The Procuress
(De koppelaarster)
1656
oil in canvas
56 1/2 x 51 1/8 in. (143 x 130 cm.)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Alte Meister (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister), Dresden
This grinning figure ,who holds a cittern in his right hand and cheers to the viewer with a beer glass, is a typical Caravaggesque merry drinker so popular in brothel scenes of the Utrecht Caravaggists. This semi-comical figure serves as a kind of third person "fictional narrator," partially extraneous to the scene which unfolds. He wears a fanciful black doublet with broad slashes on the sleeves and so-called shoulder-wings.
Such a garment was out of fashion in the early 1630s, when Vermeer was born, so it seems unlikely that he could have painted it from memory but from other paintings. However, they continue to appear in various other Dutch interior paintings well into the 1660s. The deeply scalloped Flemish collar, made of fine white linen and bordered with an artful bobbin-lace, came into fashion around 1630, soon replacing the voluminous, stiff ruffles of the fashion from the Spanish court. The beret had been originally painted much smaller in an earlier stage so that the figure's face would have been more illuminated. By enlarging the beret and adding a broad-brimmed gray hat to the suitor, both the men's faces are shrouded in a continuous deep shadow that exalts the radiant beauty of the lovely courtesan.
The Procuress
Dirck van Baburen,
1622
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Contrary to convention of brothel scenes depictions, Vermeer's androgynous procuress does not play an active role in the scene and can be identified only through her uniformly dark dress and her sharp, shifty gaze. Rather than the despicable aspect usually given to these evil profiteers, her finely drawn face presents no wrinkles appearing like a masque, hiding the "demon" in herself who knows all about the seductive power both of love and money.
Radiographs have revealed a light-toned form near the hand of the suitor which was probably the outstretched right hand of the procuress, later overpainted by Vermeer with the black of her dress. This indicates that in the earlier stage, the procuress was actively involved in the transaction, although in a far more subtle manner than in Van Baburen's painting. Thus, the viewer's attention is directed to the concrete act of payment as well as to the amorous relationship of the handsome young couple.
In day-to-day reality, the procuress generally held her prostitutes imprisoned in a sort of permanent debt from which they could rarely free themselves. She was usually an ex-whore who had put aside enough money to enter in the entrepreneurial side of the trade.
This glass is not a simple water glass. It is probably filled with beer (most likely the stronger, darker bock beer), as there appears a stripe in light greenish-gray on the surface of the brownish liquid, probably froth of the beer. Wine - red or white - would have been served in wine glasses with stems, in a more elegant "etablissement" than the one depicted by Vermeer. Similar to a römer it has "naps" all around that, apart from serving as decorative elements, had the practical purpose of providing a better grip even with greasy hands. Such glasses frequently appears in Dutch 17th-century painting, particularly in rustic tavern scenes or still lives.
Drinking alcoholic beverages was a fundamental ingredient in the trade of prostitution. Courtesans were expected to persuade their clients to drink as much as possible of notoriously filthy liquor before getting to the sexual business. At times the "wine" was nothing more than adulterated candy syrup. If the client became too drunk to make sex, he was deprived of his purse, making up for the loss of the cortesean's services. The most successful courtesans were accomplished pick-pockets who used sex to distract their foolish clients from their second line of business.
Together with the lovely courtesan, the fashionable young suitor (probably a soldier since his jacket is red) forms the core of the painting. He places a coin in the corteseans's hand while his left hand lays flat across her breast.
A recent, in-depth restoration of the picture has revealed that he originally wore no hat and was lit in about the same manner as the girl. He also looked directly at her face instead of focusing on the coin that is about to flip in her hand. Although the addition of the broad, gray hat obscures the man's features, it heightens the unity of the two figures and provides a sort of shelter for the young woman.
The Procuress (detail)
Gerrit van Honthorst
1625
71 x 104 cm5
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Vermeer's Procuress breaks the traditional mold of the bordeeltje (little brothels scene) in more than one way. Although the bordeeltjes girls were always represented with attractive facial features, they predictably assume provocative poses, often with bared breasts and sporting particularly exotic clothes, one of the necessities of their trade. The chance to render the striking textural effects of these outlandish costumes may have been one of the reasons why so many talented painters were drawn to the subject. Vermeer however, interpreted the motif according to his own unique sensitivity and taste.
Although there can be no mistake about the young girl's intentions in Vermeer's composition, her lowered eyes and warm smile have little in common with the conventional renderings of Vermeer's contemporaries such as the one to the left by Gerrit van Honthorst. With her colorful clothing, her cleavage and the feathers in her hair, Van Honthorst's girl is easy to distinguish from the average citizen. The feathers were a reference to her wanton character while the lute she hold by the neck, had a clear sexual connotation in the 17th century. Vermeer's young girl, instead, is fully clad with an elegant white cap bordered with a fine bobbin lace - unusual for her profession. Her peaceful, self-containment anticipates something of the sublime female characterizations of his later works.
A römer is a glass with a round bowl and a wide, hollow stem with prunts, mostly designed in the form of a raspberry motif, or they may be drawn out to form pointed prunts. These decorative motifs were probably intended to serve a practical purpose as well: to stop the glass slipping through loose fingers. The term "römer" appears to stem from the German word for Roman: 'Römer.' These glasses were produced in large numbers in the 16th and 17th century in Holland and Germany. The style developed out of late medieval glass forms and continued into the 19th century.
In the 17th-century Netherlands, the art of calligraphy and glass engraving enjoyed great popularity particularly among sophisticated female members of the upper and middle class. They engraved elaborate floral patterns or even little pictures, often with poetic mottoes, on the bowls of römers, serving as precious gifts for close friends. Contrary to the typical form of a römer, Vermeer depicted one with a flat bowl. The delicate greenish mass of the glass, sparkling in the light, is an attractive chromatic transition to the red and yellow of the couple as well as to the bright blue color of the wine jug. The highlights are daringly painted with thick opaque impasto paint which make them seem dance on the surface of the glass itself.
The elaborately decorated wine jug is a true little treasure in Vermeer's oeuvre. In no other painting - not even in the Milkmaid - do we find another object painted with such minute precision. With its light gray ground and the typical bright blue stripes of the decoration (executed with pure lapis lazuli) it seems very likely that this jug had been imported from the Westerwald (Germany), an forested area near Cologne on the Rhine, famous for its pottery since the 16th century.
The gray color of the earthenware was achieved by adding salt during the burning process. The sodium merges with the quartz of the clay producing a glossy gray glaze typical for Westerwald pottery, which was exported particularly to England, France and the Netherlands.
In order to achieve the extraordinary accuracy of the jug's contours and decoration Vermeer employed a pair of compasses. Both the piercing point the scratches used to define the contours and stripes are still visible in the paint layers. This early use of a mechanical means in painting testifies to the artist's openess to any technical means which might improve the quality of image.
Radiographs have proven that the dark fur coat with the row of five shimmering decorative buttons had been added by Vermeer in a later stage of the painting process. In the original composition, the carpet had covered the entire balustrade. It had once been questioned if it had not been added by another hand, but the results of several analyses have disproved this supposition. Vermeer probably added it to achieve greater tranquility within the composition mitigating the colorful-patterned carpet’s unstable undulating effect.
With the rapid expansion of the foreign trade of the Netherlands, colorful oriental carpets became very popular in the 16th and particular in the 17th century as decorative objects, laid on tables or chests.
In nine of Vermeer's paintings we find such precious rugs, all with different patterns always painted from an existing model. The so-called "Medaillon-Ushak" carpet of the Procuress displays a special design originated in the West-Turkish town Ushak. Two groups of this particular pattern present a structure of complete star-like primary medallions on the vertical axis and secondary medallions at the sides, bisected by the border and shifted to the primary medallions, all on a monochrome ground (mostly red, occasionally dark blue) and decorated with characteristic tendrils, flowers and leaves; on dark blue ground in yellow ochre or white, on red ground in various blue colors. The subgroup (used by Vermeer as his model) differs from the main group in the slightly simplified primary medallions showing eight rays instead of sixteen rays in the secondary medallions of the main group.
