Possibly by Titian, 'The Music Lesson', about 1535

The Music Lesson

Possibly by Titian

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A boy sings from a partbook while his music master beats time with his finger and perhaps sings along. A woman leans her arm against the teacher’s shoulder, her head tilted with a faraway look as if she is listening to the music. A youth accompanies the boy on a viol da gamba, while a young man behind him plays the recorder. The theme of music-making is often associated in art with lovemaking and the passing of time.

For many years The Music Lesson was believed to have been painted in the early 1600s by an artist imitating the style of Titian. Cleaning and technical examination revealed that the painting has much in common with pictures painted by Titian and his workshop in the 1530s.

This type of picture – a group of figures with the suggestion of a story or portraiture – was made popular by Giorgione, with whom Titian associated closely in his youth.

In-depth

A boy sings from a partbook while his music master beats time with his finger and perhaps sings along. A woman leans her arm against the teacher’s shoulder, her head tilted with a faraway look as if she is listening. A youth in a red cap with a white ostrich plume accompanies the boy on a viol da gamba, while a young man behind him plays the recorder. The music master may be a portrait of Nicola Maffei from Mantua, who commissioned Titian’s Supper at Emmaus (Louvre, Paris) and may also have commissioned The Music Lesson.

Although the music book seems to be painted in a lot of detail, the black paint of the notes is smudged; the music may never have been legible and is not a copy of a real piece of music. The theme of music-making is often associated in art with lovemaking and the passing of time.

When it was listed in the collection of Vincenzo Gonzaga, 7th Duke of Mantua in 1626–7 and in the collection of the English king, Charles I, in 1630, the painting was said to be by Titian. Later its poor condition led to doubt as to whether it was really by him. The painting hadn't been cleaned or restored for over 200 years and it was covered with a layer of opaque yellowish varnish almost as thick as the paint itself.

As a result, for many years The Music Lesson was believed to have been painted in the early 1600s by an artist imitating the style of Titian. A member of the National Gallery’s conservation team noticed that the weave of the canvas on which the picture was painted is similar to canvases of the early sixteenth century, and suggested that further investigation be carried out.

Cleaning and technical examination revealed that the painting has much in common with pictures painted by Titian and his workshop in the 1530s. The materials used and the way in which the paint was applied is similar to those in paintings from the first part of Titian’s career. Quite a few significant changes were made to the composition during painting: the woman’s arm once rested on the man’s other shoulder and the head of the boy with the recorder was originally tilted the other way. These sorts of changes are typical of those seen in paintings by Titian. However, the rendering of the figures and the surface execution of fabrics and flesh are rather rote, if still reminiscent of Titian’s style. So the painting is likely to be a workshop production overseen by the master.

This type of picture – a group of figures with the suggestion of a story or portraiture – was made popular by Giorgione, with whom Titian associated closely in his youth. The National Gallery’s painting is similar in subject and setting to the scene of music instruction in Giorgione’s The Three Ages of Man and Titian’s The Interrupted Concert of about 1511–12 (both in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence). If The Music Lesson was painted in the 1530s, it would link Titian’s earlier paintings of music-making in the style of Giorgione to his more erotic paintings of nude women with musicians painted later in his career, such as Venus with an Organist and Cupid (Prado, Madrid) of about 1555.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Music Lesson
Artist: Possibly by Titian
Artist dates: active about 1506; died 1576
Date made: about 1535
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 99 × 120 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1824
Inventory number: NG3
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: John Julius Angerstein

Provenance

Purchased with the Angerstein collection, 1824. Recorded in that collection by 1806. The Gallery’s catalogues between 1915 and 1929 note that the painting is ‘perhaps from R. Strange coll., 1771’, but the ‘evidence for this’ eluded Cecil Gould.

The painting was in the Gonzaga collection by 1627, was acquired from that collection by King Charles I, and was then in his sale.

Burton Fredericksen points out that it is possible that NG 3 corresponds with lot 24 in the Pasquier sale of 10 March 1755 which is described as ‘Un Concert de Musique vocale’ performed by five half-length figures, including a woman with her hand on a man’s shoulder. The colour and ‘effet’ were said to be ‘admirable’ and the majority of connoisseurs considered it to be by Titian. It was on canvas and measured 36 by 46 pouces which is close to NG 3. It was bought by Boucault, ‘receveur de la ville’, for 853 livres.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1757

A. van der Doort, A Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's Capital Collection of Pictures, Limnings, Statues, Bronzes, Medals, and Other Curiosities: Now Published from an Original Manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the Whole Transcribed…by the Late Ingenious Mr Vertue, ed. G. Vertue, London 1757
1823

J. Young, A Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Pictures of the Late John Julius Angerstein, Esq: Containing a Finished Etching of Every Picture, and Accompanied with Historical and Biographical Notices, London 1823
1824

P.G. Patmore, British Galleries of Art, London 1824
1832

W.Y. Ottley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1832
1834

J. Landseer, A Descriptive, Explanatory, and Critical Catalogue of Fifty of the Earliest Pictures Contained in the National Gallery of Great Britain, London 1834
1877

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, Titian: His Life and Times, London 1877
1889

National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, London 1889
1901

E. Jacobsen, 'Italienische Gemälde in der National Galerie zu London: Kritische Notizen zum Katalog von 1898', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XXIV, 1901
1913

A. Luzio, La galleria dei Gonzaga venduta all'Inghilterra nel 1627-28: Documenti degli archivi di Mantova e Londra, Milan 1913
1924

W.G. Constable, 'The Foundation of the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XLIV/253, 1924, pp. 158-72
1929

National Gallery, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square: Catalogue, 86th edn, London 1929
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1935

W. Suida, Le Titien, Paris 1935
1950

D. Mahon, 'Notes on the "Dutch Gift" to Charles II: III', The Burlington Magazine, XCII/562, 1950, pp. 12-8
1958

O. Millar, 'Abraham van Der Doort's Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I', The Walpole Society, XXXVII, 1960, pp. 1-249
1959

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School, London 1959
1972

B.W. Meijer, 'Niccolo Frangipane', Saggi et memorie di storia dell'arte, VIII, 1972, pp. 255-78
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1993

U. Ruggeri, 'Due nuovi disegni di Tiziano', in J. Manca (ed.), Titian 500, Washington 1993, vol. 45, pp. 85-99
1997

S. Rinaldi, 'Il primo restauro seicentesco della collezione Gonzaga venduta a Carlo I d'Inghilterra" Stefano Marconi and Marisa Dalai Emilianis', in S. Marconi and M. Dalai Emiliani (eds), Scritti e immagini in onore di Corrado Maltese, Rome 1997, pp. 259-70
1998

K. Bott, '"Nur originalia von einem berühmten guten maister": Kopie oder Original in der Kunstsammlung der Grafen von Schönborn', Städel-Jahrbuch, XVI, 1998, pp. 257-88
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

R. Morselli, Gonzaga: La celeste galeria (exh. cat. Museo di Palazzo Ducale (Mantua), 2 September - 8 December 2002), Milan 2002
2008

Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 19 works

Possibly by Titian, 'The Music Lesson', about 1535

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Titian