ticketsMember | Make a donation

Musicians and Soldiers

ca. 1625–27
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The seventeenth-century scholar Robert Burton wrote, "Music is a sovereign remedy against despair and Melancholy." Two of the figures have been adapted from the allegorical Musical Party (on view nearby), but the composition is more open and dispersed: the figures appear to be absorbed in their own world. Rather than an allegory of the four ages of man, the picture suggests the inadequacy of wine and music to dispel a melancholic state. With what gravity the gypsy beats her tambourine!

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Musicians and Soldiers
  • Artist: Valentin de Boulogne (French, Coulommiers-en-Brie 1591–1632 Rome)
  • Date: ca. 1625–27
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 61 × 78 3/4 in. (155 × 200 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Musées de Strasbourg
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings