts,
    This is given as a token of enduring respect.]

    Possibly based on a painting attributed to Piazzetta auctioned on 5 August 2001 (see above).

  • Study of a Young Boy Holding a Recorder (ca 1735), black chalk heightened with white chalk, on buff paper, 39.0 × 30.9 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown; auctioned Sotheby’s, London (14 January 1992). Ref. Auction Catalogue (1992: fig. 103); Gaudenzio (1948, 2: 139, fig. 163); Pallucchini (1956: fig. 122); Knox (1983: nos 19, 32-34); Archiv Moeck; Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). The artist’s son, Giacomo (born 1725), holds a baroque-style, turned, three-piece, soprano recorder. An engraving, in reverse and with some differences with the title Vegliando all’ombra was made by Viero (Auction Catalogue, loc. cit.)
  • Study of a Young Boy Holding a Recorder (ca 1760), 41.2 × 29.1 cm, engraving by Teodoro Viero (1740-1819) after an original drawing by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: Private Collection; London; British Museum, Inv. 1927,0518.96. Ref. Knox (1983: nos 19, 32-34); Beck & Roth (1965: pl. 33); Wiel (1996: 90, fig. 161). A copy of the above with some differences. The artist’s son, Giacomo (born 1725), holds a baroque-style, turned, three-piece, soprano recorder with a strangely bulbous beak and no window/labium. A caption reads:

    Vegliando all’ombra in sull’ estivo ardore
    Col villereccio suono inganna l’ore.

    In the shade in the heat of summer
    The sound of rustic music deceives the hours

  • Head of a Child Holding a Recorder (ca 1735), Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Windsor Castle: Royal Collection,  Drawing RL 0775. Ref. Archiv Moeck. The artist’s son Giacomo (born 1725) holds a baroque-style, turned, two-piece, soprano recorder with a prominently flared bell.
  • Study of a Young Boy Holding a Recorder (ca 1735), Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Windsor Castle: Royal Collection, Drawing RL 0776. Ref. Archiv Moeck. A boy in a cap holds a baroque-style, turned, two-piece, soprano recorder with a prominently flared bell and two obliquely arranged holes for the lowermost little finger, one smaller than the other as if for the double holes of a modern recorder.
  • Head of a Boy, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Ref. Archiv Moeck. A rather bitter looking lad holds a baroque-style, turned, soprano recorder.
  • Head of a Boy, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: Collection Trivulzio. Ref. Precertti-Garberi (1971: fig. 5). A young boy in a cap is depicted in side-profile holding in his fist a baroque-style, turned, soprano recorder only the beak and upper head-piece of which are visible.
  • A Shepherd with a Pipe, red chalk over graphite, 26.0 × 19.3 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, Kress Album. Ref. Knox (1983: 216, fig. 100b). A shepherd stands amongst his sheep before a decaying monument of some kind playing a flared bell duct flute which has a clear beaked mouthpiece, though no finger holes or window/labium. This design “served as the model for the left half of an engraving by Cajetano Canal, of which two impressions are known one in the Correr Museum in Venice and one in the Staatcliche Graphische Sammlung at Munich” (Knox, loc. cit.) Another similar engraving by Canal in the Kress Album has a legend:

    Al rovinoso intar del Tempo ingiusto
    Cede non solo rustico abituro
    Ma pramide Elea, Corinto muro
    Menfitica colonna, Egizio busto

    To the ruinous decay of unjust time,
    Not only the rustic house gives way,
    But the pyramids of Aeolia, the walls of Corinth,
    The columns of Memphis, the sculpture of Egypt

  • An Arcadian Scene, engraving, image 19.3 × 30.1 cm, by Cajetano Canal, after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: Civico Museo Correr, Stampe P.D. 781.; Munich: Staatcliche Graphische Sammlung. Ref. Knox (1983: 216-217, fig. 101). Based on a design in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, but reversed. A shepherd stands amongst his sheep before a decaying monument of some kind playing a flared bell duct flute which has a clear beaked mouthpiece, though no finger holes or window/labium are visible. A shepherdess siting with a cow beneath a tree has been added to the design. A caption reads:

    A lusingar del vincitore il fasto
    Quest’atrio sorse, che gran piano ingombra
    Ora dagli anni vacillante e guasto
    I rustici amator guarda con l’ombra

    To flatter the splendor of a conqueror,
    This monument rises, encumbering a large area.
    Now after the destruction of the years,
    It gives shade to rustic lovers.

  • Shepherd and Shepherdesses, 81 × 63 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown; auctioned by Vogel, Alkunst Casino, Freiburg (15-16 March 1927). Ref. Auction Catalogue (1927: fig. 405); Archiv Moeck. Standing beside two shepherdesses, a young shepherd holds a baroque-style recorder in the crook of his arm (only the head-piece is visible).
  • A Young Boy, ?oil painting, 48 × 38 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown; auctioned by Sotheby’s, London (19 October 1977), Cat. 111. Ref. Archiv Moeck; Witt Library, London (1978). A young lad gazes into the distance holding a renaissance-style, one-piece, flared-bell recorder upside-down against his cheek. The curved windway, window/labium and five finger holes (the lowermost offset) are clearly depicted. This is an identical composition to an engraving by Pietro Monaco (1707-1772) entitled Davidde Fugitivo, in a private collection, Venice, after a painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747) now in the Faringdon Collection, Buscott Park (UK), one of a pendant pair.
  • Shepherdess with a Gourd and a Peasant Boy Playing a Recorder, 58.8 × 77.8 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown; auctioned by Sotheby’s, London (1954), Lot 151. Ref. Auction Catalogue (1954: pl. – col.) A young woman clutching a swollen gourd gazes thoughtfully into the distance. Beside her, a young boy twitters away on a soprano recorder of renaissance form.
  • The Shepherd and his Dog, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Russia; exhibited St Petersburg (1909). Ref. Archiv Moeck. A young lad wearing a hat and a coat thrown over his shoulders plays what appears to be a transitional-style recorder with a turned beak but plain body and a flared bell.
  • Portrait of a Young Rustic, 59.5 × 52 cm, circle of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). West Hartford, Connecticut: Collection of Mr & Mrs Morris Joseloff; exhibited Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut. Ref. Sale Catalogue: fig. 162); Archiv Moeck. Standing, half-length, wearing a blue jacket, white blouse and brown leather hat, a young lad clutches a slender duct flute (probably a recorder, though only the head and upper body are visible).
  • Portrait of a Girl and a Boy with a Flute, oil on canvas, 58.5 × 45.0 cm, follower of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown; auctioned by Sotheby’s, London (15 February 1989), Cat. 105. Ref. Archiv Moeck. A young woman gazes intently at a boy who clutches a soprano, renaissance-style recorder in one hand. There is a pendant to this painting called Portrait of an Old Woman and a Young Woman with a Basket of Grapes (auctioned together).
  • [Unknown], fresco, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: “a church”. Depicts a musical group with two possible recorders (Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. ex “a Professor in Vienna”). It is possible that this refers to the ceiling of the Basilica de Ss Giovanni e Paolo (see below).
  • The Glory of St Dominic (1727), fresco, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Detail. Venice: Basilica dei Ss Giovanni e Paolo, ceiling. Ref. Postcard, ed. Benedetti Roberto (ca 2000 – col.) “Centre right three musicians play bass viol, violin or viola and a duct flute. The latter, viewed from underneath, is very slightly outwardly conical with only a modicum of bell flare. Both hands are on the instrument including the fingers and both thumbs – no holes show. The hand position suits the recorder. It could be a mute cornetto, but the mouthpiece is within the player’s lips (no sign of a beak) which are not pursed – cheeks and lips are relaxed. So this is probably a recorder of soprano size or a little larger. The right hand is lowermost. The bore opening is quite wide. All instruments are carefully represented” (Rowland-Jones, pers. comm. 2000).
  • Boy with a Recorder, black chalk heightened with white chalk on blue paper faded to tan, 39.0 × 30.6 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Cambridge (USA): Fogg Art Museum, Inv. 1985.204 Ref. Knox (1983: 102, fig. 33A); Visual Information Access (VIA), Harvard University Fine Arts Library (2010). “The present drawing seems to be a presentation drawing, very likely reworked from a preliminary study for the Dresden picture. See also the drawing in the Ashmolean Museum …” (Knox, loc. cit.) A young boy holds in his fist (window-down) a turned, soprano recorder only the beak, head and upper part of the centre-joint are visible.
  • Giovane che impugna la spada e fanciullo che suona il fluato, engraving, 34.2 × 26.0 cm, by Calcografia Wagner (1739-1835) after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Wiel (1996: 113, fig. 189). Identical to the next. A youth leans on the handle of his sword, a young boy beside him plays a recorder of cylindrical renaissance design, though the foot is not visible. A caption reads:

    L’uno il sonno concilia in varie forme,
    Ma il buon guerrier coll’armi in man non dorme.

  • Giovane che impugna la spada e fanciullo che suona il fluato, engraving, 35 × 25 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Wiel (1996: 113). Identical to the above. A youth leans on the handle of his sword, a young boy beside him plays a recorder of cylindrical renaissance design, though the foot is not visible. A caption reads:

    Allicit hic sommnum gracili modulatus avena:
    Strenuus at miles pervigil usque manet

  • Fanciulla con cimbalo e bambino con flauto, engraving, 41.7 × 31.7 cm, by Pietro Scattaglia (1739 – ca 1810) after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Wiel (1996: 105, fig. 180). A young woman plays a tambourine (with pellet bells) and a little boy pipes at a rather large (?alto) recorder of baroque design.
  • Concertino, engraving, 22.8 × 31.5 cm, by the Monogrammist ‘F.P.’ after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Venice: Civico Museo Correr, Print Collection P.D. 4141. Ref. Wiel (1996z; fig. 134). The Monogrammist ‘F.P.’ describes himself as ‘ap. Cavalli Venetis’, i.e. an apprentice of Cavalli. He has been identified as one Francesco del Pedro (1740-1806), who was active along with Pellegrino in the workshop of Nicolò Cavalli (1730-1822). Watched by an old crone, a young girl sings from a page of music accompanied by a young man playing a cylindrical recorder (it clearly has a hole for the little finger of the lowermost (right) hand. A couplet (from Horace) appears as a caption:

    Me nunc Cressa Chloe regit
    Dulces docta modos et cithare sciens

    There is a somewhat larger version of this work in the possession of Gabriel Boyers (pers. comm., 2008) who reports that it is by ‘Il Chiozotto’ (Antonio Marinetti (1710-1796) and engraved by Nicolò Cavalli himself.

  • Giovane flautista con berretto [Youth with a Beret Playing a Flute], engraving, 14.o × 10.1 cm by Franz Xavier Jungwirth (1720-1790) after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Venice: Civico Museo Correr, Print Collection, XXII/31. Ref. Wiel (1996: fig. 121). A young man with downcast eyes holds a wind instrument over his left shoulder. The instrument is hidden in his hand and behind his head, and only two finger holes are visible. It may represent a recorder.
  • La Lezione di Musica, oil on canvas, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754). Ref. Gabrius, OMP (2001 – col.) A young boy with his back to us plays a fat cylindrical recorder with a flared bell and a turned bead at the foot. A man facing us holds a piece of music for his student to read from. Auctioned 28 November 2000.
  • Girl with Flute, oil on canvas, 55 × 46 cm, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Venice: Private Collection. Ref. Sardelli (2001: dust-jacket -col., pl. 2 – b&w; 2007: plate 1-b&w). An androgynous youth viewed in side profile, her body inclined towards us, grips a recorder of unusual design in her left hand. The curved baroque-style beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, and there are two turned ornamental beads immediately beneath the window rather than above it. The first and the last three finger holes are visible, the remainder hidden by the player’s hand. The foot is flared in external profile.
  • Boy with a Flute, drawing, Gianbattista Piazzetta (1682-1754). Location unknown. Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2002 – b&w) A boy in a brimmed hat holds a soprano duct flute which may be a recorder. The first finger of his upper (left) hand is down, but the next two are above their holes; finger hole five is just visible, but the rest of the instrument is out of view.

