The Concert

The Musicians was undoubtedly Caravaggio’s most frequently imitated musical painting. An impressive number of concerts by Caravaggesque painters were derived from it. Whereas the paintings by Caravaggio’s earliest followers, those executed during the first two decades of the seventeenth century, adhere closely to the original and generally depict a chamber concert with musical scores, painting in later decades, especially by foreign artists, present scenes which are substantially different. The Concert by Lionello Spada belongs to this first category.