Decorative Panel with a Musical Party

Once part of a set of five paintings by Weenix illustrating the five senses, this monumental canvas is an allegory of “hearing.” The nearly life-size musical trio—a lutist, violinist, and vocalist—is shown mid-performance. The violinist, however, has abandoned his instrument and turns his attention toward the viewer as if we have interrupted this intimate concert. In the background, the classicizing architecture blurs the boundaries between real and fictive space, a technique called quadrature (illusionistic perspectival rendering of architectural elements).

The dimensions of this canvas are slightly off-kilter because Weenix designed it to fit the exact measurements of a 17th-century palace interior. The paintings from Five Senses, adorned the largest and grandest room of a palace in Amsterdam. The scale and beauty of these works spoke to the prosperity and wealth of the original inhabitants. In the 1920s, all five of Weenix’s paintings were removed from the palace and sold.