Bernard Picart [Picard]

French painter, draughtsman and engraver; active mainly in the Netherlands, where he worked principally on book illustrations, but also portraits; he drew with great precision and in great detail, znc his elegant technique foreshadowed the work of the 18th-century artists, Claude Gillot (1673-1722) and Jean-Antonie Watteau (1684-1721); born Paris (1673), died Amsterdam (1733); son of engraver and print publisher Etienne Picart (1632-1631).

  • Frontispiece of Principes de la flûte traversière (1707), by Jacques Hotteterre (1674-1763), published by Christophe Ballard, Paris: Recorder Player’s Hands (1707), engraving, 17.7 × 12.8 cm, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-51.388; London: University of London, Witt Library, Print Collection; Washington DC.: Library of Congress, Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, 0479/L. Ref. Linde (1991: 30); Vinquist (1974: 60, 185-188, fig. 303); Thomson (1974, 40, 73, fig. 10); Pottier (1995: 138, pl. 14); Pilipczuk (1980 -fig.); Witt Library, London; Paris RIdIM (1999); Jan Lancaster ex Robert Bigio (pers. comm., 2007); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Depicts a three-piece, baroque recorder with turned mounts and the players hands. This is highly reminiscent of the Sketch of the Hands of a Recorder Player by Jean-Antonie Watteau (1684-1721).
  • The Temple of Memory (a. 1724), oil on panel, 40.0 × 23.5 cm, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Lille: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Inv. 598. Ref. Limiers, H.P. de (1724: frontispiece-b&w); Website: Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium (2010-b&w). Reproduced as an engraving for the frontispiece of Annales de la Monarchie Française … (Limiers, loc. cit.) In the Hall of Remembrance, surrounded by statues of the kings of France on pedestals, an Angel recording the history of the monarchy from evidence presented to her by three assistants seems too busy to look up at the marriage portrait of Louis XV and his future Queen, the Spanish Infanta Marie Anne Victoire de Bourbon et Farnèse. Truth guides the Angel’s hand, and the latter tramples Flattery and Satire on the floor beneath. The King’s portrait is supported by Fame and crowned by Providence; that of the Infanta is carried forth by Hymen. In the foreground a little putto measures distances on a map of France. Flattery holds a perfectly depicted baroque alto recorder, and a chamaeleon clambers on her gown. The Infanta was returned to Spain in 1725 because of her youth.
  • Concert champêtre (1708), coloured engraving, 91 × 146 cm, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Frankfurt: Nagel Auktionen, Sale 379S, Lot 812 (2001). Ref. Christian Starke (pers. comm., 2001). Shows two baroque recorders accompanied by flute and harpsichord. In the foreground left are a reclining listener, and a man and a woman singing from a shared score. On the right two musicians play violin and cello. An excerpt from a larger engraving (see below).
  • Concert champêtre (1707 – 1799), oil on canvas, 113 × 153 cm, attributed to Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Paris: Daguerre, Dessins et Tableaux anciens Argenterie Céramique Objets d’art Meubles, Hôtel Drouot, 26 mars 2014, Lot 41; formerly Paris: Daguerre, Dessins et tableaux anciens, argenterie, ceramique, objets d’art, meubles, tapis et tapisseries, Hôtel Drouot, 13 November  2013, Lot 53. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 272671 (2014-col.); Bowed Strings Iconography Project, bsip525 (2022, col.) Shows two baroque recorders accompanied by flute and harpsichord. In the foreground left are a reclining listener, and a man and a woman singing from a shared score. On the right two musicians play violin and cello.
  • Concert champêtre (1708), engraving, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Cambridge (UK): University Library; Berlin: Institut für Musikforschung; Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale. Ref. Thomson (1974: 74 & plate 3 – b&w); Libin (1976: 18, fig. 6); Thomson & Rowland-Jones 1995: 85, fig. 24, detail); Recorder & Music 5(3): front cover (1975, detail); Lasocki (1974: 391, detail); Walter Bergmann Collection, photograph (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2006 – b&w). Shows two baroque recorders accompanied by flute and harpsichord. In the foreground are a reclining listener, and a man and a woman singing from a shared score. An accompanying poem reads:

    A l’ombre des bosquets dans un beau jour d’Eté,
    Cette agreable compagnie
    Goute le doux plaisir que donne l’harmonie
    Lorsque tout est bien concerté.

    Mais parmi les attraits d’une belle musique
    Ou de Batiste ou de Lambert
    L’Amour tient sa partie et très souvent se pique
    De faire que deux coeurs soupirent de concert

    — (François) Gacon, A Paris chez Vanheck P. du R.

    In the shade of a thicket on a beautiful summer day
    This agreeable company
    Tastes the sweet pleasure harmony gives,
    Since all is well orchestrated.

    But amongst the charms of beautiful music
    (Either of Baptiste or Lambert)
    Love has her part and often her pique,
    To make two hearts sigh in concert.

  • Concert champêtre (1709), engraving, 30.3 × 51.2 cm, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Paris: Citée de la Musique, E.986.1.32 Ref: Citée de la Musique (2000); Mirimonde, A. P. de (1975-1977); Website: EUTERPE: la musique en images (2016); Délegati – Exposition – Instrumentistes et luthiers parisiens, Paris. Shows two baroque recorders accompanied by flute and harpsichord. In the foreground left are a reclining listener, and a man and a woman singing from a shared score. On the right two musicians play violin and cello. An accompanying poem reads:

    A l’ombre des bosquets dans un beau jour d’Eté,
    Cette agreable compagnie
    Goute le doux plaisir que donne l’harmonie
    Lorsque tout est bien concerté.

    Mais parmi les attraits d’une belle musique
    Ou de Batiste ou de Lambert
    L’Amour tient sa partie et très souvent se pique
    De faire que deux coeurs soupirent de concert

    — (François) Gacon, A Paris chez Vanheck P. du R.

    In the shade of a thicket on a beautiful summer day
    This agreeable company
    Tastes the sweet pleasure harmony gives,
    Since all is well orchestrated.

    But amongst the charms of beautiful music
    (Either of Baptiste or Lambert)
    Love has her part and often her pique,
    To make two hearts sigh in concert.

    An identical engraving is said to be by Karl Augsburg Remshard (1678-1735). See Salmen (1969, 4 (3): 84 – fig.); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000).

  • Concert champêtre (1709), engraving by Poilly, after Bernard Picart (1673-1733). Paris: Musée de France. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). Shows two baroque recorders accompanied by flute and harpsichord. In the foreground of the original are a reclining listener, and a man and a woman singing from a shared score. This copy includes only the instrumentalists (although half the female singer is visible in the bottom RH corner) and it is reversed.
  • The Giants Attempt to Scale Heaven by Piling Mountains on One Another (1731), engraving, Bernard Picart (1673-1733). London: University of London, Witt Library, Print Collection. Ref. Witt Library, London; Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: Wikimedia Gallery.org (2015). This engraving is surrounded by an ornamental border made up of leaves; bow, arrows and quiver; heads; and trophies of musical instruments. The later include two lyres each crossed by  a straight trumpet, and two straight trumpets each crossed by a turned baroque recorder.

Etienne Picart [le Romain] – see Domenichino

French engraver and publisher of prints after Reni, Domenichino, Tintoretto and Francesco Albani; born Paris (1632), died Amsterdam (1721).

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, ceramicist, designer and writer active in France; a versatile and prolific artist who dominated the development of the visual arts during most of the first half of the 20th century; born Málaga, Spain (1881), died Mougins, France (1973).

  • Design for Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (1917-1920), 201 × 223 cm, Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973). New York: Museum of Modern Art. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Pulcinella sings, Harlequin plays guitar, and Pierrot plays a duct flute (possibly a recorder). Pierrot’s instrument is a stylised, beaked duct flute with six finger holes of varying size, not quite in line, and a huge flange-like bell end with a large round blob on it to indicate the bore opening. His hands are minuscule, just large enough to hold on each side of the instrument.
  • Three Musicians (1921), oil on canvas, 204.5 × 183.3 cm, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973). Philadelphia: Museum of Art, A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952-61-96. Ref. Website: Philadelphia Museum of Art (2016-col.) “Three Musicians provides a grand summation of Pablo Picasso’s decade-long exploration of Synthetic Cubism, with its flat, patterned shapes, although painted in oil, echoing the cut and pasted papers of his collages of the period. Music was a favorite Cubist theme, and here Picasso equips Harlequin with a violin, Pierrot with a recorder, and the monk with an accordion. All three characters, which figure importantly in the history of painting and in Picasso’s own earlier work, are derived from Italian, French, and Spanish popular theater and carnival traditions, but the artist had also encountered them more directly during recent visits to Italy as the set designer for Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet. Indeed, the stage-like space of this monumental composition may be traced to Picasso’s theatrical work. Quite probably a portrayal of Picasso himself (Harlequin) and two poet friends, the painting presents an allegory of the artist as performer, a major theme of Picasso’s highly autobiographical work throughout his long life” (Philadelphia Museum of Art, loc. cit.) The beak, window/labium, flared bell and several finger holes of the recorder can readily be identified. The painting has been interpreted as a nostalgic elegy to a trio of friends: the recently deceased poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire (Pierrot), the poet Max Jacob (the friar), and Picasso himself as Harlequin.
  • Three Musicians [Musiciens aux masques] (1921), oil on canvas, 200.7 × 222.9 cm, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973). New York: Museum of Modern Art, Zervos IV, 331. Ref. Rosenblum (1976: 95-96). Harlequin (alias Picasso himself) strums a guitar and Pierrot plays a flared-bell pipe, probably a recorder, given its similarity to that in a similar painting in the Museum of Art Philadelphia (see above). In the background the masked and cowled monk sings from a sheet of music he holds.
  • Musical Faun Nr. 4 (1948), lithograph, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973). Ulm: Ulmer Museum. Ref. Postcard: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn (1998); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). A faun blows a slender conical pipe, possibly a duct flute, though no details are present.
  • Flute-player (1947), lithographic print, 431 × 50 cm, Pablo y Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973). Boca Raton, Florida: PicassoMio.com (sold). Ref. Website: Picasso Mio (2005). A woman with bare breasts sits cross-legged opposite a musician playing a conical, flared-bell pipe. Given the title, the latter is likely to represent a duct flute, possibly a recorder.
  • Dormeuse et Flutiste, drypoint and etching on paper, 8.9 × 7.9 cm, Pablo Ruiz y y Picasso (1881-1973). Carmel: Hanson Gallery (for sale, 2005); San Francisco: Bonhams, Auction 13229,Fine Prints & Photographs, 18 Oct. 2005, Lot 127; Munich: Ketterer Kunst (Auction 299, 31 March 2006); Boston: Galerie Dorsay (for sale, 2009). An edition of 104. A naked woman reclines listening to her partner, a second naked woman, who sits beside her playing a conical, flared-bell pipe. Given the title, the latter is likely to represent a duct flute, possibly a recorder. There are many variants of this composition that could be followed up.
  • Standing Flute-player (1958), 15 pink clay tiles, 213 × 83 cm, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (1881-1973). Paris: Musée National Picasso, Inv. MP3744. Ref. Website: Joconde (2011). A man in nothing but his underpants plays a slender pipe with a flared bell. Given the title and the fact that the instrument is end-blown, has a flared bell and is held vertically, it very likely represents a duct flute, possibly a recorder.

Suor Isabella Piccini

Italian nun and engraver; she took the veil at the monastery of St Cross of the Poor Clares; she provided work for the Venetian publishers and editors of major Italian cities; born Venice (1644), died 1734; daughter of Gugliemo Piccini (nicknamed Zoan) and niece to Giacomo Piccini, both engravers.

  • Allegory of St Michael the Archangel Slaying the Devil (1694), engraving, 228 × 162 cm, Isabella Piccini (1644-1734). Venice: Museo Correr. In a mandorla, St Michael the Archangel with a spear held in one hand slays Satan as a dragon. His other hand holds a pair of scales with which he weighs souls, in his role as the Angel of Death. The Angels on each side sing and play viola d’arco and an alto/tenor size pipe, possibly a recorder since all fingers of the player’s lowermost (right) hand are in play. Beneath, a regally attired woman (a personification of a city, perhaps) seated in a chair holds a scroll in one hand and with the other places a crucifix on a map on a tray held out to her by an obliging putto. Before her are a roaring lion, a phoenix and a canon with cannon balls.

Lionel Picker

Contemporary US-American artist who has spent most of his life in European countries, residing in France since 1979, and has exhibited in many cities both in Europe and in the USA; music has been a major theme and source of inspiration, whether in the form of instruments in still life compositions or as portrayals of musicians with their instruments; born New York (1949). Artist’s website.

  • Recorder player, oil on canvas, 54 × 65 cm, Lionel Picker (1949).
    Location unknown. Ref. Artist’s website (2018-col.) A seated man seen in side profile and wearing an open-necked white shirt plays a 3-piece neo-baroque tenor recorder, perfectly depicted.

Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre

French painter, draughtsman and administrator; from 1770 to 1789 he was Premier peintre du Roi; born Paris (1713), died Paris (1789).

  • Sacrifice in Honour of Pan, engraving, 41.1 × 31.6 cm, by Louis Simion Lempereur (1725-1796), after a painting by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1713-1789). San Francisco: Legion of Honour Museum, Accn. 1963.30.30813; Uppsala: Universitets Bibliotek, UBG 5252. Ref. RIdIM Stockholm (2000); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). A semi-clad nymph reclines before a bust of Pan. Behind her, a youth plays a duct flute, almost certainly a recorder. The instrument is in three parts with a clearly depicted beak; it is played right hand lowermost, the first and third fingers of which are down, the outstretched little finger hidden by the double rings before the bell flare; the upper (left-hand) thumb is held underneath.
  • Musical Trophy (1751-1754), pink and blue en camaïeu on panel, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1713-1789). Château de Fontainebleau: State Apartments, Council Chamber, François I Wing, NW corner, near door. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2007). The Council Chamber was redesigned at Louis XV’s request in the mid-18th century by his architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel with exquisite rococo decorations, including a ceiling painting by Boucher and allegorical figures in leaf surrounds by Pierre and Carle van Loo, executed in 1751-1754. The wall decorations include many rococo panel designs in pink and blue camaïeu (monochrome). At the NW corner near a door, a panel has a small trophy-like decoration at its centre with musical instruments (similar designs elsewhere are made up with gardening tools, etc.) This particular trophy, by Pierre, comprises a viola crossed with a bow (above) and a tenor-sized recorder (below). The head end shows a very elongated beak before the window/labium with incised decorative rings; the foot is medium-flared with one off-set finger hole visible.

Pietro di Domenico da Siena

Minor Italian painter, active in Siena, whose works reflect the dominant pictorial styles of the era; born Siena (1457), died Siena (ca 1533). See also Sisto Badalocchio.

  • The Return of Jephthah, (ca 1470), tempera on panel, 32 × 82 cm, attributed to Pietro di Domenico (1457 – ? 1533). Private Collection; formerly in the collection of the Earl of Crawford. Ref. Schubring (1915: no 479, pl. CXIII, as by Girolamo di Benvenuto); Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.P627.12J; Rasmussen (1999,Lute; 1999, Tambourine); Web Gallery of Art (2015-col.) Based on Dante, Jephta, par. 5, 66. Jephthah was a great Old Testament (Judges 11:30-40) warrior, who was called upon to lead the Israelites in their war against the Ammonites. On the eve of the battle he made a pact with God, that, in return for victory, he would sacrifice “the first creature that comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return”. The battle won, “who should come out to meet him with tambourines and dances but his daughter, and she only a child?” In this painting Jephthah’s daughter and her retinue of maidens step forward to welcome him on his arrival. Jephthah, on a black horse, clutches his breast in despair. The soldiers wave olive branches to symbolize the peace that will follow their victory. Young women in the daughter’s retinue sing and play harp, lute, a cylindrical duct flute and tambourine. The window/labium of the duct flute is visible but no other details; it is played left hand uppermost. The attribution to Pietro di Domenico is debated, various other artists including Benvenuto di Giovanni (1436–p.1518), Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1502) and Girolamo di Benvenuto (1470-1525) have also been suggested.

Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio

Italian painter of the Sienese school; born Siena (ca 1410), died Siena (1449).

  • Assumption (ca 1440), tempera and gold on wood painted surface, 85.8 × 50.2 cm, Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio (ca 1410-1447). Esztergom: Kerestény Múzeum. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The Virgin ascends through a ring of musical angels to Heaven, where God the Father greets her. At the bottom, St Thomas, known for doubting the miraculous, appears and asks a proof from the Virgin of her assumption. In answer to this request, Mary unfastens and drops her cincture (a belt, sash or girdle, woven from camel or goat hair by Mary herself) to the doubtful apostle. The belt (Girdle of St Thomas), became the most venerated Marian relic in the Orthodox Christian world; it is now a treasure of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Vatopediu in Mount Athos. Amongst the angels, a piper holds in his right hand a slender instrument which expands markedly at the bell. No details are visible but, given its long association with miraculous events, it is tempting to identify it as a recorder.

Edith Elizabeth Pijpers

Dutch painter, draughtsman and graphic artist who lived and worked successively in Laren, The Hague, Amsterdam and Amersfoort Gorssel; her work includes paintings, drawings, etchings and lithographs of portraits, figures, flowers, still lifes, cityscapes and landscapes; besides lithographs she also made woodcuts; born Amsterdam (1927), died Amersfoort (1963).

  • Girl Playing a Recorder (1920–1930), oil on canvas, Edith Elizabeth Pijpers (1886–1963). Amersfoort: Museum Flehite, Inv. 1999-042. Ref. Arnold den Teuling (2017, pers. comm.) A young woman in a bonnet and shawl plays a clearly depicted alto recorder of neo-baroque design.

Giuseppe Pinacci

Italian artist of the Siennese school who specialised in painting battle scenes; born Sienna (1642) died 1718.

  • Mercury Near Argus and Io, drawing on paper, Giuseppe Pinacci (1642-1718). Paris: Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Inv. 1443, Verso. Ref. Joconde Website (2016). Beneath a tree Argus sleeps as Mercury draws his sword to slay him. Behind Argus, Io (as a heifer) chews the cud thoughtfully. In front of Mercury, a pipe lies on the ground, only the flared bell and several finger holes visible.

Pinturicchio [Pintoricchio Bernardino (di Betto)]

Italian painter and miniaturist whose nickname (‘rich painter’) derives from the lavish use of gold leaf and expensive pigments which he used in works with an abundance of small-scale detail and ornament; born ? Perugia (ca 1452), died Sienna (1513).

  • Music (1492-4), fresco, Pinturricchio (ca 1452-1513). Rome: Palazzo Vaticano, Sala Borgia. Ref. Furlani (1956: 826, 1141-1142); Woodfield (1984: 83 – detail); Paris RIdIM (1999); Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). Music enthroned plays a viola da braccio. On the plinth at her feet two putti hold flared-bell duct flutes (flageolets or recorders). In the foreground left are a viola  da mano player and a harpist; on the right are two singers (reading from music books) and a man who seems to be conducting with what looks like a small duct flute in one hand, and a small organ pipe in the other.
  • Ceiling decoration, fresco, Pinturricchio (ca 1454-1513). Rome: Palazzo Vaticano, Room of Saints. Lives of the Saints within the four triangles defined by a cross joining the four corners of a rectangular ceiling. At the foot of a throne, on the right, two men carry heavy planks (of the cross), preceded by a man blowing a curved trumpet and a youth with a flared-bell pipe played right hand uppermost, probably a shawm in this conext, but possibly a recorder.
  • Glorification of St Bernadino (1485), fresco, Pinturricchio (ca 1452-1513). Rome: Santa Maria d’Aracoeli, Chapel of St Bernardino of Siena, altar wall. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002); Website: gallica )2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-245, (2023, col.) A grand painting of St Bernardino of Siena between two other saints, crowned by angels; in the upper part is a figure of Christ in a mandorla, surrounded by four angel musicians singing and playing recorder, rebec and lute. The recorder is cylindrical, of tenor size with a slow widening towards the bell flare which has two decorative rings. The beak is narrow and long, and the window/labium is visible. The player’s right hand is uppermost, but the finger holes show, as they are not all covered. Six finger holes are fully visible and one near the top is more or less half-covered. Of the two lower holes, one is just lower than the player’s left hand, but not offset.
  • Assumption of the Virgin, Pinturricchio (ca 1452-1513). Naples: Museo di Capodimonte (dalla Cappella Tolosa in Monteoliveto Napoli). Ref. Laclotte (1979, 1: pl. 51 – col.); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003); Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2354 (2023, col.) The Virgin and angel musicians are borne aloft by cherubim (winged heads) above the heads of 12 saints, one of whom kneels in prayer. The musicians play lute, vielle and a duct flute (probably a recorder), the beak, window/labium and finger holes of which are clearly depicted. “Instead of playing, the recorder player is having an animated chat with his neighbour, who pretends to be praying. It’s amusing to observe how the early painters conceived of paradise, a place so similar to earth!” (Zaniol, loc. cit.)
  • Musical Angels, fresco, Pinturricchio (ca 1452-1513). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Two kneeling winged putti play lute and a cornetto. Behind them is a trophy comprising a viol crossed with a cylindrical pipe which appears to have a beak and thus might represent a recorder. Beneath, is a syrinx.

Domenico I Piola

Italian painter, draughtsman, printmaker and designer; member of an extensive family of Italian artists; the leading artist in Genoa in the second half of the 17th century, providing ceiling frescoes for many Genoese churches and palaces and producing paintings for private collectors; also a prolific draughtsman, whose many designs for thesis pages and book illustrations promoted his work throughout Europe; born Genoa (1627), died Genoa (1703); father of painter Paolo Gerolamo Piola (1666-1724).

  • Esau Asking for his Father’s Blessing Which is Refused Him, canvas, 130 × 178 cm, Domenico I Piola (1627-1703). Location unknown; exhibited at the Biennale des Antiquires of Florence, Genoa (1971). Ref. Exhibition catalogue (1971); Paris RIdIM (2000). Accompanied by his hunting hound, Esau (with long hair and a feathered cap) implores Isaac, his father, both pointing towards a young woman who sits beside Isaac, presumably Rebecca. A small boy standing between Isaac and Rebecca grasps in one hand a flared bell pipe (very possibly a recorder, though the details are not clear) which he holds in Rebecca’s lap, perhaps to make clear the relationship between the blind old man and the beautiful young woman.
  • Allegory of Music (ca 1671), oil on ?canvas, 100 × 150 cm, Domenico I Piola (1627-1703). Genoa: Palazzo del Principe (Villa Doria). Ref. Francesco Li Virghi (pers. comm., 2000). One of a trilogy of paintings named Allegorie delle arti to celebrate the marriage of Giovanni Andrea Doria III with Anna Pamphilj in 1671. This painting shows a black eagle being crowned with a laurel leaf by cherubs assisted by a dove and serenaded with lute and a pipe played by the angel on the far right hand side which would appear to be a recorder, though only the head and upper part of the body are shown. At the foot of the painting lie a tambourine with pellet bells, a shawm (only the foot of which is visible) and a whistle-style syrinx with five pipes. The eagle represents the coat of arms of the Genoese family Doria, while the dove is the heraldic device adopted by the Roman noble family Pamphilj. The other paintings in this series are allegories of painting and poetry; both contain the Doria eagle. The Allegory of Art carries the inscription “Desiderabilia super aurum et lapidem pretiosum multum”. A banner in the Allegory of Music reads: “et dulciora super mel et favum”. Taken together they comprise a verse from Psalm 18 which, translated, reads:

    More desirable are they than gold and many precious stones:
    and sweeter than honey and honeycomb.

    In the biblical context this refers to the going forth, the law, the statutes and the fear of the Lord.

Paulo Gerolamo Piola

Italian painter and frescoist; member of an extensive family of Italian artists; painted religious and mythological subjects in which the figures are portrayed in noble and classical attitudes; born Genoa (1666), died Genoa (1724); son of painter Domeninco I Paolo (1627-1703).

  • Children’s Concert (17th or early 18th century), ink, pencil & watercolour on paper, 19.7 × 15.o cm, copy after Paolo Gerolamo Piola (1666-1724). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, Inv. FP 3858. Ref. RIdM Munich (2009, DÜk 543). A forest landscape with five cherubs singing and playing tambourines, syrinx and recorder. On the ground lie a shawm and a sheet of music. Not seen.

Sebastiano del Piombo = Sebastiano Luciani

Giulio Pippi [called Giulio Romano; in French, Jules Romain]

Italian painter, decorator and architect, renowned for his work on the ducal palace and cathedral at Mantoue; born Rome (1492 or 1499), died Mantova (ca 1546).

  • Series on Subjects from Fables: Dance of the Nymphs (1696-1790), tapestry by François Duret-Robert (17-18th century), after a design by Giulio Pippi (1492/1499 – 1546). Paris: Mobilier National. Ref. Encyclopédie CdA; Paris RIdIM (2000). One of eight designs for the Cabinet du Roi. In 1699 and 1700, Mme de Maintenon, offended by their nudity, ordered their modification by covering the figures with drapes. Four nymphs dance to music played by a fifth who reclines in the lower right-hand corner playing a pipe with a long, ornately turned, flared bell which may represent a recorder, although the beak appears bulbous and more like that of a flageolet.

Gaultieri di Giovanni da Pisa

Italian painter and frescoist active in Siena where he painted the vaults of the sacristy chapels and elsewhere in Siena Cathedral; born Pisa (c.1375), died Siena (p.1445).

  • Assumption of the Virgin (ca 1400), Gaultieri di Giovanni da Pisa (c.1375-p.1445). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie. Ref. Brown (1985: #217). ” … on the right angels play recorder, fiddle, … ” (Brown, loc. cit.) A very similar ring of angels to the Munich altarpiece, particularly the two angels at the bottom. The wind instrument in question is of alto size with a slightly conical expansion and held centrally by both hands close together. It is not a recorder, but some kind of single pipe (Rowland-Jones, pers comm.)
  • Assumption of the Virgin (ca 1410), fresco, Gaultieri di Giovanni da Pisa (c.1375-p.1445). Siena: Chiesa Santa Maria del Carmine. Ref. Brown (1983: 66; 1985: #219). “Besides harp, angels play four trumpets, nakers, pipe and tabor, fiddle, double recorder, portative organ, tambourine, triangle, lute, shawm (recorder) and cymbals” (Brown 1983, loc. cit.); ” … on the right, angels play cymbals, shawm or recorder, lute, … The fresco is too badly damaged to identify some of the instruments securely” (Brown 1985, loc. cit.)

Bonanno Pisano

Italian architect and sculptor to whom the design of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is generally attributed; active ca 1179-1190; born Pisa, died Pisa.

  • Nativity (ca 1190), bronze cast panel, Bonanno Pisano (op. 1179-1190). Pisa: Duomo, Porta da Saint Ranieri. Ref. Guizzi (1990: fig. 1); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2006). One of several panels on the South transept doors of the Cathedral. Each of the two doors has a shallow frieze at the foot, with ten square panels above (two across, five down). The Nativity is the bottom left of the right-hand door. Bonanno finished the detailing from cold after casting the main designs of each scene. Angels carrying scrolls and two shepherds playing musical instruments pay homage to the Holy Family. One of the shepherds plays what is clearly a flared-bell pipe, probably a duct flute, but possibly a reed pipe of some sort. The other holds an object in his hand which may represent another wind-instrument.

Nicolò (Nicolo) Pisano [de Brusis; dell’Abrugia; di Bartolomeo]

Italian painter of altarpieces and church decorations; active in Pisa, Ferrara, Milan, and Budrio (near Bologna); born Pisa (1470), died Pisa (?1539).

  • Virgin and Child Enthroned Between Saints James and Helen (1512-1513), Nicolò Pisano (1470-?1538). Milan: Galleria Brera. Ref. Sauerlandt (1920: 63 – b&w); Furlani (1956: 829-830); Woodfield (1984: 90); Archiv Moeck; Paolo Biordi (pers. comm., 2000). A youth, seated on a plinth at the Virgin’s feet, plays a guitar with a sickle-shaped peg-box; on either side, winged putti play conical, flared-bell duct flutes, both with their left hand lowermost; The window/labium of each instrument is clear. The left-hand instrument has a clear beak, and there is possibly an offset hole for the little finger of the lowermost hand. Notes (in part) by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. com., 2000).

Johann Georg Platzer [Plazer]

Swiss painter who produced a great number of small paintings, mostly on copper; the most important master of the conversation piece in 18th-century Austria, he painted histories and allegories, scenes of artists’ studios and genre scenes; his compositions are remarkable for their virtuoso manner, lively colours and the innumerable details they record; the repeated use of architectural motifs in his work is derived from northern Italian quadratura painting; born St Michael bei Eppan (1704), died Tirol (1761).

  • The Concert (1740), Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, GM 1329. Ref. Oja (1978: 31, item 170); Meer (1983: pl. 262 – col.); Favre (1990: 60-61, col.) A family concert in crowded rococo style with one-keyed flute, violin, theorbo, harpsichord, cello and a singer who keeps time. In the foreground lie a mask, a tambourine, an open book of music and a small baroque turned recorder. On the wall behind the players hangs a painting or tapestry of musicians including the satyr Marsyas who plays a long flared duct flute (possibly a recorder), whilst Apollo plays his viola da braccio. Discarded on the floor in the foreground beside a child and a dog, a turned baroque-style recorder lies discarded with a music-book as if to mirror the tapestry behind: clearly the recorder is not appropriate for the business of real music either in this or the mythological realm.
  • Musicale, Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Location unknown: Leningrader Sale, Lepke, Berlin, 1-7 November 1928. Ref. Rasmussen (2000, Keyboard). “Women sing and play a harpsichord. Men sing and play violin, cello, chitarrone and flute. A child plays a recorder. There are also unplayed musical instruments” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Possibly a copy of (or even identical to) Platzer’s The Concert, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. If so, it seems odd that Rasmussen doesn’t mention the picture within a picture (see above).
  • Bacchus and Ariadne on Naxos, oil on copper, 40.8 × 60,0 cm, Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Kassel: Schloß Wilhelmshöhe, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Inv. Gk 646. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Kksg -527). Bacchus’ train includes players of tambourine (Maened), syrinx (Pan), flute and a duct flute which might (or might not) be a recorder. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 1999).
  • An Elegant Company Making Music Outside a Palace, oil, Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Location unknown. Ref. Gabrius Databank, OMP (2002 – col.) A group of people at a table talk and drink; another group dance; an amorous couple drink each other’s health; a band of musicians play violin and a tenor-sized pipe, possibly a recorder since there appears to be a fontanelle near the foot. Auctioned 3 July 1991, sold (Gabrius, loc. cit.)
  • Concert, painting, Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w) In a crowded L-shaped room a man and woman sing from a shared score, a man plays a cello, a woman plays a flute, another woman plays a lute. Next to the musicians, an elderly woman wrapped in a blanket is served cakes and ale by her servants. In the corner opposite, a man stands rigidly as if bored whilst his wife points meaningfully to their dog who is looking wistfully into the garden outside. In the background men and women are talking around a table. In the foreground are some open musical scores, a violin and bow, and a baroque style recorder, the distinctive head of which is clearly depicted, the rest hidden beneath the violin.

Henry Playford

Music publisher who was in business with his father from ca 1680; many of his publications were of a transient nature and were aimed at favourite songs and instrumental pieces for public entertainments, such as the pleasure garden concerts much in vogue; revised his father’s The Dancing Master and published D’Urfey’s Wit and Mirth and Purcell’s Orpheus Britannicus; born London (1657); died between 1706 and 1721; younger son of John Playford (1623-1686) and his only known surviving child.

  • Title page: Henry Playford, The Theater of Music (1685–7), Books 1–4, engraving after Wenceslas Hollar (1607–1677). Detail. Published in London. Ref. Early Music 9 (4): 527 (1981); CD Cover Tyrannick Love, Orpheus Ensemble, Move Records MD3217. Six winged putti play flared-bell recorder, cornetto, violin, viol, lute, cello. Hollar’s original engraving, entitled  Concert of cherubs on earth includes a timpani player.
  • Title page: Henry Playford, Deliciae Musicae … (1696), engraving by Frederick Hendrick van Hove. Published in London. Ref. Pincherlé (1963: 99); Website: Bayerische StaatsBibliothek; Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2357 (2023, b&w). A female singer and her lutenist accompanist sit at a table on which lie music and a narrow, flared recorder of baroque design in three sections.

John Playford

English music publisher and bookseller whose popular and frequently expanded collection of music and dance steps remains the principal source of knowledge of English country dance steps and melodies; born Norwich (1623), died London (1686); father of Henry Playford (ca 1657-ca 1707) who continued the family business.

  • Title page: John Playford, Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues to Sing to the Theorbo-Lute, or Bass-Viol … (1676), engraving. University of Glasgow: Library, Special Collections, Shelf Mark Sp Coll R.x.21. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography LI-2358 (2023, b&w).  A woman seated at a table plays an 8-course lute with an unusually long neck, the pegbox surmounted with a carved head. On the wall behind her are two crossed one-piece, flared-bell recorders and a violin.
  • Title page: John Playford, The Division Violin (1684), engraving. Ref. Early Music, Nov. (1990: 575; 1996, 24 (1): 95); Holman (1994: fig.) This item is a collection of popular songs of the day, in four volumes. On the title page, a violin teacher practices, seated at a table. On the wall behind him are two crossed one-piece, flared-bell recorders, a cello and bow.

