Music in Art Part III: 17th Century Netherlands

Delightful lecture at the National Gallery in the Supporters' House on how music was depicted and what it meant in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

This was the third lecture and all of them have been excellent but this was made more magical by the addition of the lute player Andrew Maginley who joined the course leader, Belle Smith, and brought insights into the history of music at the time pointing out things like the fact music started to be printed in Venice in around 1510 meaning it could be more easily disseminated. He also told us how this was a period of experimentation with instruments.

Smith led us through a series of images from the period and it was magical to watch Maginley play the lute in front of this work by Jan Miense Molenar. We dissected this and other works from the collection to look at what instruments were being played and what they meant.

It was a nice touch to add a still life from the period which included a violin, a flute and music. Smith pointed out that often the combination of music shown was a stringed piece, a woodwind instrument and a voice. 

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