Personification of Music

The Personification of Music, painted in 1636 and part of the Royal Collection, is one of Gentileschi's allegorical series for Charles I in which the arts are given female form and specific visual attributes. Music as a female personification appears with a lute, viol, or other stringed instrument, and is often shown in the act of playing or about to play, rather than simply holding the instrument passively. The subject had particular resonance for Charles I's court, which maintained extensive musical establishments and gave music a central role in court ceremonial. Gentileschi's rendering of the instrument itself — its curved body, gut strings, tuning pegs — would have been legible to musically literate courtiers as a real instrument. The canvas belongs to the most refined period of Gentileschi's technique.

Canvas with the instrument — lute, viol, or similar — as the compositional and technical centerpiece. Wood grain, string tension, and the instrument's curved form are rendered with the precision of a maker's study. The musician's hands on the instrument receive careful attention; fingering position may be musically accurate. Drapery in complex folds frames and supports the instrument within the composition.