Plymouth Porcelain

After many years of travel and research William Cookworthy determined that Cornish china clay and Cornish stone could be made to serve as equivalents to the Chinese materials and in 1768 he founded a works at Plymouth for the production of a fine hard-paste porcelain similar to the Chinese from local materials. The factory was removed to Bristol in 1770 and was shortly afterwards transferred to Richard Champion, a Bristol merchant, who had already been dabbling in the fashionable pursuit of porcelain making.

  • Musician, porcelain figurine, 15.5 cm high, Plymouth Porcelain (1768-1770). London: Bonham’s (Bond Street), Sale 15266 – The Dr Peter Bradshaw Collection of English Porcelain Figures, 24 January 2007, Lot 58. Seated in the branches of a tree, a man plays a pipe, wearing a soft plumed cap, a jacket and a long apron falling down over his knees, all on a high scroll base. A beak-like mouthpiece indicates that the instrument may be intended to represent a recorder. Five finger holes are visible.

Giovanni Andrea Podesta

Italian etcher and painter; known primarily by his etchings printed in Rome from 1636 to 1661; with few exceptions, his paintings and prints are in the style of Poussin and depict children playing amid classical objects in landscapes; born Genoa (1608), died Genoa (ca 1674).

  • Allegory of Music, oil on canvas, 97 × 141 cm, Giovanni Andrea Podesta (1608-1674). Milan: Sotheby’s, Sale MI0296: Old Master Paintings, 17 November 2008, Lot 92. Reference: Sotheby’s Sale MI0296, Catalogue (2008). Four putti play on two tables. One plays a well-depicted soprano recorder which he holds with one hand. One shows a metal bowl to his companion and a fourth clambers towards them from a second table holding a pitcher (hopefully not full of wine). On the tables lie a guitar, a tambourine (with jingle rings), a violin and what appears to be the chanter and bag of a bagpipe.

Cornelis van Poelenburch

Dutch painter and draughtsman; the most important representative of the first generation of Dutch Italianates; most famous for his small, charming paintings, on copper or panel, of Italianate landscapes with small figures, sometimes set in biblical or mythological scenes, sometimes in contemporary attire; born ?Utrecht (1594/5), died Utrecht (1667).

  • Tobias and the Angel (1617-1635), Jan Linsen (1602/3-1635) after Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/5-1667). Amsterdam: John Schlichte Bergen (dealer). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 19478 (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2001). Mountain landscape with a piping shepherd and an ass; in the foreground are Tobias and an angel. Unfortunately the shepherd is only a detail and his pipe is too small to identify; it may be a recorder. This sounds as if it may be based on Tobias with the Angel,  National Trust for Scotland, although the shepherd depicted there lacks a pipe of any kind. Jan Linsen was a Dutch painter of mythological and historical themes.

Rein Pol

Contemporary figurative painter and teacher from the Netherlands; born Groningen (1949). Artist’s website.

  • Alto Flute on Poster (2002), oil on panel, 40 × 54 cm, Rein Pol (1949-). A baroque-style alto recorder (probably a Moeck ‘Rottenburgh’) in ebony with ivory mounts lies in three pieces on what appears to be a torn-up poster on which there is a head with the name Breitner below. This refers to the Dutch painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), so perhaps the poster was for an exhibition of his works.

Hendrick Pola

Netherlandish painter and draughtsman; subjects include historical and architectural themes; born 1676, died The Hague (1748).

  • Mercury and Argus, etching on paper, 10.5 × 15.2 cm, Hendrick Pola (1676-1748). Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 320478 (2014-b&w). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet. Argus sleeps as Mercury plays on a narrowly conical pipe (possibly a duct flute) with one hand whilst reaching for his sword with the other.

Antonio (di Jacopo d’Antonio Benci del) Pollaiuolo

Italian draughtsman, painter, engraver, bronze sculptor, and goldsmith; his main contribution to Florentine painting lay in his searching analysis of the anatomy of the body in movement or under conditions of strain (he is said to have anticipated Leonardo in dissecting corpses in order to study the anatomy of the body), but he is also important for his pioneering interest in landscape; born Florence (1431/2), died Rome (1498).

  • Tomb of Sixtus IV: Music (1493), bronze relief sculpture, Antonio Pollaiuolo (1431/2-1498). Rome: St Peter’s Treasury Museum, St Peter’s Basilica. Ref. Paris RIdIM (2000); Webstie: Getty Images (2016, b&w); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2359 (2023, b&w). A personification of music plays a portative organ assisted by an angel who pumps the bellows. Behind her a number of instruments lie scattered, including a lira da braccio, tambourine, lute, trumpet and two cylindrical duct flutes, one shorter than the other, both with what appears to be a metal retaining band at the foot with incised rings. The longer one has holes for seven fingers and thus could represent a recorder, although a double duct flute seems more likely.

Ann Carter Pollard

Contemporary US American graphic artist, printmaker and painter; born Winston-Salem (1930).

  • The Recorder Player (ca 1970), soft ground etching, 11.4 × 8.9 cm, Ann Carter Pollard (1930-). Asheville NC: Asheville Art Museum, Inv. 1981.21.19.61. Stylised portrait of a person playing a decidedly conical recorder.

Antonio Pomarancio [Circignani] (ca 1568-1629), Italian

Italian painter whose work replaced the mannerism of his time with a more direct and expressive naturalism; born Città della Pieve (ca 1568), died 1629; son of the painter Niccolò Circignani (1517/1524-1596).

  • Musical Angels (early 17th century), fresco, Antonio Pomarancio (ca 1568-1629). Rome: Palazzo Altemps, Chapel of Sant’Aniceto. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2002). The south wall of the chancel of the richly painted and marbled chapel has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with a fresco of musical angels dancing in a big ring, and playing musical instruments. One plays a pipe with lips relaxed, right hand uppermost and all fingers of both hands down. This may be an alto-sized, cylindrical  recorder with a short, sharp bell flare; but the instrument is partly in shade and no window/labium or other characteristic details are visible. The player is seated comfortably on a cloud and bends forward as he plays to study a large music book balanced on his lap.

Tomaso Pombioli [detto ‘il Conciabracci’]

Italian (Cremonese) painter whose works have been confused with those of Gian Giacomo Barbelli (1604-1656); born Crema, Lombardy (1579), active in the churches of the neighboring provinces in the early decades of the 17th century.

  • Concert (1600), oil on canvas, 159 × 210 cm, Tomaso Pombioli (1579-op. 1636). Private Collection. Ref. Carubelli (2007); Website: Archivo della Liuteria Cremonese (2015-col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2178 (2023, col.) A singer accompanied by a group of musicians who play a five-course guitar, violin, lute and recorder around a table on which there is a cornetto.  A standing putto holds up some music for the lutenist who seems to have her eyes on the recorder player. The recorder is of alto size with a very slightly flared bell; the beak and window/labium are clearly depicted, and the player’s fingers are perfectly disposed for recorder-playing. The Museo Civico “Ala-Ponzone”, Cremona had proposed the purchase of this work and had even entered it into their catalogue (as Inv. 2050) despite the sale not being finalised. Sadly, the owners have since withdrawn it from sale.  The work is interesting for several reasons. First of all for the subject itself, strongly evocative of the musical tradition of Cremona, and secondly because there is no other work in the civic collection by Pombioli, a native of the province of Cremona.

Arthur Pond

English painter and printmaker; born London (ca 1705), died Rome (1758).

  • Alexander Pope (1747), print on paper, 35.0 × 21.7 cm, etching by Jacob Houbraken (1698-1780) after Arthur Pond (ca 1705-1758). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. RP-P-OB-48.234. In an ornate frame, the poet leans on his right shoulder. Immediately below the portrait are books, a mask, a small ?horn, a metal helmet and sword, a tambourine (with both pellet bells and jingle rings), the foot of a shawm or oboe and a recorder. Only the the headpiece of the recorder is seen with its characteristic beak. On the pedestal beneath the portrait is a depiction of Apollo with the Nine Muses on Mount Parnassus. Above this picture, the sun shines through a cloud.

Baccio Pontelli

Italian woodcarver and architect; worked in the cathedral in Pisa and in Urbino, built fortresses in Ostia, Iesi, Osimo, and Senigallia, fortified the Santuario della Sta Casa at Loreto (1490-94) and built other churches and religious buildings, many of them for the popes Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII; born Florence (ca (1450), died Urbino (1492).

  • Marquetry wall panels (1474), Baccio Pontelli (ca 1450-1492). Detail. Urbino: Palazzo Ducale, Publico Studiolo. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: gallica (2012-col., b&w); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2361 (2023: b&w, col.) The design of the decorative wall panels of this room were originally credited variously to Botticelli and to Giuliano (1432–1490) & Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497). Many of the lower panels depict musical instruments including lute, clavichord, fiddle and a number of pipes which appear to be cylindrical recorders since the lowermost finger hole of each is offset.

Willem de Poorter

Dutch Golden Age painter of small-scale historical allegories, figure scenes and still-lifes with metal objects; born Haarlem 1608, died 1668.

  • Allegorical Portrait (c.1640), painting, Willem de Poorter (1608–1668). Geneva: Musée d’Art et Histoire. Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography LI-2362 (2023, col.) The subject (said to be a portrait of Rembrandt’s sister, Lysbeth van Rijn) sits in a chair beneath a drape, her feet on a foot-warmer, the cranium of a human skull in her lap. She points to a pendant attached to the fastener of the long cloak she wears. On a table to her right are a decorated nautilus shell and an upturned chalice. On the floor to her left are a globe, a flask, a violin, a lute, a smoking pipe and a soprano-sized pipe slightly flared at the foot which is likely to be a recorder.

Elias Formschneider Porcelius

German engraver active in Nuremberg; born 1627, died 1722.

  • King David with his Harp, print, Elias Formschneider Porcelius (1627-1722). Ref. Hauser (1990: fig. 33); Archiv Moeck. David sits on a throne playing his harp as an emaciated dog slinks away from him. On the floor lie two flared-bell recorders (one large, the other smaller) and a recorder case consisting of a number of tubes bound together. The dog is probably a reference to Goliath’s challenge to David (Bible, 1 Samuel 17)

Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Bernard Posthast

Belgian genre painter whose favorite subject was the peasant family; his images depict peasant mothers instructing or caring for their young children, placed in rustic interiors sparingly decorated with the family’s humble possessions, their interiors typically illuminated by the light of early or midday sunshine; his sentimental illustrations of peasant life were very popular during his lifetime; born 1882, died 1966.

  • Flautist (1946), lithograph, 28 × 24 cm, Bernard Posthast (1882-1966). Munich: Gallerie Saxonia. A young man leans over a young woman’s shoulders and fingers the flared-bell recorder whilst she blows it. The sides of his cloak are wrapped around her shoulders. Currently for sale.

Hendrick (Gerritsz.) Pot

Dutch painter of small-scale guardroom and ‘merry company’ scenes and portraits, some of the latter as pendant pairs with the sitters dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses; born Haarlem (ca 1585), died 1657.

  • Merry Company at Table, oil on oak panel, 58.5 x 81.4 cm, Hendrick Gerritsz. Pot (1585-1657). London: Wallace Collection, Inv. P192. Ref. Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2627 (2023, col.) A bordeeltje, or brothel scene, is implied by the discarded rapier, lute and dog in the foreground, symbolizing the disarming power of love and carnal desire. An elderly brothel-keeper watches from a doorway as her girls flirt with the soldiers. The figures seated around the tables make music together, a common euphemism for making love. Their instruments are a lute, a transverse flute, and a non-descript cylindrical pipe, probably a recorder. They also play cards and smoke, both considered vices at the time.
  • Merry Company: The Enticement (ca 1629-1633), oil on canvas, 104.0 × 148.5 cm, Hendrick Pot (ca 1585-1657). Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Inv. 1678. Ref. Rowland-Jones (1997, 2: 51, fig. 9 – b&w, fig. 9a – detail – b&w); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Dcoumentatie 24524 (1010-b&w). A prostitute entices a young gallant, encouraged both by wine and the approval of ‘Pickle-herring’, a stock character in Dutch farce. The prostitute holds an impossible duct flute with a single tube but a double mouthpiece which could me meant to represent a flute d’accord.
  • Portrait of Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) as a Shepherd (1630), Hendrick Pot (ca 1585-1657). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Inv. SK A 2135. Ref. Bernt (1970, 2: 934); Rasmussen (1999-2004, Horn); Munich RIdIM (1999); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, illustration 280081 (2014-col.) A bearded man wearing a leafy wreath holds in his left hand a small slightly flared-bell duct flute (flageolet or recorder) the window/labium, one finger hole above the hands and two lower. In his right hand he holds a shepherd’s crook and a bunch of lowers. There is a reverse-curved horn on a table behind him.
  • Shepherd with a Flute, oil on panel, 37.4 × 31.6 cm, Hendrick Pot (ca 1585-1657). Amsterdam: Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings, Sale: AM1032, 13 November 2007, Lot 38. Ref. Website: Sotheby’s (2007 – col.); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, illustration 190448 (2014-col.) A gentleman (ie a pseudo-shepherd) with curly hair and a carefully trimmed moustache and beard gazes at a small pipe which he holds in his right hand. The flute seems most likely to be of the transverse kind since no window/labium is visible and the finger holes are all in line. Thus it appears to be a fife but given its subject matter might be a badly depicted recorder.
  • Portrait of a Man in Shepherd’s Costume, oil on canvas, feigned oval, 38.0 × 30.5 cm, Hendrick Pot (ca 1585-1657). Location unknown: auctioned Christie’s, London, Sale 9884, Old Master Pictures, 9 July 2004, Lot 58. Ref. Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, illustration 150797 (2014-col.); Website: artnet (2019-col.) A man (Joost van den Vondel, 1587-1679) dressed as a shepherd holds a one-piece recorder, left-hand uppermost. The window/labium is clearly visible and the fingers are perfectly deployed for recorder-playing. One of a pendant pair.

Marian (Mary) Anderson Potter

English artist whose best-known work uses a restrained palette of subtle colours achieved by mixing paint with beeswax; she was awarded an OBE in 1979, and major retrospective exhibitions of her work were shown at the Tate Gallery in 1980 and the Serpentine Gallery in 1981, which opened to great critical acclaim a few months before her death; born Beckenham (1900), died Aldburgh (1981).

Paulus [Pauwelus] (Pietersz.) Potter (1625-1654), Dutch

Dutch painter of religious and pastoral subjects who sought to integrate his figures with the landscape, suggesting space by carefully positioning the forms of the figures; born Enkhuizen(1625), died Amsterdam (1654); son of the glass- and easel-painter Pieter (Symonsz.) Potter (1597/1601 – 1653).

  • Landscape with Shepherdess and a Shepherd Playing a Flute (1642-1644), oil on oak, 67.0 × 114.5 cm, Paulus Potter (1625-1654). Budapest: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Inv. 51.2885. Ref. Website: Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (2014 – col.) This pastoral scene is an early work of the most outstanding master of Dutch animal painting. The composition can be related to Clement de Jonghe’s engraving of 1644 entitled Shepherd on a Hillside (see below). Seated on a bank falling down to a lake, a shepherdess reads from a piece of paper in one hand, conducting with her other an accompaniment played on a small flared-bell recorder (the window/labium just visible, and a clearly depicted offset hole for the lowermost finger) by a young shepherd reclining beside her. In the foreground cows, goats and sheep browse contentedly. Two old copies of this painting, in the Museo Correr, Venice, and in the museum of Nîmes are also extant. Transferred from the former Ráth György Museum in 1951.
  • Landscape with Cattle and their Shepherd, Paulus Potter (1625-1654). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A cowherd half-reclining on a river-bank plays an alto-size pipe, possibly a recorder, while he watches his beasts wallowing in the river. Although there are no other identifying details, his general appearance and his posture are identical to that of the shepherd in the above painting where a recorder is very clearly depicted.
  • Landscape with Cattle, Paulus Potter (1625-1654). Uppsala: Universitets Konstsamlingarna, UU 276. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). This could be a copy of an original by Potter, perhaps the above. A cowherd plays an alto-size pipe (possibly a recorder) which is rather narrow with a slight bell flare and wide bore opening, but no other identifying details. The finger position could indicate a six-holed pipe, but it is hard to tell. Notes by Rowland-Jones (loc. cit.)
  • Shepherd on a Hillside (1644), engraved by Clement de Jonghe after Paulus Potter (1625-1654). Ref. Bartsch (1854-1870, 1: 54/15). To a foreground of sheep, the shepherd plays a pipe (possibly a recorder), right hand lowermost. The instrument has a flared bell surmounted by a turned bead with a hole in it which is offset to the left. No other holes or window/labium are visible. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000).

Pieter (Symonsz.) Potter

Dutch glass- and easel-painter; his subjects include religious, merry company, rustic and history scenes and landscapes, some of the latter monochromatic; born Enkhuizen (1612), died Enkhuizen (1652); father of the painter Paulus Potter (1625-1654).

  • Vanitas Still-life, oil on panel, 54 × 47 cm, Pieter (Symonsz.) Potter (1597/1601 – 1653). Aachen: Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Inv. GK 393. Ref. RIdIM, Munich (AAsm 43, 2009). On a table next to some books are a skull and a globe with a violin bow and a recorder, of which only the lower half is visible showing 4 finger holes. Not seen.

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus

Netherlandish Mannerist decorative artist and painter of restrained portraits of citizens of Bruges, histories and altarpieces, also a surveyor and engineer; born Gouda (1510), died Bruges (1584); father of Frans the elder.

  • Allegory of True Love (ca 1547), oak panel 132.8 x × 205.7 cm, Pieter Jansz. Pourbus (1510-1584). Detail. London: Wallace Collection, Inv. 531. Ref. Bouterse (1995: 85); Rowland-Jones (1997c: 48, fig. 5, detail – b&w); Early Music 10(1): front cover (1982, col.); Musical Times Early Music Calendar (1993: September – col.); Rowland-Jones (2000b: fig.-b&w); Bridgeman Art Library, Image TWC62140 (2007 – col.); Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Shows Sapiens and Fidutia (representing spiritual love), and Reverentia, Daphnis and Euphrosine (representing sensual love), with three one-piece, flared-bell, soprano recorders and music.”The recorder held by Daphnis, who consorts with a befeathered courtesan and Euphrosine, the third of the erotic Three Graces, betokens his identify as a shepherd and also, by pointing directly at the scurrilous chanson on the table, suggests his debauched character. The two recorders on the music – Thomas Crecquillon’s Ung gay bergier prioit une bergiere … published by Susato in 1543 – reflect the words of the chanson. They are parallel, signifying an amorous union, but no such harmony can be achieved as the recorders are reversed. The shepherdess rejects the shepherd, ‘Car tu n’as pas la lance qui me faut‘. As is to be expected in an allegory, the recorders have considerable significance, but … the picture would lack plausibility if recorders were inappropriate instruments to participate in the performance of chansons. Incidentally, the recorders are of the external ‘wave’ design, with choke-bore, adopted by many later makers. The picture therefore illustrates three aspects of recorder iconography – symbolism (shepherds, eroticism, harmony in love, and indulgence i.e. feasting), performance practice (and the class of performers), and the instrument’s design history in responding to changing needs” (Rowland-Jones 2000c, loc. cit.) Actually, I can’t see that these are wave-profile recorders at all, nor can I see that the external profile of the body tapers or that it is constricted before the final flare; in any case, it is hardly possible to deduce the bore profile from the external profile of a recorder (NSL).

Nicolas Poussin

French painter, a leader of pictorial classicism in the Baroque period; spent almost his entire working life in Rome; his scenes from the Bible and from Greco-Roman antiquity influenced generations of French painters; born Les Andely, near Paris (1594), died Rome (1665).

  • Landscape with Mercury and Argus, oil, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Paris: Collection Moussalli, LA 47078. Ref. Pottier (1992: 65, pl. LI); Archiv Moeck; Paris RIdIM (1999). In a clearing in a shady forest, Io (as a heifer) looks on as Mercury charms Argus to sleep with his playing on a flared bell recorder. In the background is a village amidst a rocky landscape.
  • Olympos and Marsyas, oil on canvas, 102.5 × 89.5 cm, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Paris: Private Collection. Ref. Oberhuber (1988: 95 – b&w). Marsyas plays a flared pipe, probably a recorder.
  • Parnassus / Apollo and the Muses (1626), oil on canvas, 125 × 197 cm, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Madrid: Museo del Prado, Inv. 2313. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2001); Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers comm., 2000); Bridgeman Art Library (2001: Image SCP38779 – col.) After a painting by Raphael in the Vatican, Rome. Apollo, seated on a throne, receives the homage of the Muses and others whilst winged cupids gambol overhead. One of the Muses holds a straight trumpet, one a syrinx, and another (? Euterpe, Muse of music and lyric poetry) holds a mask aloft in her left hand and a slightly conical flared-bell pipe in her right. The bell-opening is wide and the instrument may represent a cornetto or shawm, but there is the hint of a window/labium at the blowing end, so this could be a recorder. Raphael’s depiction of the same scene has no wind instruments, only a strange kithara-like contraption.
  • Landscape with Polyphemus (1648), oil on canvas, 150 × 199 cm, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Web Gallery of Art (2001). Polyphemus the giant sits alone atop a crag his staff lying beside him whilst he plays a pipe, no details of which are visible. In the valley below the the shepherds and shepherdesses disport themselves in what looks like a game of hide-and-seek.
  • Venus and Mercury, oil on canvas, 80.0 × 87.6 cm, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, Inv. DPG481. Ref. Website: Dulwich Picture Gallery (2014 – col.) Part of a larger picture, dismembered. Venus and Mercury sit together on a drape-covered rocky ledge. Venus’ chariot is parked behind them. The goddess is depicted as the pensive embodiment of beauty and the inspiration of artistic inspiration. Mercury, the god of art and eloquence points to the ground before them where Eros (depicted as a winged boy) wrestles with his brother Anteros (depicted as a baby faun) amongst open books, music scores, an artist’s palette, a lute and the flared foot of a pipe which probably belongs to a recorder. This picture has been interpreted as a depiction of how physical emasculation from venereal disease (from which the artist suffered) could be overcome by the more enduring potency of artistic creativity. But a less extravagant interpretation reads the putti as Cupid and the infant Pan signifying no more than the ascendancy of love over all things (‘omnia vincit amor’).
  • Apollo and Marsyas (1626-8), oil on canvas, 102.5 × 89.5 cm, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Private Collection. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w); Wikimedia (2011, col.) Seated on a bank, Marsyas plays a slender conical pipe of indeterminate nature: it may be a recorder, since the gallica database has indexed it as such. Sitting beside Marsyas, Apollo seems to be listening intently to the music. In one hand he holds a similar pipe of tenor size with no details visible apart from what appears to be a fontanelle. At his feet a putto plays with a wreath. Some music, a syrinx, and what may be a trumpet lie before the musicians. In the background three nymphs seem to be enjoying the music. Sold on December 12, 1988.
  • The Marriage of Hercules, ? media, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). On the right, Hercules and Megara are married by a presiding priestess. Beside Megara is her attendant, and in the foreground a putto holds a flaming torch. On the left, King Creon (the bride’s father) stands on one side of a flaming altar; opposite him, a musician plays a slender pipe with an abruptly flared bell. Although no details of the pipe can be seen, the player’s hands are perfectly disposed for recorder-playing.
  • Numa Pompilius and the Nymph Egeria (1624-27),  painting, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Chantilly: Chateau, Musée Condé PE 301. Numa Pompilius was the legendary Sabine second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. Here, he is seen standing before Egeria, his divine consort and counselor who interpreted for him the abstruse omens of gods. She reclines on a blue cloth beneath a spreading tree. Behind them a youth plays a pipe with a flared bell, very possibly a recorder.
  • Dancing Nymph and Satyrs, engraving by Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774) after Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Location unknown. Ref. Website: gallica (2012-b&w). A nymph dances to music provided by a satyr crashing small cymbals and a young satyr who leans against a tree-stump playing a narrowly conical pipe, possibly a duct flute though there is insufficient detail. An adult (horned) satyr and a much older nymph reclining on the ground are served drinks by a third satyr. A fourth satyr seems to be laying claim to the nymph by embracing her legs. Three putti gambol in a fountain. A statue of ?Silenus gazes into the distance.
  • [Untitled] (ca 1650-1660), follower of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Paris: ? Musée du Louvre. Female musicians in the lower left play a double duct flute, a transverse flute and a tambourine.
  • Procession, follower of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Ref. Website; The Art of Nicolas Poussin (2013-b&w). Beside a river an artist is setting up an enormous easel. Beside him, a man gazes into the distance. Behind them is a procession of characters in various poses, including a young man playing a slender pipe, possibly a recorder though no details can be seen.

