If I remember correctly, Holbein in "The Ambassadors" painted a broken string on the octave of the 4th course. One would naturally tend to depict course one as broken, but of course the octave on the 4th course is only a tone below course one. I assume Holbein was showing off his musical knowledge, alongside the symbolism of broken strings.
Martin On 9/5/09 08:11, "lute...@aol.com" <lute...@aol.com> wrote: > Return-path: <lute...@aol.com> > From: lute...@aol.com > Full-name: Lutesoc > Message-ID: <c1c.560e9f1b.37368...@aol.com> > Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 03:11:21 EDT > Subject: Re: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Dutch theorbo painting online > To: theoj89...@aol.com > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="-----------------------------1241853081" > X-Mailer: AOL 9.0 VR sub 47 > > > -------------------------------1241853081 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > Alciati's book of emblems [1530s?] says a lute with a broken string means a > broken pact or discord - famous for it's use in Holbein painting. Or could > it be a vanitas / memento mori painting? > > best wishes > Chris Goodwin > > I didn't even notice the broken strings... > Such paintings were so often packed with subtle symbolism - > Does anyone have an idea why the painter would go to the trouble of > painting a lute with broken strings - what meaning would that convey? > > I'm intrigued- > > > > > -------------------------------1241853081 > Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> > <HTML><HEAD> > <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> > <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3354" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> > <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" > bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document > face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> > <DIV> > <DIV>Alciati's book of emblems [1530s?] says a lute with a broken string means > a > broken pact or discord - famous for it's use in Holbein painting. Or could it > be > a vanitas / memento mori painting?</DIV> > <DIV> </DIV> > <DIV>best wishes</DIV> > <DIV>Chris Goodwin </DIV> > <BLOCKQUOTE > style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT > style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I > didn't > even notice the broken strings...<BR>Such paintings were so often packed > with > subtle symbolism - <BR>Does anyone have an idea why the painter would go > to the trouble of painting a lute with broken strings - what meaning would > that convey?<BR><BR>I'm intrigued-</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> > <DIV></DIV> > <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML> > > -------------------------------1241853081-- > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