The part of the carpet visible in the Procuress shows the pattern of a secondary medallion with the red border. The ornaments of the medallion are rendered by Vermeer with sufficient precision. The light woven edges with the red fringes, visible at the right side, are not unusual for Ushaks. The date of the production of this specific subgroup in the first half of the 17th century is consistent with the date of the painting.
Unfortunately, the blue parts of the carpet appear today as a gray-blue or gray-green. Special analyses have revealed that Vermeer had used a rare pigment, a mineral iron-phosphate, probably vivianite, which soon darkens under the influence of light. Its use may be seen as a further indication of Vermeer's delight in experimenting. The blue color in the carpet must have originally appeared as a clear, lucid blue of different saturation and lightness.
Although the body of the instrument cannot be seen, the characteristic form of its neck leaves no doubt that it is a cittern. The cittern was one of the most popular musical instruments of the mid-17th century and it was also the one most frequently depicted by Vermeer (see the detail of the late Love Letter above). Although its form may recall the more familiar lute, it has a very different history and above all, it produces a very different sound making it adapted for different music.
Cittern strings are made of metal while the lute's are of natural animal gut. In particular, the brass strings of the cittern sound much louder, also because the cittern is played with a plectrum. Its sprightly and cheerful sound is comparable to the modern banjo although a good cittern sounds a bit like the virginals. Instead, the lute is plucked by the bare fingers and produces a much softer, nostalgic tone. Lutes and citterns are frequently found in pictures of analogous subject for their erotic symbolic connotations although the cittern also symbolizes the harmony in love and family. The comparatively large number of depictions demonstrates the widespread popularity of this instrument.
In the Elizabethan Era citterns were "available in every self-respecting barber's shop for the convenience of the waiting customer." This was most likely similar in Dutch muziekherbergen (music taverns), where guests could make use of various musical instruments, including citterns, to entertain themselves.
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The richly satisfying nature of the relationship between the man and the woman on the right eventually begins to assert itself and draw us deep within it, on its own terms. One is struck by how miraculously uncontaminated it remains, either by its setting or by the dark figures who gather around it, and how much this counts in the way of value. Within the experience the couple share they seem invulnerable (and oblivious) to both the voyeuristic and the moralistic gaze. And the important thing is that the painting achieves uninhibited, intuitively convincing access to this experience.
Edward A. Snow, A Study of Vermeer, 1979
1656
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)
1656
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)
The Procuress was restored in 2002-2004 made after intensive conservational examinations.
Signed at the lower right corner, in dark brown color: i v Meer. 1656 (ivM in ligature). The support is a hand-woven linen with a threat count of 14x12 per cm2 (warp/weft), a piece attached in the lower quarter. The original edges of the paint- and ground layers are preserved and prove that Vermeer had stretched the canvas onto a strainer. At all sites the original strainers are reconstructible and refer to the original straining in somewhat irregular distances of c. 60 to 120 mm.
The double ground consists of a first layer with lead white and chalk and a second in a light reddish tone like that of bricks. Chalk, lead white, a yellow ocher, as well as a red ferric-oxide have been proved. As the medium of the ground layers served a linseed varnish with portions of protein. The paint layer itself is — due to the protein — in a relative solid condition. At the radiograph there are arched traces of scraping visible in the background left above. They refer to the application of the ground with a palette knife.
.The palette of colors employed in the Procuress encloses the usual pigments and organic colors, known in 17th-century Dutch painting, which are also verified in other paintings by Vermeer: one warm and one cold red tone (vermilion, a crimson lake [cochineal] ), several yellow tones (lead tin yellow type I, yellow ochre, a yellow-brown organic dye stuff on a lead white substrate), four blue tones (ultramarine, smalt, indigo and a rarely used iron phosphate, probably vivianite), brown and black tones (brown ochre, brown organic dyes and lakes, possibly Cassel brown; bone black, vine/plant black and possibly traces of soot) as well as lead white and chalk.
The paint layers appear lively and strongly colored. The paint application is largely covering and performed à la prima, with rather broad brushes. The various structures of the paint surface can be explained by a speedy working process with several corrections of the composition. Single light, thick hairs of brushes, probably pig's bristles, are embedded on large parts of the picture, mainly in the black area, which evidence a strong work on the surface.
Traces of the use of a pair of compasses are visible in the paint layers of the wine jug (the piercing point and traces of scratching, to define the exact contours and the decoration).
Vermeer made several changes in the course of the painting process which have altered its final effect significantly: shadowing of both the men's faces with larger headgear to concentrate the light on the young woman and the still-life in front of her; the view of the suitor (previously fixed on the young woman; now concentrating on the payment); the attitude of the young woman's hand, now rather unnaturally bent and empty. The radiograph revealed a further coin visible in the hand of the woman. Furthermore a light form appeared near the hand with the cittern, probably the outstretched right hand of the procuress, involved in the payment. It had been overpainted with her black garment.
from: Johannes Vermeer. Bei der Kupplerin. Eds. Uta Neidhardt, Marlies Giebe, Dresden 2004.
literature
- before 1737 Waldstein collection castle Dux (Duchcov) near Teplitz (Teplice, Czech Republic);
- acquired 1741 for the Elector of Saxony,
August III;
1945-1955 in the Soviet Union (requisition of war); - 1955 restituted to Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden (inv. 1335).
exhibitions
All in all, Vermeer's fully clad figures never suggest any serious shortcomings in drawing. He seems to have firmly possessed a working knowledge of anatomy and foreshortening that would have been demanded of any history painter of the time. This cannot always be said of other Dutch genre painters. Gerrit Dou, who was the highest paid painter in the Netherlands, failed to fully grasp human anatomy and his perspectives often leave much to desire. There are occasional missteps in the later works of Frans van Mieris as well especially in the modeling of the figures. Some of his late nudes seem to be made out of rubber. Pieter de Hooch's works are noted and even treasured for their doll-like figures which lend them a note of loving naiveté. Even Rembrandt, one of the greatest Western draughtsmen, had been criticized by past art writers for the stumpy proportions of his figures.
It may come as a surprise to know that not even a single drawing by Vermeer of any kind has survived. This seems especially odd if we take into account the complexities of the scenes he painted and the extreme accuracy of contour, scale, and perspective of his compositions. It is far more practical to work out composition and execute preliminary studies on paper that can easily be corrected or redone entirely rather than apply them directly on the canvas.
The Painter's Studio
Jacob van Oost the Elder
1666
Stedelijke Musea, Bruges
Based on the historical and religious subjects of Vermeer's first known works, it is generally assumed that he received training in the studio of a classically oriented master. Therefore, it would be logical to expect that he spent his first years as an apprentice making numerous figure drawings although none of them have survived.
Apprenticeship generally entailed hardships and even hard labor that would not be tolerated by young art students today. Apprentices were required to completely master drawing in their first years of training before moving on to color and painting. These drawings were made from plaster casts of classical sculpture (see above).
All in all, Vermeer's fully clad figures never suggest any serious shortcomings in drawing. He seems to have firmly possessed a working knowledge of anatomy and foreshortening that would have been demanded of any history painter of the time. This cannot always be said of other Dutch genre painters. Gerrit Dou, who was the highest paid painter in the Netherlands, failed to fully grasp human anatomy and his perspectives often leave much to desire. There are occasional missteps in the later works of Frans van Mieris as well especially in the modeling of the figures. Some of his late nudes seem to be made out of rubber. Pieter de Hooch's works are noted and even treasured for their doll-like figures which lend them a note of loving naiveté. Even Rembrandt, one of the greatest Western draughtsmen, had been criticized by past art writers for the stumpy proportions of his figures.
It may come as a surprise to know that not even a single drawing by Vermeer of any kind has survived. This seems especially odd if we take into account the complexities of the scenes he painted and the extreme accuracy of contour, scale, and perspective of his compositions. It is far more practical to work out composition and execute preliminary studies on paper that can easily be corrected or redone entirely rather than apply them directly on the canvas.
The Procuress (detail)
Gerrit van Honthorst
1625
71 x 104 cm5
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Vermeer's Procuress breaks the traditional mold of the bordeeltjes (little brothels scenes) in more than one way. The girls who modeled as courtesans were always represented with attractive facial features; they predictably assume provocative poses, often with bare breasts and wear particularly exotic clothes, one of the necessities of their trade. And perhaps the chance to render the striking optical effects of these outlandish costumes was one of the reasons for which so many talented painters were instinctively drawn to the subject.
Vermeer however, interpreted the motif according to his own sensitivity and taste. Although there can be no mistake about the young girl's intentions, her lowered eyes and the knowing warmth of her smile have little in common with the typical renderings of Vermeer's contemporaries such as the one above by Gerrit van Honthorst. With her colorful clothing, her cleavage and the feathers in her hair, Van Honthorst's girl is easy to distinguish from the average citizen. The feathers are a reference to her wanton character while the lute she hold by the neck, had a clear, sexual connotation in the 17th century. Instead, Vermeer's young girl is fully clad with an elegant white cap bordered with a fine bobbin lace - unusual for her profession. Her peaceful self-containment anticipates something of the sublime characterizations of his later works.
It is not known why the young Vermeer abruptly changed artistic direction abandoning his initial history subjects (principally derived from the Bible and classical mythology) for a so-called bordeeltje, or low-life brothel scene. He may have wished to be more in line with his times after expected commissions from the nearby artistically conservative court of The Hague failed to materialize.
In any case, the grand scale and brilliant coloring of the Procuress testify to the ambitious agenda that the young Delft artist entertained. But however successful as a work of art it may have been, Vermeer abandoned the bordeeltje atmosphere and motif even more hastily than he had abandoned the history genre. Immediately following this work, the young Vermeer turned, if with some measure of uncertainty, to the interiors for which he is now so famous.
Concert on a Balcony
Gerrit van Honthorst
1624
168 x 178 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Various artistic sources and even a hypothetical period of training in Utrecht or Amsterdam are often cited in connection with the Procuress. Caravaggesque low-life genre scenes had been popular in Delft and nearby cities since the mid-1620s. Vermeer's painting has many compositional antecedents, with regard to the tight grouped truncated figures on a shallow stage.
One of Vermeer’s most likely influences was the immensely successful Gerrit van Honthorst, who worked a mere hour's walk from Delft at the Dutch court in The Hague. The Utrecht painter's enormous reputation, based on a supreme technique and a masterfully interpretation of glances and gestures, must have impressed the budding Vermeer as much as it did other artists in Delft, such as Bramer and Van Couwenbergh. Vermeer also would have been familiar with the works by a number of gifted artists including Gerritsz van Bronchorst (who in the 1650s worked in Amsterdam) and Dirck van Baburen who worked in the same genre.
Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, owned Baburen's Procuress of 1622 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or a version of it. In any case, the popularity of low-life painting subjects speaks of a predilection of risqué literature and theatre in the Dutch Republic of the period.
Musical Group on a Balcony
1622
fresco
Private collection
Vermeer's decision to place his figures on a narrow balcony or bay, closed by a balustrade (covered by a carpet and fur coat laid across) has always been a point of criticism among Vermeer-scholars. The motif of the balcony is frequently to be found in pictures of "Merry Companies" by Jan Gerritsz. van Bronchorst and Christiaen van Couwenbergh. The arrangement derives from Italian mural decorations. The earliest and most famous example in the Netherlands of this pictorial device however was Gerrit van Honthorst's Musical Group on a Balcony painted in 1622, two years after his return from Italy. For the artist's contemporaries, the placement of the figures on a balcony would have added an unexpected psychological dimension, since the depicted location would in some way separated but at the same time dependent upon the one the viewer occupies.
