While sojourning in Rome until 1620, the Utrecht Caravaggist painter Gerrit van Honthorst (1592–1656) directly witnessed the rising popularity of the chitarra spagnuola , the five-course (Baroque) guitar, whose ascent had been fuelled by the onset of monody. Honthorst was quick to pick up on new musical trends and, while still in Rome, applied his art to what is one of the very first depictions of the five-course guitar. Back in Utrecht, he would present that same guitar in two pictures displaying women playing or tuning the guitar, today preserved at the Louvre and the Lviv National Gallery of Art respectively. The three pictures together deepen our understanding of the constructional details of early Italian guitars. Honthorst shows an instrument of a sober and simple, yet elegant, design, quite unlike the heavily ornamented 17th-century guitars surviving to this day. A recently rediscovered 18th-century painting appears to be a copy of another (unknown) portrait of a guitar player by Honthorst or his workshop, and provides additional detail. This article presents and assesses the pictorial evidence on Honthorst's guitar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Early Music is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)