I'd really like to hear what an art critic would say. It seems amazing to me that someone who could paint faces and other detail so well could utterly screw up a lute.
I notice the fellow is playing off of the right side of his fingers too. On Nov 6, 2005, at 2:43 AM, David Van Edwards wrote: > > The picture is an anonymous French School painting in Hamburg > Kunsthalle and was featured on the front cover of Early Music > magazine in October 1982. The whole picture makes it clear that it's > mostly a perspective problem, since the bridge also is on at an > impossible [and opposite] angle. > > The rose is set grossly to one side as well. But the whole painting > is magnificent and gives very much the spirit of the instrument, > which looks like a converted Italian yew-wood lute with a French > style silver lace round the edge. > > It may well be that the player did have his frets on at various > angles as many players do today to adjust intonation. > > What is noticeable from the whole painting is that the player has his > little finger resting BEHIND the bridge in a postion where lots of > surviving museum instruments have wear marks. Thus he is playing very > close to the bridge. This may have influenced Bob's choice of > picture, since he has been talking a lot of late about the evidence > of playing close to the bridge. But from the CD section one can't > tell this of course! > > The red strings are interesting and are not that illogical since they > are on the bass side of each course from the fifth downwards. A > perfect example of loaded strings and very bright red. > > In case anyone is interested in seeing the whole painting I'll put it > up on my site at http://www.vanedwards.co.uk/hamburg.htm Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
