Details

Title

Youth with Violin

Artist/Maker

Giovanni Martinelli (Italian, ca. 1610–ca. 1668)

Date

ca. 1640–1650

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

26 1/8 x 20 7/8 inches

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Charles T. Hopkins in memory of her father, John Carroll Payne

Accession #

55.161

On View

Currently not on view

This painting is believed to be the work of Giovanni Martinelli, a Florentine artist who has largely been ignored by contemporary art historians. The rich texture of the paint and the sumptuous costume recall some of Martinelli’s known works. The subject of the music maker is common in seventeenth-century Florentine painting; the inclusion of a mysterious figure in the background, however, is unusual and adds an enigmatic quality that suggests a further allegorical meaning.