Cyril Edward Power

English artist best known for his linocut prints, long-standing artistic partnership with artist Sybil Andrews and for co-founding the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London in 1925; he was also a successful architect and teacher; born Chelsea (1874), died London (1951).

  • The Trio, linocut, 26.0 × 19.5 cm, Cyril Edward Power (1874–1951). Victoria, B.C.: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Canada) , Object 1994.044.001. Depicts a performance of the English trio of Cyril Power (piano), Sybil Andrews (viol) and Max Champion (alto recorder). Musicians Max (flute and recorder) and his wife Stephanie Champion (viola, viol and recorder) were instrumental in forming the British Society of Recorder Players, inaugurated in  1937 (Hunt 1966 & 2002).
  • The Trio, pencil on paper, 36.5 × 24.9 cm, Cyril Edward Power (1874–1951). Victoria, B.C.: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Canada) , Object 1994.024.001. Preparatory drawing for the linocut (see above). Depicts a performance of the English trio of Cyril Power (piano), Sybil Andrews (viol) and Max Champion (alto recorder). Musicians Max (flute and recorder) and his wife Stephanie Champion (viola, viol and recorder) were instrumental in forming the British Society of Recorder Players, inaugurated in  1937 (Hunt 1966 & 2002).

Jean Poyer

French miniature painter and illuminator, painter, draftsman, and festival designer active from 1483 until his death he worked for the courts of three successive French kings: Louis XI, Charles VIII, and Louis XII; active 1465-1503 in Tours.

  • Briçonnet Hours: Domine labia mea aperies [Oh Lord, open my lips] (c. 1485–1490), illumination, Jean Poyer (op. 1465–1503). Haarlem: Bibliotheek van Crevenna in Teylers Museum, MS 078. Reading at a lectern, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel and the Holy Ghost (as a dove). Behind them a host of angels pray and play musical instruments including organetto, lute, and a pipe probably a duct-flute but held one-handed.

Michael Praetorius (originally Schultheiss)

German composer, organ builder, musical theorist; born Creuzberg (or Kreuzberg) Thuringia (1571), died Brunswick-Luneberg (1621).

  • Title page: Musicae Sionae (1607), by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), woodcut, published by Jacob Lucius, Helmstedt. London: British Museum. Ref. Fraenkel (1968: pl. 88); Boydell (1982: 270 – pol LII); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2008 (2023, b&w.) Note that Jacob Lucius, the university printer in Helmstedt, was a wood engraver in his own right. Musae Sioniae is a gigantic collection, issued in nine parts in various cities between 1605 and 1610. The title details are surrounded by an ornamental border of trophies and putti playing musical instruments, including lute, racket, a guitar with a sickle-shaped peg-box, harp, viol, cittern, violin, pommer, spinet. A trophy of wind instruments on the left hand side includes cornetto, crumhorn, shawm, flute and two slightly flared recorders, the offset hole for the lowermost finger clearly shown. A trophy on the right includes sackbut, shawms, dulcian, straight trumpet. Beneath the latter the head of a wide duct flute can be seen, the window/labium clearly depicted.
  • Title page: Musarum Sioniar[um] motectae et plsalmi latini (1607), Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), published by Abraham Wagenmann, Nuremberg. London: British Museum. Ref. Fraenkel (1968: pl. 89); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-1565 (2023, col.) This set of 52 motets and Psalms for four to 16 parts to Latin texts (some free motets, without cantus firmus) was first published by Francke in Magdeburg (1606). On either side of the title panel musicians sing and play from galleries on organ, double bass, violins, cornetti and regal. Beneath the galleries are guitar with a sickle-shaped peg-box, lute, sackbut, dulcian, shawms, crumhorn, racket and two duct flutes (probably recorders), the larger with six finger holes only visible (the lowermost is probably off-set and thus out of sight), the smaller also with only six finger holes visible, but the lowermost off-set and very close to the bell. Above, a host of angels sing and play harps. Below, musicians sing and play organ, sackbuts, and what appears to be a bass recorder (the bocal entering at the top of a windcap). In fact the design of this title page is identical to that used for Praetorius’ Theatrum Instrumentorum (1620),
  • Title page: Theatrum Instrumentorum (1620), woodcut, Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). Ref. Boydell (1982: 269 – pl. LI). “The cover plate wraps the universe of the German Renaissance musician around the text block, showing above the Heavens, with choirs of Angels and the beasts of Heaven from Revelations arrayed on either side of the Tetragrammeton, above, and the Lamb below, the latter shown holding the cross, and labeled: Behold the Lamb of God on Mount Zion.”Below this is what one might consider a ‘typical’ spatial arrangement: across the bottom and centred is a small consort consisting of a vocalist, sackbuts, bassanello, and organ contino. Above, to the left and right are smaller groups, violins and violone with a singer to the left, and cornetti and regal to the right. A conductor (perhaps meant to be Praetorius himself) stands before the musicians in the bottom area, which lacks a ceiling, so that he can be seen by all the instrumentalists. On the facade of each player’s area is an example of the music that might be used by this group, written in the white mensural notation of the period. On the lower facade panel of the upper lofts, to the left, is shown lute and viol, to the right, sackbut, dulcian, crumhorn, shawms, and recorders” (Boydell,loc. cit.) Actually, Boydell’s “viol” is a guitar with a sickle-shaped peg-box. The design of this title page is identical to that used for Praetorius’ Musarum Sioniar[um] motectae et plsalmi latini (1607).
  • Title page: Polyhymnia caduceatrix et panegyrica (1618–1619), Michael Praetorius, wood engraving, published by Elias Holwein, Wolfenbüttel. Detail. Ref. Fraenkel (1968: pl. 90); See separate parts in ismlp.com.) London: British Museum. The publisher, himself a noted wood engraver, may have designed this title. This is a collection of 40 choral pieces for one to 21 parts. The letters OR or UR on the organ at the lower right may be the engraver’s initials. On either side and above the title panel angels and musicians sing and play a multitude of musical instruments including three crumhorns on the left and four recorders (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) on the right. The three larger recorders all have flared-bells and the window/labium and finger holes of each are clearly visible. The soprano is seen in side-profile and the bell is hidden. The bass has a bocal entering at the top of the windcap, and a key extending beyond the fontanelle can be seen, so this is probably a bass (in c or B♭) rather than a basset recorder (in f). A panel immediately beneath the title details shows Christ on the Cross lamented by Mary.
  • Recorders, Flutes, Pipes, Tabor, woodcut, from Theatrum Instrumentorum (1618/1620), Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). Ref. Praetorius (1618); Linde (1974: 67). Shows a grand consort of renaissance recorders and related instruments.

C.J. Prechtel (19th century), German

  • The Hunchbacked Musician, pencil & watercolour on paper, 42.0 × 36.3 cm, C.J. Prechtel (19th century). Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum, Inv. 22/155. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: DÜk 389). Illustration from a book of poetry by Müller von Königswinter (1816 – 1873). In a frame of foliage from several episodes of the story: in the midst sits hunched on a barrel a musician who lays the violin for a dancing young couple on the right. To the left, the musician moves through the forest. In a circular lower area, the musician sits on a rock with his violin in his hand playing for a party of elves in the woods. On a leaf tendril sit nine dwarfs who play music on recorder or shawm, flute, violin, trombone and horn, conducted by a dwarf.

Ferdinand Preiss (1882-1943), German

German ivory carver and sculptor who used the combination of ivory and bronze to great effect; his themes include a wide variety of Art Déco figures from classical antiquity, ivory nudes, bronze and ivory bathers, dancers, couples, children, historical figures and sportspeople; born Erbach-Odenwald (1992), died Berlin (1943).

  • Youth Playing a Recorder (1935), gilt bronze and ivory sculpture, 43.2 cm high, Ferdinand Preiss (1882-1943). Madrid: Duran, 20 May 20 1997, Lot 242 : Ref. Website: Artfact (2004). Not seen.

Johann-Daniel Preissler [Preisler]

German artist who became director of the Nuremberg Akademie der Bildenden Künste (academy of drawing and painting); born 1666, died 1737.

  • [Study], black & white chalk on paper, Johann-Daniel Preissler (1666-1737). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett (West), 11452. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Bkk 392). Studies of musicians including a violist, violinist and a young lad playing a recorder. A detail shows the positions of the hands on a turned baroque three-piece instrument, not unlike Hotteterre’s “hands” by Jean-Antonie Watteau (1684-1721).
  • Portrait of the Regensburg City Councillor Gottried Christoph Männinger in the Costume of a Member of the Nuremberg Arcadian and Literary Society, oil on canvas, 87 × 67 cm, Johann-Daniel Preissler (1666-1737). Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, GM1114. Ref. Munich RIdIM (1999: Ngnm 49); Tibia (2001: front cover-b&w.) The hatted, long-haired, mustachioed Councillor leans against a tree holding a flared-bell recorder in his left hand. The beak, window-labium and five finger holes are clearly visible — his fingers and thumb cover another two.
  • Le Soir [Evening] (ca 1726), engraving & drypoint, 44.4 × 35.3 cm, by Johann Balthasar Probst (1673-1748) after Johann-Daniel Preissler (1666-1737). Paris: Collection Prouté Paris RIdIM (1999); London: British Museum, Inv. 1944,1014.584. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999); Website: British Museum (2012-b&w); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2363 (2023, b&w). A host of musicians sing and play on a raised platform beneath a tree in front of a palace. The instruments include lutes, cello, violins, bagpipes, shawm, and a turned baroque recorder of alto size. Above them fly personifications of Faith and Hope with several putti carrying her anchor. Behind them, shepherds dance. In the background is a conical hill. The whole is conducted by a veritable giant of a singer. From a series of the four times of the day.

Anton Joseph von Prenner (1698-1761) – see Jacob von Toorenvliet

Giuliano Presciutti [Giuliano da Fano]

Italian painter of the Renaissance active in Marche and Umbrdia; active Fano (1490)–Ancona (1554).

  • Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, Giuliano Presciutti (op. 1499-1554). Asimo: S. Francesco. Ref. Visual Collection, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, 372.F213.34[a]; Rasmussen (1999, Lute). “Putti play lute, recorder, cornetto, and triangle” (Rasmussen, loc. cit.) Not seen.

Edward Carter Preston

English sculptor, painter and medalist who designed the bronze memorial plaques presented to the families of British servicemen and women who died during the First World War; he was also a craftsman of considerable skill in a range of other media from witty and popular ‘polychrome’ figures to furniture and calligraphy. In 1931 he commenced a series of sculptures for the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, an immense undertaking which occupied him for the next 30 years; born Liverpool (1885), died Liverpool (1965); brother-in-law of sculptor Herbert Tyson Smith (1883–1972), father of the potter Julia Carter Preston (1826-2012).

  • Helen Swift Nelson (1948), carved stone bas-relief, Edward Carter Preston (1885-1965). Detail. Liverpool: Anglican Cathedral, memorial tablet. Ref. Compton (1999); Website: Getty Images 593266672 (2022, b&w.); Website: alamy, image ETZYH7 (2022, b&w.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image 2207 (2023, b&w). A memorial tablet inspired by late medieval or early renaissance models, commemorating the life of USAmerican writer and art collector Helen Swift Nelson (1869-1945). Six women play flute, fiddles harp, lute and pipe; the latter possibly a recorder, given the context.

Mattia Preti (‘il Cavalier Calabrese’)

Italian painter of the Naples school who had life-long interest in the style of Caravaggio; after he was made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John in 1659, he spent the remainder of his life in Malta where he transformed the interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta with a huge series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St John the Baptist; born Taverna Calabria (1613), died La Valleta (1699).

  • Concert (ca 1650), oil on canvas, 110 × 147 cm, Mattia Preti (1613-1699). St Petersburg: Hermitage. Ref. Photo, Walter Bergmann ex Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2005 – b&w); Angelo Zaniol (pers. comm., 2003) Website: gallica (2012-b&w). Two soldiers entertain a young woman who sits at a table between them. The soldier on the left plays a guitar; that on the right plays an ambiguous pipe with a flared bell. At first sight this appears to be a small shawm, despite the context. But the finger positions, particularly the crooked little finger of the lowermost (left) hand seem to indicate a recorder. However, there is no sign of a window/labium and details of the blowing end are vague.
  • Adoration of the Shepherds (late 1670s), Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery, Inv. 2888. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2003). One of a series of four with episodes in the early life of Christ painted in the late 1670s. While an older shepherd boy plays bagpipes with the chanter and drones arranged as if in a circle, a young boy plays a cylindrical soprano-sized pipe, but with one hand (there is no sign of his left arm or hand, presumably behind him). Above his right hand is a large hole more or less where you would expect to find a window/labium, and four finger holes, with another one visible, in line with the others, below his hand. As his hand must cover two holes, this could be intended to represent a recorder, if this matter was of any concern to the artist.
  • Angel Concert (1651), fresco, Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Detail. Italy: San Biagio, apse. Website: Will Kimball, Trombone (2009-col.) Includes a depiction of an angel playing trombone among many other angel musicians, amongst them one playing a narrowly conical pipe, possibly a recorder since all fingers of the lowermost (right) hand are covering their holes. But this could represent a mute cornetto.
  • Angel Concert (1661-1666), fresco, Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Detail. Valletta: Chiesa Conventuale di San Giovanni Battista a La Valletta, apse. Ref. Website: Will Kimball, Trombone (2014-b&w). Includes a depiction of an angel playing trombone among other angel musicians. Amongst the latter, one plays a narrowly conical pipe, quite possibly a recorder since there appears to be a window-labium. But this could represent a mute cornetto.

Francesco Primaticcio

Italian mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France; he is grouped with the First School of Fontainebleau where he furnished the painters and stuccoists of his team, such as Nicolò dell’Abate (1512-1571), with designs, made cartoons for tapestry-weavers and designed elaborate ephemeral decorations for masques and fêtes, which survive only in preparatory drawings and, sometimes, engravings; born Bologna (1504), died 1570.

  • Woman Standing, Draped, Playing the Flute, ink on paper, after Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570). Paris: Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques Inv. 6641, Recto. A standing woman, loosely draped, plays a long slender cylindrical pipe, highly stylised.
  • The Masquerade of Persepolis (1541-1545), drawing, Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570).  Paris: Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques. Ref. Wikimedia Commons (2016). In a scene of abandonment a young man is laying a small duct flute. Only the players upper hand is visible and the rest of the instrument is hidden behind the naked figure in front of him who is leaning on a sticks held in each hand. Beside them, a woman holds a flare. to light their way. Elsewhere in the room, soldiers with flares seem to be hunting for someone, women are causing a commotion, acrobats are descending the steps on their hands …

Camillo Procaccini

Italian painter, mainly of Mannerist frescoes; born Bologna (ca 1555), died Milan (1629); member of an extensive family of artists, brother of Giulio Cesare Procaccini.

  • Nativity with Angels and Shepherds (ca 1575-1580), Camillo Procaccini (ca 1551-1629). Detail. Bologna: Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ref. Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.); Wikimedia Commons (2016-col.) An old shepherd at the left has an instrument in his belt. The top half is partly covered by his clothing. There are seven finger holes in line. The head end is in shadow. The bell end is slightly flared with an apparently widened bore and is covered with a ? metallic sheath. A second metallic sheath appears where the head-piece connects to the body of the instrument, suggesting an early example of a recorder made in two parts (Anthony Rowland-Jones, loc. cit.) In fact this seems much more likely to be the chanter of a bagpipe (NSL).
  • Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds (late 16th/early 17th century), circle of Camillo Procaccini (ca 1551-1629). Pavia: Pinacoteca Malaspina. Two shepherds at the right of this large picture play pipes to the Christ-child. The first shepherd has a tenor-size recorder with window labium showing and a long mouthpiece. His upper left hand has the thumb stretched up on the underside of the instrument. His first finger is lifted, the 2nd and 3rd are down. His lower right hand has the first finger down and the little finger stretched to cover a hole very close to the bell end. The whole instrument is outwardly conical with a considerable bell flare, with one or possibly two incised decorative rings. The other shepherd at the far right has a small ? duct flute in his mouth; the lower part of the instrument is hidden. Notes by Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm.) The instrument played by the shepherd at the right may be a duct-flute, but the additional stave over his shoulder might just imply a bagpipe (NSL).

Giulio Cesare Procaccini

Italian painter and sculptor of the Lombard school; born Bologna (1574), died Milan (1625); member of an extensive family of artists, brother of Camillo Procaccini.

  • Adoration of the Shepheds, painting, Giulio Cesare Procaccini (1574-1625). Milan: Pinacoteca di Brera. Ref. Postcard: Superintendenze All’Arte della Lombardia, 10555 – col; Walter Bergmann (ex Anthony Rowland-Jones, pers. comm., 2003). Shepherds and their dog surround the Holy Family. One of the shepherds plays an ambiguous cylindrical pipe.

Jan Provost [or Prevost]

Flemish artist whose religious paintings express the spirit of a transitional period following the death of Memling; born Mons (ca 1465), died Bruges (1529).

  • Virgin and Child, wood, 55 × 77 cm, attributed to Jan Provost [or Prevost] (ca 1465-1529). Locality unknown. Ref. Paris RIdIM (1999). The Virgin enthroned holds the Christ-child whilst they are entertained on either side by angel musicians who play fiddle, harp, lute and a duct flute, very probably a recorder since all fingers of the lowermost (left) hand seem to be occupied in covering their holes.

John Prudde

Fifteenth-century glass painter to the King of England, working within the Palace of Westminster where he made the sumptuous glazing of the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, commissioned in 1447.  The contract with the glazier, “John Prudde of the town of Westminster”, was drawn up on 23 June 1447, and has been preserved.

  • Angel Musicians (1460s), stained glass windows, John Prudde (fl.1400–m.1460/1). Warwick: St Mary’s Church, Beauchamp Chapel, West half of North window. Ref. Hardy (1902); Montague (1976: 56-57, pl. 45 – b&w); Brown & O’Connor (1999: 26); Buckle (2010); Website: flickr, groenling’s photostream (2012-col.); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2365 (2023 col.)  Angels play shawm, tromba marina, clavichord, bagpipe, gitterns, harp, lutes, harpsichord, pipe & drum, and two slender duct flutes (flageolets or recorders). The recorder players seem to be playing footsie!

Antonio Puga

Spanish baroque era painter active in Madrid who studied under Diego Velazquez; born 1602, died 1648.

  • Young Boy with Recorder and Drum, oil painting, 63.5 × 81.3 cm, Antonio Puga (1602-1648). Madrid: Duran, 18 March 1997, Lot 180. Ref. Website: Artfact (2004). Not seen

Scipione Pulzone [named Gaetano]

Italian painter; his works include portraits and religious subjects; born Gaeta (ca 1550), died Rome (1598).

  • Nativity, oil on panel, Scipione Pulzone (ca 1550-1598). Ref. Gabrius Data Bank, OMP (2000 – col.) Shepherds visit the Holy Family. One shepherd, in the background, seems to be holding a slender pipe.

Jean Pierre Putman (1764-1793), Flemish

  • Musical Trophy (late 18th century), carved oak relief, 96.5 × 59 cm, Jean Pierre Putman (1764-1793). Liège: Musée Curtius. Ref. Institute Royal du Patrimonie Artistique / Koninklijk Instituut voor hef Kunstpatrimonium (IRPA/KIK), Brussels (2007); Website: Lute Iconography, Image LI-2366 (2023, b&w). An elaborate trophy with flowers and leaves, a tassel, a music score, lyre, lute, clarinet or oboe, triangle (with jingle rings), violins, horns, ? flute, and what appears to be the head of a recorder viewed from behind.

Howard Pyle

American writer and artist known for more than 3,000 book and magazine illustrations; his work encompassed historical fiction and non-fiction, romance, European medieval themes, adventure, folk and fairy tales, poetry, and whimsical narratives for children; Pyle’s students were to revolutionize the illustration world and are collectively known today as The Brandywine School; born Wilmington (1853), died Florence (1911).

  • Young Summer, oil on canvas, Howard Pyle (1853-1911). Wilmington: Delaware Art Museum. Ref. Bridgeman Art Library (2003: Image DAM184831 – col.) A beautiful young woman, a personification of Summer, plays a very slender pipe.

Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Artists–P. Last accessed 28 March 2024. https://www.recorderhomepage.net/recorder-iconography/artists-p/