A Laughing Bravo with a Bass Viol and a Glass

The artist worked mainly in Utrecht, but spent about ten years in Rome from about 1604-1614 where, like several other Dutch painters, he became versed in the style and subject matter of Caravaggio and his followers. Ter Brugghen was, in fact, the first of the Dutch artists to return to the north where, together with Baburen and Honthorst, he helped to establish the tenebrist style. Although no doubt based on one of the itinerant musicians who travelled in the Netherlands at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the subject is most probably an allegory of the senses of Hearing (the bass viol) and Taste (the glass). It is also possible that the artist is illustrating the theme of vanitas whereby the brevity of song is equated with a short life-span. A number of paintings in ter Brugghen's oeuvre explore such subjects, but only one other (known through a copy) includes a bass viol. On the other hand, the model, the vividly coloured costume and the cap are standard studio properties used by the artist during the 1620s. Benedict Nicolson noted the forced smile of the sitter, comparing it to 'that thrown by the politician to his constituents' in 'a joyless wish to please'. The breadth of the handling of the paint contrasts with the drawing which is most fastidious. An important element, however, is the treatment of the light, which in its emotive power is decidedly Caravaggesque, but in its descriptive qualities anticipates later seventeenth-century Dutch painting.

The painting is signed upper left: HTBrugghen fecit 1625 [HTB in monogram]. Purchased by Charles I and sold after his execution, the picture was in the possession of Sir Peter Lely at the time of the Restoration and was returned to the Royal Collection. It was cleaned in 1989.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes): Lodovico Viadana: La Bergamasca