Young Musician. 17th Century Nordic Caravaggesque Painter.

Circle of Gerrit von Honthorst (1590-1656), 17th century period Oil on parqueted oak panel Total dimensions with frame: 82 x 70 cm. Panel: 62 x 50 cm This beautiful Dutch painting is what is called a Caravaggio school from the north and more precisely from Utrecht. Unlike the works of the same "current" these painters often painted their subjects on a lighter background. "During the first decade of the 17th century, the Nordic painters made the journey to Rome, which had become traditional for all Western European artists wishing to escape provincialism, that is to say, late Mannerism. Utrecht, a city in the south of the Netherlands, where painters such as Hendrick Ter Brugghen (1588-1629), Gerrit von Honthorst (1590-1656), Dirck van Baburen (1570-1624) and Jan van Bijlert (1598-1671) brought back from Rome the revolutionary art of Caravaggio (around 1571-1610), was to become the centre of a new school and a new style, where the fusion of Caravaggism and the Nordic spirit took place, which would inspire all the great Dutch painting (except Rembrandt). " Alongside a few examples from previous centuries, in which music was a kind of figuration in painting, this theme would be repeated among painters throughout the 17th century. Artists marked their era with the sincere musical feeling expressed in their painted works, to celebrate a moment of pure human happiness claimed as such. From the Renaissance and especially in the 17th century, artists finally freed themselves from religious subjects and opened themselves to all kinds of secular aspirations, without this altering in any way the valor of their faith. Very beautiful state of conservation. Sold with a certificate