| Venus plays the Harp (Allegory of Music) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Giovanni Lanfranco |
| Year | circa 1634 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 214 cm× 150 cm(84 in× 59 in) |
| Location | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome |
Venus plays the Harp (also known as an Allegory of Music) is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Giovanni Lanfranco. It is housed in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
The work was painted by Lanfranco prior to his departure in 1634 for Naples. It was made for the musician Marco Marazzoli, also called Marco dell’Arpa (Marco of the Harp) for his skill with the instrument. The semi-disrobed female playing the instrument in the painting is identified with Venus by virtue of the amoretti in the background. The engraved bees on the wooden triple harp identify it as belonging to the Barberini family. This instrument is on display in the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome. Marazzoli, after his death, left it to his patron the cardinal Antonio Barberini. [1]
Antonio Allegri da Correggio, usually known as just Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the sixteenth century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Baroque art of the seventeenth century and the Rococo art of the eighteenth century. He is considered a master of chiaroscuro.
Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.
Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
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The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban palace, the Palazzo Barberini, completed in 1633 by Bernini, today houses Italy's Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.
The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (GNAA), or National Gallery of Ancient Art, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome. It has two sites: the Palazzo Barberini and the Palazzo Corsini.
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
The Palazzo Barberini is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
Saint Francis in Prayer is a painting from the Italian master Caravaggio, in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome.
The triple harp is a type of multi-course harp employing three parallel rows of strings instead of the more common single row. One common version is the Welsh triple harp, used today mainly among players of traditional Welsh folk music.
Antonio Barberini was an Italian Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Reims, military leader, patron of the arts and a prominent member of the House of Barberini. As one of the cardinal-nephews of Pope Urban VIII and a supporter of France, he played a significant role at a number of the papal conclaves of the 17th century. With his brothers Cardinal Francesco Barberini and Taddeo Barberini he helped to shape politics, religion, art and music of 17th century Italy. He is sometimes referred to as Antonio the Younger or Antonio Barberini iuniore to distinguish him from his uncle Antonio Marcello Barberini.
Andrea Camassei was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver mainly active in Rome under the patronage of the Barberini.
Tommaso Donini or Tommaso Dovini, called Il Caravaggino was an Italian painter active mainly in Rome. He was previously erroneously referred to as 'Tommaso Luini' as the 17th century artist biographer Giovanni Baglione referred to him as such in his Le Vite de’ Pittori of 1642. Donini painted altarpieces. He was a follower of Caravaggio.
Marco Marazzoli was an Italian priest and Baroque music composer.
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Mystical Marriage of St Catherine and Saints is an oil painting by Lorenzo Lotto, signed and dated of 1524, now in the Collections of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome, Italy.
St Mary Magdalene Reading is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo. It is housed in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica of Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
The Vestal Claudia Towing the Ship Bearing the Statue of Cybele is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Benvenuto Tisi in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Italy.
Mystical Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria with Niccoló Bonghi is an oil painting by Lorenzo Lotto, executed in 1523, in the Collections of the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy.
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