St. Cecilia, Playing the Organ

An Amsterdam painter and draftsman, Gerrit Pietersz., moved to Haarlem in about 1588-89, to train with Cornelis Cornelisz., a Mannerist artist whose work had a lasting influence on him. While in Haarlem, he made six prints that are arguably his most innovative and beautiful works. Although Pietrsz. was drawn to printmaking while in Haarlem, he, unlike his contemporaries, eschewed the sharp swelling and tapering lines characteristic of Mannerist engraving and turned to etching instead. In contrast to the hard brilliance of the engravings by Goltzius and his school, Pietersz.’s etchings are loose and exuberant. The lines seem almost to have a life of their own, as we can see in the looping curls of Joseph’s beard and hair in The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, or the bunched drapery of St. Cecilia’s sleeve in St. Cecilia Playing the Organ.




Printmaking was something of an experiment for Pietersz. He only executed six etchings during his entire career, five of which are dated 1593. All of his etchings are extremely rare, known only in a handful of impressions. The Met has four of his prints (one in a duplicate impression), more than any institution apart from the Albertina in Vienna and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.





St. Cecilia, one of the most famous early martyrs and the patron saint of musicians. She was the daughter of a noble Roman family who vowed to God to remain a virgin, but her parents forced her to marry a pagan. At her wedding, she heard divine music, sustaining her in her vow and subsequently converted her husband to Christianity. She eventually converted hundreds of other pagans but was martyred for her efforts.




St. Cecilia no doubt had personal meaning for Pietersz. because his brother, Jan PIetersz. Sweelinck, was a composer and organist, and his father was also an organist. Here Pietersz. sets Cecilia in the celestial rather than the worldly realm, accompanied by two young angels. She is seated at an organ, an instrument she was thought to have invented, though in fact it dates from a much earlier period.