Mandora

Date:: ca. 1420

Geography:: Milan?, Italy

Culture:: Italian

Medium:: Boxwood, rosewood, ebony

Dimensions:: Height: 14 3/16 in. (36 cm) Width: 3 3/4 in. (9.6 cm) Depth: 3 1/8 in. (8 cm)

Classification:: Chordophone-Lute

Credit Line:: Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964

Accession Number:: 64.101.1409

Not on view

This is the most elegant example of three similar, extant small stringed instruments that date from the early fifteenth century. Originally the instrument would have been strung with five strings, but whether it was played with a bow or plucked with a plectrum or fingers, remains unclear. The carved imagery relates to courtly romance and probably alludes to the rewards of fidelity in love. Cupid, armed with bow and arrow, hovers over the couple, a young man represented as falconer (the falcon denotes loyalty and trust) and a maiden with unbound hair who clasps his arm. A dog, likewise suggesting loyalty, sits at their feet. The rich iconography of the instrument unites art and music in the service of romance.

Irwin Untermyer , New York ; E. de Miller-Aichholz , Vienna ; Albert Figdor , Vienna ; Oscar Bondy , Vienna

Jayson Kerr Dobney, Bradley Strauchen-Scherer. Musical Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First Printing. @2015 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New York, 2015, pp. 46-47, ill.

"Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (2011), pg. 5-6, ill.

"Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1978), Vol. XXXV, No. 3, pg. 34-35, ill.

Musical Instruments of the Western World. McGraw Hill Book Company. New York, Toronto, 1967, pg. 48, 51, fig. 4, ill.

Essays
Art and Love in the Italian Renaissance
Courtship and Betrothal in the Italian Renaissance
Music in the Renaissance
Nuptial Furnishings in the Italian Renaissance
Renaissance Violins

Timelines
Venice and Northern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Highlights of the Untermyer Collection of English and Continental Decorative Arts
Medieval Art: A Resource for Educators
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, Europe in the Middle Ages
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 4, The Renaissance in Italy and Spain
Musical Instruments: Highlights of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"Musical Instruments in the Metropolitan Museum": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 35, no. 3 (Winter, 1977–1978)
The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages