Description
Along with tavern scenes and intimate domestic genre pieces, Judith Leyster frequently painted scenes of musical performances. In The Concerto, Leyster accurately describes elements such as the baroque violin (made without a chinrest and usually propped against the chest), as well as the woman's songbook.
The figures shown here are probably portraits. Its characters will tell us about violins, lutes, luthiers and overseas woods. And several Dutch Baroque musicians will put a soundtrack to the painting.
Based on similar people in Leyster's other images, scholars have tentatively identified the singer as the artist herself, the violinist as her husband, and the lute player as a family friend. The members of the trio, like all musicians, must work together as a unit, "in concert", which has led some writers to theorize that this scene symbolizes the virtue of harmony.
Leyster frequently placed his subjects against a plain, monochromatic background. Thus, nothing distracts from the figures, which are all shown in the midst of various actions (bowing or plucking strings and beating time). The deep angle at which the lute is held adds depth to the composition. The varied directions of the musicians' gazes offer the viewer different focal points.
Judith Leyster is the most important painter of the so-called Dutch Golden Age. At the age of 24 (1633) she is accepted into the Haarlem painters' guild, something not very easy for a painter despite having a rare talent. And despite her recognition in life, after her death she will be "forgotten" by history until the end of the 19th century, since her work will be confused with that of Frans Hals and other painters.