A Concert
Jan Gerritsz van Bronkhorst
c. 1646
120 x 154 cm
Private collection
Vermeer's Procuress would have been immediately recognized by his contemporaries as a bordeeltje. These seductive pictures display a myriad of outlandish and ambiguous figures, from drunken soldiers to finely dressed ruffians and bare-chested Dutch beauties. Bordeeltjes comprised a valuable sub-category in Dutch genre painting and were avidly snapped up by elite art collectors. Their popularity in a society dominated by moralist Calvinism must have rested on the fact that they contemporarily afforded the viewer with a didactic warning and an undeniably pleasurable viewing experience. Analogously, modern movie-goers hardly blink as they witness the most violent and lewd scenes provided that "good" is triumphant in the end and the bad reciece adequate punishment. For the Dutch burger, the supposed moralizing element made it perfectly suitable to hang in a family home.
Loose Company
Dirck van Baburen
1632
Some, but certainly not all, Dutch bordeeltjes derive from the motif of the Prodigal Son, who is represented frittering his money away on drink and prostitutes in some dank inn. Such scenes frequently appeared in prints of the 16th century, in versions like as those by Lucas van Leyden. Originally, Christ's parable of the Prodigal Son was used to demonstrate the contrast between Catholic principles and the Reformers' view of the principle of divine mercy, shown when the lost son is received with loving forgiveness by his father. Although Rembrandt’s famous Return of the Prodigal Son may constitute one of the most touching pictorial elaborations on shame, repentance and forgivingness, many have the impression that Dutch painters all too frequently utilized the Bibilical as a excuse to indulge in thinly disguised eroticism. Maria Thins, Vermeer's mother-in-law owned one such bordeeltje by the Utrecht Caravaggist Dirck van Baburen (1590-1624) which Vermeer included in two of his works.
In any case, the bordeeltjes of Vermeer's colleagues tend to fill out the plot with far greater detail, and occasionally include some quite graphic allusions; dogs are clearly copulating in a work by Frans van Mieris in the Mauritshuis. Vermeer’s measured version of the theme remains unique in the panorama of Dutch art.
Venal Love
Urs Graf
(woodcut)
The popular scenes of prostitution (bordeeltjes) habitually portray becoming male and female figures (with typically Dutch characteristics) decked out in elegant satin and silk costumes in light-hearted attitudes. The figures usually fill up the whole composition and the settings are rarely specified. In reality, these paintings cannot be considered accurate representations of 17th-century Dutch prostitution which was in practice seamy at best. Lotte van de Pol's important studies show that the profession was dominated by poor, desperate women, often migrants.
Prostitutes, who worked in small-scale taverns and inns, were held hostage financially through perpetual debts for room and board and especially for the fashionable clothing absolutely compulsory for the trade. Van de Pol also argues persuasively against the long-held belief that prostitution was generally tolerated by Dutch municipalities. However, even the most rigorous repression did not eliminate the phenomenon but simply forced its practice into less conspicuous settings such as houses, inns and taverns. Many prostitutes fell into an endless circle of violations, confinements and banishments. The worse cases were punished with branding, flogging or a spell on the public pillory. And however prudent, prositutes were always exposed to casual violence in the whorehouses and gaming dens. Those who survived the years after 30 were generally left disfigured by venereal disease, punishments and frequent stints in unsavory jails. The best guess is that in Amsterdam there were about 1,000 prostitutes in the late-17th century.
