Lute of the Month
March

Virgin and Child with Four Angels, c.1485,
Oil on wood 63.2cm x 39.1cm
Gerard David (died 1523)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1977 (1977.1.1)

Gerard David Virgin and Child with Four Angels, c.1485, Oil on wood 63.2cm x 39.1cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1977 (1977.1.1) Last month I was challenged by Trystero Montevideo to put up what I thought to be the most convincing depiction of a medieval lute hand position before 1500 to settle the long running disagreements about such matters in the lute list. I doubt whether this, or any other single, picture will settle anything since there were clearly so many different playing styles throughout Europe and throughout the centuries. But this picture convinces me at least of its verisimilitude to a possible real player. The lute is held head down, supported by the crook of the right arm and the strings are played with a very thin, perhaps quill, plectrum held between the first and second fingers and the thumb of the right hand. The left hand encircles the deep section neck and the thumb may be employed to stop the lowest course. The lute has five courses with a single top string and a wide string spacing on the bridge. The construction is clearly shown to be with the ends of the ribs curving round and rebated into the end of the neck, quite unlike the later hard cut joint which we are all used to. The neck itself is at least semi-circular in cross-section and may well be deeper. I would say the colours show that the whole lute body and neck is made of sycamore or maple with boxwood heart shaped pegs. The colour is exactly what you get with the medieval recipes of oil varnish made from pine tree resin and linseed oil, as described by Cennino Cennini and others. There may or may not be a separate fingerboard but if there is it is probably boxwood. One of the most interesting things is the sunken central rose. This is a feature of several lutes shown in paintings of this period, but this one is particularly clear, and I personally would say that it shows a wooden construction rather than the parchment style seen in later baroque guitars. The upper lancet-window shaped rose however seems to be a composite wood and parchment construction just like the similar rose which survives in the clavicytherum of the same period preserved in the Royal College of Music Museum in London. This impression is even more clearly shown in another painting of a similar lute by David in France, where the white of the parchment stands out against the colour of the pine soundboard. The fact that this can be seen as different from the circular rose reinforces my belief that the circular rose is indeed a wooden construction. Maybe even pine wood. I have made one based on this painting and it proved entirely workable, although it would obviously be easier to make it out of pear wood or something like that. When researching this lute, I tried very hard to reconcile the perspective shown in the floor tiles with that of the lute but it proved impossible, even though the painting as a whole looks almost photographically realistic.

If anyone has any comments about these pictures which differ from or expand on mine, please do either email me direct or submit them to the lutenet at antispam/lute@cs.dartmouth.edu and I will add them to this page. Do please adjust this address by hand to remove antispam/

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Copyright 1999 by David Van Edwards