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Ambulant Musicians
(Baroque Europe )
The young beggars play musical instruments and sing in the street of an Italian town. Their poverty is realistic, as are their surroundings. While in the later 1600s there was increasing interest in the depiction of the poor, often for their "picturesque" qualities, in paintings to be purchased by the affluent, the particular approach and style seen here are characteristic of the artist, Pasquale de' Rossi (1641-1725). The artist primarily worked in Rome. The painting was at one time thought to be Spanish and attributed to Pedro Nuñez de Villavicencio (1635-1700) or Bartolomé Estéban Murillo (1617-1682). For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue, "Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery," vol. II, no. 337, p. 462.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 494, as Murillo]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 3/21/1966 | Treatment | inpainted; varnish removed or reduced |
| 3/5/1991 | Examination | examined for condition |
| 2/18/1992 | Examination | examined for condition |
Geographies
Italy, Rome (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H: 13 11/16 x W: 10 1/8 in. (34.8 x 25.7 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.285