Lute Player

Lute Player
Artist	Valentin de Boulogne
Year	1625–26
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	128.3 cm × 99.1 cm (50.5 in × 39.0 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Accession	2008.459

Lute Player is an early 17th-century painting by French artist Valentin de Boulogne. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts a young soldier playing a lute. The painting was originally in the collection of Cardinal Mazarin, and is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Description[]

Lute was rendered by Valentin de Boulogne between 1625 and 1626 in Rome. The work was then sold, and first appears in the collection of Cardinal Mazarin, a French political minister who owned 9 other works by de Boulogne. The painting's title and central figure may be self-referential as de Boulogne's nickname in Rome was "Amador", which has been loosely translated from Spanish as "lover boy".^[1]

The painting itself depicts a young man playing a lute. The figure is clad in rich clothing and a steel gorget, indicating he is a soldier - likely a Spanish mercenary. Like many of de Boulogne's paintings, Lute is heavily influenced by tenebrism, a style of art popularized by de Boulogne's contemporary Caravaggio.^[1]

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