Lute Player
Artist: Valentin de Boulogne (French, 1591–1632)
Original Dimensions: 50 1/2" x 39"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (ca. 1625–26) "The greatest French follower of Caravaggio, Valentin was one of the most outstanding foreign artists working in seventeenth‑century Rome. He frequently depicted scenes of music‑making, drinking, and fortune‑telling in the characteristically direct, vivid manner seen here. This image of a young soldier singing a love madrigal is unique in Valentin’s career and is perhaps emblematic of the sobriquet he took in Rome: Amador, a Spanish word for "lover boy." In the 1650s, this painting was in the collection of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV’s powerful chief minister." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

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