Am Freitag, 17. Juli 2020 18:32 CEST, Monica Hall <mjlh...@mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> schrieb: > I still don't get it! > > Neither picture seems to make sense to me even when put side to side. In the > Lute player the back view of the instrument is shown but the peg box is > skewed to the front. The peg box is curved and the pegs inserted laterally.
To me the "lute" almost looks like some kind of mandora/gallichon and the perspective (esp. of the pegbox) looks dlightly distorted. > In the Theorbo player the back view of the instrument is shown and the lower > peg box is in line with the neck but the upper peg box is skewed to the front. That skewedness I can't see. > With your left arm stretched out it is almost impossible to get your hand > into the position shown. As a (former) theorbo player I don't agree. That's exactly how I would do it, esp. if I need to tune up while slightly pushing the peg into the peg hole. > And where is his right arm. Normally you would be plucking the string to > hear if it were in tune. Looks like he's pluging the string over the rose or even higher up the string where the neck meets the body. Not unseen once the instrument reaches a certain size. Cheers RalfD > Monica > > > On 17 July 2020 at 12:12 David Van Edwards <da...@vanedwards.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > > Dear Monica, > > > > There's another related Watteau painting in the Wallace collection > > (Pour nous prouver que cette belle) showing the same hand in much > > more detail. Different instrument so the pegbox is a bit narrower and > > that maybe makes the hand more possible. But the brushwork here shows > > that Watteau clearly enjoyed the extreme muscularity and effort of > > the fingers which is such a contrast to the languid feeling of the > > rest of the painting. These fingers are in many ways the focal point > > of the painting and the difficulty is the message. > > > > I think the other commenters are right, it is the two middle fingers > > holding up the pegbox while the first finger and thumb turn the peg. > > The little finger meanwhile is curled up with the effort. > > > > You can see it here thanks to the ArtUK collection. > > > > https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/pour-nous-prouver-que-cette-belle-209396/view_as/grid/search/keyword:pour-nous-prouver-que-cette-belle/page/1# > > > > Best wishes, > > > > David > > > > At 10:50 +0100 17/7/20, Monica Hall wrote: > > >"Les charmes de la vie" is a well-known painting by Watteau in the > > >Wallace Collection. You just need to put in the title "Les charmes > > >de la vie" to bring up several examples of it. > > > > > >However, what puzzles me is the odd position of his left arm and > > >hand which seem to me to be anatomically impossible. It looks as if > > >his fingers are stopping the back of the neck. Even if he was tuning > > >it it couldn't be like that. What do the rest of you think. Am I > > >missing somthing crucial? > > > > > >As ever > > > > > >Monica > > >-- > > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at > > >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > -- > > The Smokehouse, > > 6 Whitwell Road, > > Norwich, NR1 4HB > > England. > > > > Telephone: + 44 (0)1603 629899 > > Website: http://www.vanedwards.co.uk > > > > > > -- Ralf Mattes Hochschule für Musik Freiburg Projektleitung HISinOne Schwarzwaldstr. 141, D-79102 Freiburg http://www.mh-freiburg.de
