Still-Life with Musical Instruments in an Interior

Evaristo Baschenis is universally acknowledged as the inventor of the musical instrument still-life and its most celebrated practitioner. He was himself a practicing musician who clearly had a deep understanding of the instruments that he painted. The instruments in the present painting are: a theorbo; below it a mandolino; a Venetian lute; a pentagonal spinet; a violin; an ebony inlaid guitar, and a harp. The red damask cloth and the richly embroidered drapery overhead recur in other works by Baschenis.