Martyn, Just another scenario. I've carefully checked where all the lines go, and it began to dawn on me that it was a painting procedure which went wrong. So lets try to reconstruct the process of painting this picture. Pesne knows very well that he can't ask Eleonore to sit for a very long time with her lute, so on the first session he makes a sketch of the whole figure marking only where the lute should be, and drawing approximate shape without any detail at all (this would take a reality short time for a skillful artist). The big robe apparently wasn't used as one can see the shape of her body around the waist area showing through the brown color of the lute. During the next session she would be asked to sit without a lute and he would be concentrating on her face solely using already oil paint or maybe putting a wash first. Another time he would paint her torso, without proceeding further than the top edge of the lute (but including it). Alternatively he could ask her to hold the lute for a moment to paint the upper part of the belly trying to find a proper color rather than focusing on any details like strings (the neck and lower part of the belly would be omitted). And now we are com! ing to the most important part where things went wrong! The last thing he would need her to pose were her hands. During that session he was painting her left hand only (right side of the picture), however he couldn't have done it without her holding the lute. Because he didn't want her to sit for long, he painted only lute's head and her palm ending on her pinky's side (including her lace-trimmed robe cuff). I made a very big close up on my 24 inch monitor, took a ruler and started measuring from the nut. Instantly it became obvious that if you prolonged the bottom line of the fingerboard's edge around a nut area you would end up where it should be (it would be absolutely parallel to the 1st string on the whole length with a proper distance from the edge as if 2 strings were missing). So this is what he intended to paint. On that particular day Eleonore brought her lute in continuo tuning because latter in the evening she was to accompany the Queen. Pesne painted some details of the lute that he could notice - like red strings beginning from the third course and the lack of 1st (and 2nd?) courses. It was rather tiring for her to keep the lute still in one position, so Pesne stopped painting after making sure that he can finish this area without her. Then there was the last session he needed her to pose. The right hand. And here the problems began. On that day she must have come with a lute set for solo playing. Pesne hasn't noticed it not being a lute player, and Eleonore didn't let him know as she (not having any experience as a painter) hadn't realized importance of this change. So Pesne started with the bottom area of the lute going up towards first 2 courses. He confidently painted the end of the bridge and her fingers proceeding diagonally along the lower part of the belly. At some point he wanted to connect this area of the picture with her left hand. He then drew the line of the first course aaaaaand…………..disaster!!! Sudenly he realized something went wrong. The discussion with the model starts, Eleonore is very surprised, he becomes more and more confused, but not wanting to disappoint the client he decides to hide his mistake especially that he (not being a lute player himself) doesn't feel it was his fault. Th! en he makes big efforts to cover this up and save the painting. In the first place he asks Elonore to raise the lute a little bit so he is able to connect two points of the first string nut groove -bridge hole. Note that the oval of the bottom edge of the belly does not have a perfect shape (in comparison to upper) as if he was correcting it not being sure where it should go. Then there was this most difficult part to hide. The bottom edge of the fingerboard. Pesne didn't know how to get himself out of this trouble, so he decided to put as dark paint in this area as possible so that it wouldn't be so obvious where the edge really should be. The rest was painted without Eleonore. The upper part of the lute (it looks quite artificial against her torso), strings, etc. he didn't care about any angles at that time because there was nothing to be done already. After adding the background, lower part of the robe and making finishing touches he showed his picture to Eleonore. She w! as very happy, because Pesne did his best to show her real bea! uty. She was flattered and even didn't notice that there was something wrong with her lute. And even if she did, she wouldn't mind as the painting had exceeded her most daring expectations. The happy end! This very likely story and the end result which for some of you may seem challenging the whole stringing idea behind this lute, could even confirm one that the dual purpose of this setting (solo-continuo) was the main reason why things went wrong with Pesne's painting. I am almost sure that this instrument was used in the mentioned setting.
All the best Jaroslaw Wiadomość napisana przez Martyn Hodgson w dniu 21 lip 2012, o godz. 08:49: > > Dear Jaroslaw, > > It's clear that none us can present a definitive case about this > instrument. > > But just one other thought: a noble sitter would not expect to pose > indefinitely for their portrait and mostly only the face and general > physique would have been taken from life. You suggest it would have > been just the background: I suspect the clothes etc and any other > appendages (such as an instrument) would probably also have been > painted in separately. Is it not possible that even if the lute were > Elizabeth's own instrument it was lent to Pesne in a state without the > top two courses (possibly the strings had broken) - but he, realising > that strings ought to come from the bridge, made his own corrections > there but not at the nut...... All speculation of course. > > Mouton was a celebrated professional lutenist and we can > reasonably expect him to be have been concerned about the precise > depiction of his (sole?) means of income. > > regards > > Martyn > --- On Fri, 20/7/12, JarosAA'aw Lipski <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: JarosAA'aw Lipski <[email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Eleonore von Schlieben-Sanditten > To: [email protected] > Date: Friday, 20 July, 2012, 21:00 > > Luis, > We live in very different times. In past people were accustomed to > things that we wouldn't tolerate. As far as I know many people were > portrait with real instruments, otherwise we could say that all > iconography is rubbish. Is portrait of Moutton just a rubbish? Was he > holding a prop? A very reputable lute maker made an exact copy of that > instrument by making computer calculations on measurements taken from > the very picture. > As far as painting as an art is concerned there are ways to make things > much easier for a model like taking some sketches and then assembling > everything afterwards without a model. Then some corrections are made > by confronting it with reality. I am sure she wasn't posing in her > garden as can be seen on the picture. The whole background was added > independently. The whole beauty of Rococo (obviously if you like it) is > in that mixture of reality of figures and fantasy of landscapes. A > little bit soppy it is, but this is the way people loved it at that > time. > About your concerns on the dirty soundboard I'd say that one has to be > very cautious in making such statements as the texture of Rococo > paintings is usually very uneven, impressionistic, unclear, colorful, > without photographic gloss, and therefore it can't be taken as if it > was a reality. I can't see any dirt, sorry. It's just shading. > Jaroslaw > WiadomoAA>Ae/= napisana przez Louis Aull w dniu 20 lip 2012, o godz. > 20:07: >> Jaroslaw, >> >> >> Just conjecture, but I would not use a working instrument to pose > for >> many hours for a painting of this detail. I keep mine in a case at > all >> times it is not being played to help keep it in tune. Do you think > she >> would tolerate a lute of her own that dirty? In that dress? >> >> >> Louis Aull >> >> >> >> -- >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > > -- > > References > > 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >
