Caravaggio was not yet famous when he painted this around 1595. He was a young painter from the north living in Rome, and Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, a patron with a weakness for music and a taste for talented artists, took him in. The cardinal hosted concerts in his palace, and Caravaggio painted several musical scenes for him, with this one probably among the first.
Four young men crowd the frame. One tunes a lute with his head bowed, and another holds a cornetto, a small wooden horn. A third studies a sheet of music and a fourth, a winged boy with a bunch of grapes at the left, reaches toward the group. Most seem half dressed in loose white fabric that looks closer to bed sheets than to concert wear. It is a rehearsal as much as a performance.
The music itself is a minor mystery. The notation is painted, but the canvas has deteriorated in the areas where the notes sit, so the music cannot be read. Scholars have been trying to identify the piece for years. Another Caravaggio from the same circle, The Lute Player, contains a legible madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt. Here the page keeps its secret.
One of the faces may be Caravaggio's own. The cornetto player at the back, partly hidden behind the others, is often identified as the painter, looking out at us.
The sensuality of the scene, with its soft skin and loosened clothing, was part of the cardinal's world, and it has led to a lot of speculation about the household. What is clear is that Caravaggio found his voice here. The light falls across bare shoulders and cloth with a clarity that later became his signature.
Caravaggio's The Musicians appears on our: