From Antiquity to modern art · Instruments, concerts and musical figures

From musical angels to café-concerts, painting transforms invisible sound into gestures, looks, rhythms and harmonies of colors.

Music has accompanied the image since the earliest civilizations: Cycladic harpists, Greek lyre players and ancient banquet scenes already show how an artist can make a sound experience visible. In the Middle Ages, biblical angels, kings and Saint Cecilia gave instruments spiritual value. The Renaissance brought together music, poetry and world order, while the 16th and 17th centuries multiplied lutenists, domestic concerts, lessons and allegories. In the 16th and 17th centuries lutenists, domestic concerts, lessons and allegories, while the 16th and 17th centuries multiplied lutenists, domestic concerts, lessons and allegories. In the time of Caravaggio, the birth of opera and the rise of professional singers renewed the attitudes and instruments represented. Dutch interiors then took practice musical a language of sociability, education and sometimes seduction. In the 19th century, Manet, Degas and Sargent shifted their gaze towards orchestras, café-concerts and public shows. The selected works bring together Caravaggesque chiaroscuro, the concentration of the lute player, the figure of Saint Cecilia and the collective energy of the concert. The "Musicians in Painting" selection notably compares The Musicians - Caravaggio and The Lute Player - Orazio Gentileschi. His reading favors details.

To paint music is to suggest what the eye cannot hear: a hanging hand, an open mouth or a tuned group is enough to create rhythm.