“Pintoricchio’s Musica of the Sala delle Arti Liberali, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican”. Early Music 42.2 (2014): 167-174.
Previous Next| Publication type | Year | ISBN/ISSN | Bibliog code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article: journal | 2014 | robb2014 |
abstract: http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/2/167.abstract.html?etoc
Musicologists are familiar with Pintoricchio’s late 15th-century fresco of Musica for its depiction of a vihuela player. However, Musica is possibly the earliest depiction of music as a liberal art that combines performance, history and theory in its symbolism, and it provides a snapshot of music at the end of the 15th century. This article examines the fresco, highlighting the detailed depictions of instruments, analysing the structure of the fresco and explaining how the structure of the fresco shows not only a collection of musicians, but also contains a representation of basic concepts of Boethian music theory. It concludes that the combination of realism and allegory in the fresco provides a valuable vehicle for the artist to outline the multi-faceted nature of music as a liberal art.
Composer
Instrument VIHUELA
Century 15CENT, 16CENT
Region ITALY
Medium
Music genre
Research field HISTORY, SOCIAL HISTORY, INSTRUMENTS, ORGANOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY