OSTADE, Adriaen Jansz. van
(b. 1610, Haarlem, d. 1685, Haarlem)

Rustic Concert with Pipe and Violin

1635-37
Oil on panel, 27 x 30 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

This work belongs to the so-called peasant interiors, one of the new genres of painting that emerged and developed in Flanders and Holland in the early seventeenth century.

Popular themes are common in the extensive oeuvre of Adriaen van Ostade. Placing figures over a flat background is characteristic of his early works.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 21 minutes):
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Musical Joke (Village Musicians) K 522