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The Music Making Couple

A work made of round engraving on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of round engraving on ivory laid paper.

Date:

1470/80

Artist:

Monogrammist b. g.
German, active ca. 1470–90

About this artwork

Enjoying an intimate garden tête-à-tête, this well-dressed couple is wealthy enough to afford the leisure time to make beautiful music together. The walled garden enclave suggests that they have stolen away from a busy castle for a little privacy. The closed garden, or hortus conclusus, was often seen as an emblem of purity, especially in images of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ. Yet this woman’s studied attempt to avoid the man’s appraising glance suggests that they both have other things on their mind than playing instruments.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Monogrammist b. g.

Title

The Music Making Couple

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1470–1480

Medium

Round engraving on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: H.: 8.9 cm (3 9/16 in.); Sheet: 9.5 × 9.2 cm (3 3/4 × 3 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Endowment

Reference Number

2000.408

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/155251/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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