Artwork
Still Life with Musical Instruments and Books
Still Life with Musical Instruments and Books is an oil painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Bartolomeo Bettera. It is held in the collection of the Israel Museum. Created circa 1650, this oil painting presents a carefully arranged still‑life that combines musical instruments with books.
About this work
Overview
Created circa 1650, this oil painting presents a carefully arranged still‑life that combines musical instruments with books. The work exemplifies the early Baroque interest in domestic objects, rendered with a quiet realism that invites close inspection. It is part of the permanent collection of the Israel Museum, where it is displayed among other 17th‑century Italian works.
Subject & Meaning
The composition juxtaposes a variety of stringed instruments—likely viols or lutes—with a modest stack of bound volumes. By pairing music and literature, the artist suggests a cultured interior space where the pleasures of sound and reading coexist, reflecting contemporary ideals of learned leisure and the harmonious balance of the arts.
Technique & Style
Executed in oil on canvas, the painting employs a restrained palette of muted earth tones and subtle chiaroscuro to model form and convey texture. The precise rendering of wood grain, vellum, and metal highlights the artist’s skill in depicting materiality, a hallmark of the still‑life tradition that emerged in northern Italy during the mid‑17th century.
History & Provenance
Bartolomeo Bettera, an Italian painter active in the mid‑1600s, produced this work after training in the workshop of Evaristo Baschenis, a noted specialist in musical still‑lifes. The painting entered the Israel Museum’s collection through acquisition in the late 20th century, joining a broader corpus of Baroque Italian art that the museum has assembled for scholarly study.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Bartolomeo Bettera (Bergamo, 1639 - Milan, after 1688) was an Italian painter, mainly depicting still lifes with musical instruments.