Young Man and the Procuress
Michiel Sweerts
c. 1660
19 x 27 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The key figure in the trade of prostitution was the procuress who was almost unanimously female. Dutch painters had traditionally portrayed the procuress as a shriveled hag, better to express their moral vileness. In reality, the majority of these unhappy creatures were only somewhat older than the four to five whores they ran and some were even younger. The urban procuress generally diversified in illegal activities: receiving stolen goods, organizing music and entertainment, drink and sexual procurement in a so-called musico, which, however, was not a brothel in the modern sense of the term where customers came explicitly for sex. Card-playing, backgammon and dice and, of course, heavy drinking and smoking all provided the procuress income as well as the rate charged for the use of the premises by the girls. Vermeer, like the vast majority of his colleges, avoided even the vaguest suggestion of the real working environment of the trade. We can only make out a rather austere column and what seems to be a hinted-at sunset or the faint flickering of a burning hearth.
The Procuress is one of the few works whose date was applied undoubtedly by Vermeer himself. The signature and the date appears as i v Meer. 1656 (ivM in ligature) at the lower right corner, painted in dark brown color. The discovery of the signature and date by Thoré-Bürger during his examination of the painting in 1859 makes for a curious story. Since the painting hung very high above in the Dresden Gallery, Thoré-Bürger was allowed by Julius Hübner, member of the Gallery's commission and author of the Gallery's catalogue of 1826, to use a ladder for a close observation. Thoré-Bürger wrote with great enthusiasm of his find: "the first [date] of a painting by the Delft [artist] one is able to report". Three years later the attribution of the Procuress (together with that to the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window) to "Jan van der Meer. Geb(oren) zu Delft um 1632" was correctly entered in the Dresden Gallery-catalogue of 1862.
click here to hear A Horn pype [2.65 MB]
from:
Anthony Holborne, Cittharn School,
played on a 4 course chromatic cittern by Jacob Heringman
click here to view cittern-playing (especially video no. 4 Chi Passa) by Marc Wheeler from the
Renaissance group Pantagruel.
The Cittern
In Italian Renaissance humanist culture the cittern was regarded as a classical revival of the ancient Greek kithara even though it seems to have its direct development from the medieval citole. It presents some similarities with the fiddle, as its plucked form.
The structure and tuning of the cittern varied almost from country to country. While in England, France and northern Europe the small four-course-instrument was commonly used, Italian musicians preferred the larger six-course instrument.
The cittern achieved the height of its diffusion in the 16th and 17th centuries. Above all in Italy and in England it was held in high esteem both as an accompanying instrument for the singing voice or for dance music. Many compositions written expressively for it, often intricate and demanding to play.
The great number of paintings depicting a cittern proves the instrument's great popularity in the 17th-century Netherlands. With its flat back it was more robust in structure than the fragile lute, therefore cheaper and more portable. The cittern's easy playability made it the preferred instrument especially of the middle and upper classes for song accompaniment and dance music.
The cittern has a shallow round or pear-shaped body tapering from the bottom towards the neck. The body is carved from one piece of wood and only the soundboard and fingerboard were added separately. The use of metal strings plucked with a quill or plectrum gives the instrument its sprightly and cheerful sound, one of the reason for the cittern's great popularity.
Jan Gerritsz van Bronkhorst
c. 1646
120 x 154 cm
Private collection
Concert on a Balcony
Gerrit van Honthorst
1624
168 x 178 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Young Man and the Procuress
Michiel Sweerts
c. 1660
19 x 27 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Procuress
Dirck van Baburen
1622
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Procuress
Gerrit van Honthorst
1625
71 x 104 cm.
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Jan van Bronckhorst
90 x 119 cm
Sibiu, Bruckenthal Museum
Frans van Mieris
1658
42.7 × 33.2 cm
The Hague, Mauritshuis
Gerrit van Honthorst
1623
125 x 157 cm
Staatsgalerie, Schleissheim
Dirck van Baburen
1623
110 x 154 cm.
Mainz, Landesmuseum
Jacob van Velsen
1631
26 x 23 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Lucas Cranach
1548
85cm x 57cm
Art Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi
Christiaen van Couwenberg
1647
118.5 x 141.5 cm
Private collection
Christiaen van Couwenberg
1647
118.5 x 141.5 cm
Private collection