Lute Collection

Piero della Francesca, Italian painter
Renaissance Art. Italy. 15th century. Piero della Francesca (c.1420-1492). Italian painter. The Nativity, 1470-75. Tempera on panel. National Gallery. London. England. UK

Chinese ti-tzu, so-na, yueh-ch in, la-pa and Japanese hiji-riki.. Chromolithograph from an illustration by William Gibb from A.J

Mary Qoss Messenger
A pigeon carries messages for Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned at Tutbury, to Babington who is plotting to rescue her and set her back on the throne again

Lady Plays Lute at Knole
An aristocratic lady plays her lute in a room at Knole, Kent

Angel playing a lute, Melozzo da Forli
Melozzo da Forli (1438-1494). Italian painter. Fresco depicting an Angel playing a lute. From the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles. Pinacoteca Vaticana. Vatican City. Date: circa 1480

Chinese musical instruments
A selection of Chinese musical instruments, including a bell(1), gong, (2), cymbals(4), a guqin or seven-stringed zither(7), a pipa or four-stringed lute (8), Yueqin or moon-shaped lute(11)

Viol d amour, mandore, Spanish guitar and lute.. Viol d amour (1), mandore (2), Spanish guitar (3) and lute (4). Copperplate engraving by John Lee after a drawing by T

Medieval frolics: wine, women and song
An alfresco medieval social gathering, with mixed bathing and music making. Date: c.1430

Georgian country folk with musical instruments
Georgia - Georgian country folk with musical instruments including a boy with a thin drum and a woman holding a stringed instrument, similar to a lute

Secular Games held in Rome
The Secular Games (Ludi Saeculares) are held in Rome to commemorate a 100-year span of Roman history. Despite their name, the Games were a religious celebration involving sacrifices

LADY PLAYS LUTE AT KNOLE
An aristocratic lady plays her lute in a room at Knole, Kent

Lute Music by the Canal, Hendrick Sorgh
A lute player entertains a lady in a Dutch interior, seventeenth century. Date: 1939

Girl playing instrument
A young Japanese woman with ribboned hair playing a stringed musical instrument, perhaps a version of a lute

Chinese woman playing a Ruan (note the Western influence in her choice of footwear!). Date: circa 1910s

Old Chinese Manuscript
Fragment from a manuscript of the Uigur dynasty : figures are shown writing and reading, and one is playing a lute-like musical instrument

16th Century Musicians 1
A piper performs with players of three types of stringed instruments - a rebec, a lute and a harp

The Song to the Moon - Kay Nielsen
The Song to the Moon - The Art of Kay Nielsen. Date: 1913

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia, sitting on his bed throne with scimitar and hookah pipe. Princes to the right, court clerks at left, and other courtiers

Thomas Rowlandson, The Honeymoon - When the old fool has drunk his wine, and gone to rest - I will be thine. circa 1816

France - Circus - Auguste and the White Clown
France - Circus - Interactions between Auguste (the happy clown) and the White Clown (the sad clown): " Session interrupted". Date: 1905

Historical Musical Instruments, Inventions Exhibition
Various historical musical instruments displayed at the International Inventions Exhibition, a world fair held in 1885 in South Kensington, London

Violin and stringed musical instrument maker's workshop - Johann Reiter, Mittenwald, Germany, creator of the octave violin. Instruments on display include violins, violas, cellos and lutes

Smart Gent sits beneath a tree and thinks of his love
Smart Gent sits beneath a tree with his lute, dreaming of his sweetheart and composing some lines of romantic poetry and song

The Triumph of Death, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1525?1569), Flemish Renaissance painter. The Triumph of Death. Oil on panel. Museo del Prado. Madrid. Spain. Date: 1562

Death extinguishes the candles on an altar of a Nun and her lover.. Handcolored engraving by Chretien de Mechel from Hans Holbein's The Triumph of Death

STUART/ELIZABETH/COPE
PRINCESS ELIZABETH Death of the second daughter of Charles I, at Carisbrooke Castle on 8 September 1650 Date: 1635 - 1650

Algeria - African Gnawa Musician playing a traditional sintir, also known as the guembri, gimbri or hejhouj, a three-stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute. Date: circa 1910s

Elderly Moroccan man playing a sintir, also known as the guembri, gimbri or hejhouj, is a three-stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people

When Love was Lost and Life was Vain: Pierrot Forlorn. In the Autumn of Youth: " Fallen Leaves". Date: 1912

Man and woman of Murcia, Spain, 1818. The man wears the traditional folk costume of jacket, sash and wide breeches. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Mary Anne Vennings A Geographical Present

Man and woman of the Black Forest, Germany, 1818. She holds a rake and he is sharpening a scythe ready for harvest. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Mary Anne Vennings A Geographical Present

Young English gentleman gambling at Newmarket racetrack
Young English gentleman placing a bet at a betting post at Newmarket racetrack. Handcoloured copperplate engraving after an illustration by Thomas Rowlandson from William Combes The Dance of Life

Tree carnation varieties, Dianthus caryophyllus: Ariadne 1, Beauty 2, Garibaldi 3, Perfection 4, Queen of Whites 5, Queen of Yellows 6

Dara Shukohs head presented to Aurangzeb, 1659
Dara Shukohs severed head is presented to his brother Muhi-ud-Din Muhammad (later Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb), 1659. La testa di Dara-Chekouh presentata a suo fratello. From a miniature

Group of promenaders on the Spianata, Barcelona, 1806
View of a group of promenaders on the Spianata, Barcelona, 1806. Strollers include Catalonian women in veils and mantillas, a monk, a soldier in bicorn, children

Two female dancers and two male dancers or Tschenky
Two female Ottoman dancers with castanets, and two male dancers or Tschenky. Tschenky ou danseur publique, danseuse publique. Due Ballerine e Due Ballerini

Initiation ceremony of disciples of Zoroastrianism
Initiation ceremonies of gabr or disciples of Zoroastrianism in ancient Persia. A priest pours water in a babys mouth, washes a child and holds another over a pyre. Iniziazione de Guebri

Poster, Pasquali Films, Turin, Attract The World. circa 1912

Sailors listening to a Canta-Storia, Naples, Italy
Sailors listening to a Canta-Storia, a long narrative song, on the quay at Naples, Italy, with Vesuvius smoking in the background. Date: early 19th century

Country people dancing the Tarantella, Italy, originating from Naples. Date: early 19th century

Country people dancing on return from the vintage, Italy. Date: early 19th century

Roman people dancing a Saltarello, Italy. Date: early 19th century

Mummers in animal masks, 14th century
Mummers in odd animal masks and colourful robes, 14th century, dancing to music played by a man on a lute with animal neck

Classical musical instruments: lyres 1, 2, plectrum 3, cithara 4, lute 5, percussion instruments 6, 7, 8, 15, pan pipes 9, crotales 11, tuba 12, flutes 10, 14, 18, 19, triangle 16, cymbals 17

Norman musical instruments and a siege
Norman instruments: violins 243, 245, a pipe organ 244, harps 246, 249, lyre 247, lute 248, zither 250, hunting horn 251, and siege of a castle by archers and soldiers on a boat 252

Pot with Chinese musicians playing cello and pipa from Nevers, France. Hand-finished chromolithograph from Ris Paquots General History of Ancient French and Foreign Glazed Pottery, Chez l Auteur

Decorative rectangular plate from Rouen with handles. Painted with six putti in laurel wreaths with cello, lute, lyre, quill, torch on a gold ground, bordered with foliage

The Incomparable Ravel, French rope dancer
The incomparable Ravel, a guitar-playing French tightrope artist from the early 19th century, with two dancers on thick ropes

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