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Early Music America Winter 2008 27

Art OfftheBeatenTrack:

By Anthony Rowland-Jones

IN ONE OF THE MOST VISITED cities inEurope, tourists flock to see the

strange Gaudi architecture (especially thechurch of La Sagrada Familia, started in1882 and still far from finished), thePicasso museum, the Roman and GothicOld Town quarter and, in particular,Barcelona’s spectacular new develop-ments beside the Mediterranean, whichoffer plenty of nightlife. And they stroll,often not watching for pickpockets,down the crowded leafy Ramblas con-necting the city center shopping areawith the seafront. But perched, almostisolated, on Montjuic, a steep hill to thesouth of the city, is the rather forbiddingvast bulk of the Palau Nacional, a grandpalace built for the 1929 World’s Fair.You can reach it by climbing a series ofwide stairways, by either of two funicu-lars on the seaward side, or by a steepwinding road among the trees. Thebuilding is now the Museu Nacionald’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), recentlysplendidly refurbished.

MNAC possesses what is probablyEurope’s finest collection of lateMedieval altarpieces. Unlike countriesthat suffered centuries of religious wars,Catholic Spain was largely spared icono-clasm, at least until the 1930s Civil War,and unlike Northern Italy and the LowCountries, it was not a battlegrounddespoiled by constant conflict betweenpowerful neighboring countries. More-over, from the 14th century the King-dom of Aragon dominated the WesternMediterranean, with great centers of cul-ture in Barcelona, Saragossa, Valencia,Palma in Majorca, and Palermo in faraway Sicily. A passion for music isreflected in the many altarpieces withmusical angels in these cities and insmaller Catalan towns.

Especially for recorder players, prideof place must go to Pere Serra’s Tortosaaltarpiece, probably dating from as earlyas 1385-90 (illustration 1). Angels oneach side of the Virgin and Child playrecorder, small lute, portative organ,psaltery, gittern, and harp, all quiet

BARCELONAinstruments that symbolizethe Virgin’s humility andgentleness. Iconographersgenerally hold the view thatthis image of a recorder isthe earliest known repre-sentation that can be identi-fied with little or no ambi-guity (see my articles inEarly Music, November2005 and February 2006,especially pages 18-19 ofthe latter).

Illustration 2, however,poses identification prob-lems. This detail from analtarpiece roughly contem-porary with that shown inillustration 1 is again of theVirgin and Child surround-ed by angel-musicians. Atfirst glance, it seems to fea-ture a reed instrument withits disc-shaped pirouette tosupport the player’s lips. But, assumingthat the artist would not give precedenceto his background design over what is infront of it, there is a cut-away on theinstrument at the point where one wouldexpect to find the window/labium of aduct flute. Moreover, the player’s lips andcheeks are relaxed, and, although no fin-ger holes are visible, the lower little fin-ger seems poised for action. And thereare other representations of recordersblown against a flat surface rather thanthrough a beaked mouthpiece – someEastern European folk duct flutes areplayed like this.

Furthermore, the other instruments –harp, gittern, psaltery – are all in the bascategory; a loud shawm would be out ofplace. The painter of illustration 2 was apupil of Pere Serra, and the features andplaying position closely resemble therecorder-playing angel in illustration 1, as does a similar image by another Serra

Our investigator of iconographicwonders in lesser-knownmuseums travels to Barcelona,Spain, where a palace built for the 1929 World’s Fair housesEurope’s finest collection of late-Medieval altarpieces.

1. Pere Serra, Virgin and Child withAngels, the central section of the Tortosaaltarpiece (MNAC 3950).

2. Detail from Enrique de Essencop,Master of Longares, Virgin of the Lily(MNAC 64025).

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pupil in the parish church at nearby Car-dona (Early Music cover illustration, Feb-ruary 2006). The ensemble in that 1405painting is a trio of bas instruments:vielle, lute, and recorder, forming a welcoming party for the happy souls St. Peter is admitting at the gates ofHeaven.

Illustration 3 (a and b) shows fourangels who play in box-like galleriesbehind the Virgin and Child in an altar-piece from around 1410. This time thereare two recorders, possibly a small altoand a tenor, with a harp and a vielle.Vielles come in a variety of forms,including the very squared-off shapeshown here. A combination of recorder,bowed string instruments, and pluckedstring instruments seems to have beencommon in the 15th and 16th centuries,culminating in the so-called English con-sort, typically of transverse flute orrecorder, a treble viol or a violin, bassviol, lute, cittern, and bandora, for whichMorley’s Consort Lessons of 1599 and1611 were written. In that six-part group,three of the instruments are pluckedstrings.

In an altarpiece center from 1415-25(illustration 4), Ramon de Mur shows aparticularly exuberant collection ofpluckers – four lutes and a harp – withone bowed string instrument and onerecorder. In their ecstasy of color andactivity one can almost hear the flutter-ing of angel wings as an extra sound.The artist’s enthusiasm extended toendowing the recorder with 11 finger-holes, but of course angels have miracu-lous powers. Particularly interesting isthe bowed string instrument, a Moorishrabab, closely related to the rebec. Evenafter their defeat and eventual expulsion,the Moors exerted considerable culturalinfluence upon their conquerors, espe-cially in Valencia where the viol familydeveloped out of Moorish string instru-ments. In this altarpiece, a Moorishinstrument has migrated northwardsinto Catalunya.

The most frequently reproduced ofMNAC’s Gothic paintings, and then onlythe instrumental part, is from the centralsection of Jaume Huguet’s Vallmoll altar-piece, painted around 1445-50. Illustra-tion 5 shows the entire angel-musicianensemble, which is comprised of three

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singers along with the three playing ductflutes, in all likelihood recorders eventhough they are only partly visible. Thesingers need to have music but, as is sooften the case in representations of earlymusic performance, the instrumentalistsdepend on memory or invention,probably a mixture of both.

MNAC houses a considerable collec-tion of works from later periods, includ-ing modern art, even though there is alarge contemporary art museum in aredeveloped area of the old city near theRamblas – the building is so beautifulthat it outshines its contents. The Ren-aissance paintings in MNAC include afine St. Peter and St. Paul by El Greco and

3a & 3b. Angel-musicians from theMaster of Fonollosa, Virgin (The Motherof God) and Child, center of an altarpiecefrom Centelles (Osona) (MNAC 64035).

4. Ramon de Mur, The Virgin Suckling theChild, center of an altarpiece from theparish church of Santa Maria de Cervera(MNAC 15818).

5. Jaume Huguet, detail showing themusicians in the Vallmoll altarpiece(MNAC 64066).

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an outstanding Tintoretto portrait of acavalier. Eighteenth-century picturesinclude a clever iconographic in-joke, The Minuet by Giandomenico Tiepolo(illustration 6a).

The complicated background to TheMinuet is explained in detail in my articlein the August 1998 issue of Early Music.Giandomenico was the son of the greatVenetian fresco painter GiambattistaTiepolo. He worked with his father from1750 to 1753 in decorating the vast stair-

way hall Balthasar Neumann designedfor the archbishop’s Würzburg Residenz,and his father made some allowance forDomenico’s idiosyncratic style, whichdelighted in masquerade and caricature.

In painting Europa at Würzburg,Giambattista had partly copied a groupof musicians in the forefront of The Wed-ding Feast at Cana by Veronese, a painterhe deeply admired. In that great paint-ing, now in the Louvre, Veronese’s musi-cians included representations ofpainters (himself, Tintoretto, Titian)playing alongside a member of the Bas-sano family, which included many of theleading professional musicians in Veniceat the time. This is intended to implythat painters were men of broad culture,not just mere artisans. In copyingVeronese, Tiepolo celebrates the glory ofVenice in both art and music in an ambi-ence ordained by an over-pompous Ger-man princeling. He, as Veronese had,gives particular emphasis to the figure ofthe aged Titian playing the bass viol, asTitian may in fact have been a skilledmusician.

In re-using the same musicians threeyears later in The Minuet (illustration 6b),Giandomenico is in part making a play-ful comment on his father’s enthusiasmfor Veronese. But, more importantly, atthe start of the galant or Rococo periodin European culture, he is discardingboth the profound Renaissance symbol-ism of Veronese and the Baroque alle-gories of his father – all that is now outof date. In this metamorphosis, it isTitian who suffers most. Giandomeni-co’s father had copied Veronese’s Titianin every detail, including his sharp noseand the soft hat he used to wear in hisstudio. But Giandomenico has no suchrespect. In keeping with his carnival sub-ject, he puts a mask on Titian’s face,emphasizing his long nose, and dumps a cocked hat on his head.

Anthony Rowland-Jones writes on the subjectsof recorder and music iconography for a num-ber of publications. He wishes to thank thedirector of the Museu Nacional d’Art deCatalunya for waiving reproduction fees, andin particular Ariadna Blanc Monegal of theMNAC Photographic Service, who has helpedhim in his research for over a decade. All theMNAC illustrations are credited to the photog-raphers Calvera, Mérida, and Sagristà.

6a. Giandomenico Tiepolo, The Minuet(MNAC 64989).

6b. Detail of the musicians in The Minuet.

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