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Chordophone-zither-plucked-virginal highlighted in The MET collection
Rectangular Octave Virginal is a 16th-century virginal in the style of Samuel Biedermann the Elder, probably made in Augsburg about 1600. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art .[1]
Early history and creation [ edit ]
Little is known of the early history of this specific instrument. It was donated by Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown and is part of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments gifted in 1889, where it is classified as a Chordophone-Zither-plucked-virginal . It is decorated with hand-painted engravings by Hans Sebald Beham and Crispijn van de Passe I .
Description and interpretation [ edit ]
The left engraving shows the return of Tobias, showing the scene where the angel Raphael from The Book of Tobit takes leave of old Tobit and Sarah before flying off into heaven (his flight can be seen through the window). Tobit seated next to his bride under the cloth of honor looks at the angel. The right engraving shows a scene from the Book of Daniel when a hand writes the prophecy on the wall during Belshazzar 's feast (his murder can be seen in the background).
Later history and influence [ edit ]
A Young Lady Playing a Clavichord , an impression of how such an instrument was still being used a half-century later
The presence of the engravings helps to both date the piece as well as give a glimpse into the popular scenes from the bible after the Protestant Reformation .
See also [ edit ]
Ottavini (singular form: Ottavino ) — miniature virginals with octave higher pitch, produced by both Italian and northern schools.
Double virginals — known as Mother and Child (moeder und kind), the instruments combined a normal virginal and ottavino, produced by Flemish school, in particular the Ruckers family.
References [ edit ]
show Places
Directors Miscellaneous Antiquities Paintings
1476 Altarpiece
A Cavalryman
A Vase of Flowers (1716)
The Abduction of Rebecca
The Accommodations of Desire
The Actor (painting)
Adoration of the Magi (Bosch, New York)
Adoration of the Shepherds (Mantegna)
The Aegean Sea
The Afternoon Meal (Luis Meléndez)
Alexander Hamilton (Trumbull)
The Allegory of Faith
Allegory of the Planets and Continents
Alpine Pool
Altman Madonna
America Today
Ancient Rome (painting)
Annunciation (Memling)
Annunziata Polyptych
Anthony van Dyck self portrait
Approaching Thunder Storm
Arab Woman (watercolor)
Arcadia (painting)
Ariadne (Giorgio de Chirico)
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Artillery (Roger de la Fresnaye)
The Artist's Wife and His Setter Dog
At the Seaside
Au Lapin Agile
Autumn Ivy (Ogata Kenzan)
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
Bache Madonna
Bain à la Grenouillère
The Baker's Cart
The Banks of the Bièvre near Bicêtre
Banquet in Silence (Marsden Hartley)
Bashi-Bazouk (Jean-Léon Gérôme)
A Basket of Clams (Winslow Homer)
Beauty Revealed
Black Iris (painting)
Black Stork in a Landscape
Boating (Édouard Manet)
Annunciation (Botticelli, New York)
Bouquet of Small Chrysanthemums (Léon Bonvin)
Boy Carrying a Sword
The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne
Brigand and His Wife in Prayer
Bringing Down Marble from the Quarries to Carrara
The Brioche
Broadway and 42nd Street
Broken Eggs
Burg Weiler Altarpiece
Butler Madonna
By the Seashore
Ca' Dolfin Tiepolos
The Calm Sea (painting)
Camouflage Self-Portrait
Cannon Rock (painting)
The Card Players
Catania and Mount Etna
Cemetery, New Mexico (Marsden Hartley)
Cervara Altarpiece
The Chess Players (Eakins painting)
Children Playing with a Goat
Christ Carrying the Cross (El Greco, New York)
Christ Presented to the People (Il Sodoma)
Christ with a Staff
Claes Duyst van Voorhout
Cloudy Mountains
Coast Guard Station, Two Lights, Maine
Coast Scene, Isles of Shoals
The Collector of Prints (Edgar Degas)
Comtesse de la Châtre
Captain George K. H. Coussmaker
Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
A Cowherd at Valhermeil, Auvers-sur-Oise
Cows Crossing a Ford
Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)
Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych
Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John
The Cup of Tea
Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Dance Class (Degas, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Dancing Class
The Dead Christ with Angels
The Death of Harmonia
The Death of Socrates
The Defense of Champigny
Delirious Hem
The Denial of Saint Peter (Caravaggio)
Diana and Cupid
The Dream of Aeneas (Salvator Rosa)
Dressing for the Carnival
Madonna and Child (Duccio)
Egyptian Woman with Earrings
Egyptians Raising Water from the Nile
The Empress Elizabeth of Russia on Horseback, Attended by a Page
Entrance to a Dutch Port
Equestrian Portrait of Cornelis and Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort with Their Tutor and Coachman
Esther before Ahasuerus (Artemisia Gentileschi)
Ethel Scull 36 Times
The Experts (painting)
The Falls of Niagara
The Farm at Les Collettes, Cagnes
Femme Lisant
Ferry near Gorinchem
The Fingernail Test
Fish Market (Joachim Beuckelaer)
The Fishing Boat
Fishing Boats, Key West
The Five Points (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Florinda (painting)
The Forest in Winter at Sunset (painting)
The Fortune Teller (de La Tour)
Fruit Dish and Glass
The Funeral (painting)
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri
Garden at Sainte-Adresse
George Washington (Trumbull)
Gilbert Stuart (Goodridge)
A Girl Asleep
Girl with a Cat (Gwen John)
Glass Blowers of Murano
Golden Cock and Hen
A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius
The Great Sirens
The Gulf Stream (painting)
Harlequin with a Guitar
The Harvest, Pontoise
The Harvesters (painting)
Haystacks:Autumn
Head of Christ (Rembrandt, New York)
The Heart of the Andes
The Hermit (Il solitario)
The Horse Fair
Houses on the Achterzaan
I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
In a Courtyard, Tangier
The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter (Lemoine)
Interior with a Young Couple and a Dog
Irises screen
Isaac Blessing Jacob (Gerbrand van den Eeckhout)
Isle of the Dead (painting)
Italian Hill Town (Arthur B. Davies)
Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman
Joy of Life (Valadon)
Juan Legua
July Fourteenth, Rue Daunou, 1910
The Kearsarge at Boulogne
The Lacemaker (Maes)
Lachrymae (Frederic Leighton)
Lady at the Tea Table
Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)
Lake George (John Frederick Kensett)
Landscape with Sky
The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Botticelli)
Lehman Madonna
Lilacs in a Window
Lobster Fishermen (Marsden Hartley)
The Lovesick Maiden
Lukas Spielhausen
Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly (Mary Cassatt)
Madame Élisabeth de France
Madame Grand (Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun)
Madonna and Child (Bellini, New York, 1485–1490)
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Raphael)
Magdalene with Two Flames
The Maidservant
Maine Coast
Majas on a Balcony
Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga
The Marriage of the Virgin (Michelino da Besozzo)
The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (Lucas Cranach the Elder)
The Masquerade Dress
The Matador Saluting
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull
Mérode Altarpiece
Merry company with two men and two women
Mezzetino (painting)
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (painting)
Miss V Dressed as a Bullfighter
Model by the Wicker Chair
Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley
Moonlight, Wood Island Light
Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen
Moses Striking the Rock
Mother and Child (Cassatt)
Mountain Stream (John Singer Sargent)
Mountain with Red House
Movement No. 5, Provincetown Houses
Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes
Mrs. Atkinson (Gwen John)
Mrs. Beckington (Alice Beckington)
Mrs. Hugh Hammersley
The Musician (Bartholomeus van der Helst painting)
A Musician and His Daughter
The Musicians (Caravaggio)
Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (Memling)
Nativity scenes attributed to Zanobi Strozzi
Night-Shining White
Northeaster (painting)
Nude Before a Mirror
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Old Trees, Level Distance
Pity (William Blake)
Portrait of Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc
Exhibitions