Probably anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 29 January 1998, lot 39, where unsold as 'Parrasio Micheli' with incorrect and inverted measurements of 94 by 120 cm;
With Virginie Pitchal, Paris, 1998, as 'Parrasio Micheli';
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Belluno, Tiziano. L'ultimo atto, 15 September 2007- 6 January 2008, cat. no 116.

Tableaux de Maitres anciens. 'Sacra e Profana'. Les
aspects de la femme à travers la peinture italienne du XV au
XVIIIe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1998, pp. 18−19;
M. Gregori, 'Un amico di Simone Peterzano a Venezia', in
Paragone, LIII, no. 41−42 (623−625) 2002, pp. 21−39; reproduced plate 30 and in colour plate II;
E. M. Dal Pozzolo in Tiziano. L'ultimo atto, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2007, pp. 420−421, n. 116, reproduced in colour p. 324, cat. no. 116.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a recent lining and stretcher, and there has been a recent restoration. The fine canvas has a light ground. Under ultra violet light the thinner areas in the flesh, away from the denser paint of the highlights, have many little touches over the minute crests of the canvas, as also have a few places in the lute. However there are few retouched damages: a narrow horizontal retouching about three inches long near the left base corner, one at the right edge and a slim vertical about six inches long in the left background, none of which appear to have pierced the canvas. The edges have narrow retouchings and there are occasional other small touches but these are scarcely significant. The fine surface is unusually free of accidental damage, and the particular delicacy of touch and finish, evident in the foreground as well as in the richly intact glazes of the curtain, has been well preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This well-preserved canvas, traditionally thought to be by Parrasio Micheli (1516-1578), has only recently been convincingly restored to Simone Peterzano's oeuvre. It is the prime version of the composition and was published in 2002 by Mina Gregori, as well as its autograph variant in Budapest, as autograph works by Peterzano.¹ At the time of the Belluno exhibition in 2007 her ideas were endorsed by Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo.²

The Budapest painting, in the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, was long thought to be the prime version and had been attributed to Micheli by Molmenti³ and van Hadeln⁴, amongst others. Gregori's objections and reattribution are based on stylistic grounds, comparing the two Musical Allegories to early works by Peterzano. For example, in the Venus and Cupid with two satyrs, recently purchased by the Brera in Milan,⁵ the same flesh tones can be found, and the curled blonde hair of the female figures in the Vocazione dei santi Paolo e Barnaba⁶ echoes the lute player presented here. The same female figure can be found in Angelica and Medoro, in New York.⁷

All these works date from Peterzano's early career in the second half of the 1560s, when he was still in Venice, and little is known about his work. He was clearly still close to Titian, under whom he trained, as his signatures often attest,⁸ but as Dal Pozzolo proposes, the influences felt in the present work reveal that Peterzano did not limit himself to the Titianesque strand of Venetian painting, but also studied Veronese. Perhaps herein lies the source of the past misattribution to Parrasio, also a pupil of Titian but whose style decidedly veered towards Veronese.

The numerous known copies attest to how popular the composition must have been. Aside from the autograph version in Budapest, a copy hangs in the Palazzo Colonna, Rome,⁹ in which the veil over the breasts is a later addition. Another variant, with an organist to the left and flautist to the right, was sold London, Christie's, 13 December 1996, lot 38.

At the time of the Christie's sale (see Provenance) the picture was catalogued as A Woman playing a Lute with a Putto holding a Book of Music. However, this surely misses the nuanced subject matter: the lute player is both an allegory of music and a personification of Venus, with the little putto as Cupid. Dal Pozzolo goes further: he suggests that the subject in fact represents the erogenous power of music, personified here in the figures of Venus and Cupid. Not only have the lute player's breasts broken free from Venus' dress, but her knee is also seductively bare, her upward glance an indication of the pleasure experienced from music.

Though a pupil of Titian and a fine painter in his own right, Peterzano is best known to posterity as Caravaggio's master. It is not unreasonable to suggest that without this early training in Peterzano's workshop, the fine facial features discernible in some of Caravaggio's early works, notably in his Musicians, would be unlikely (see fig. 1).


1. See Gregori, under Literature.
2. See Dal Pozzolo, under Literature.
3. See P. Molmenti, La storia di Venezia nella vita private dalle origini alla caduta della Repubblica, Trieste 1906, pp. 166-167.
4. See D. F. von Hadeln, Parrasio Michiel, in 'Jahrbuch der Köiglich Preussischer Kunstsammlungen', XXXIII, 1912, pp. 149-172.
5. Reproduced in Gregori, op. cit., plate 27, and in colour plate I.
6. Reproduced in Gregori, op. cit., plate 31.
7. Reproduced in Gregori, op. cit., plate 29.
8. He signed his Deposition (1583-4) in the Church of S. Fidele in Milan: S Peterzanus Titiani Al[umnus].
9. See E. Safarik, Galleria Colonna, Roma 1981, p. 91, cat. no. 119, reproduced.