The Lute Player

This monumental and powerfully modeled figure of a musician tuning a lute can be linked stylistically with Bartolomeo Manfredi's work, strongly suggesting that it was executed towards the end of Rombouts short stay in Rome. The composition ultimately derives from Caravaggio's two versions of The Lute Player, however, the theatrical clothing and the somewhat menacing demeanour of the figure's expression are closer to the representations of male lute players by the Utrecht Caravaggesque painters like Dirck van Baburen and Hendrick Terbrugghen.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes): Franz Schubert: An die Laute (To the Lute) D 905