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This is the earliest surviving piano

"It's completely intuitive; it's very responsive; it's incredibly intimate."

"It's completely intuitive; it's very responsive; it's incredibly intimate."

Curator Bradley Strauchen-Scherer on the Grand Piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the piano.

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/501788

Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world.

Photography by Joseph Coscia, Jr.

Rights & Permissions
"Les Cyclopes" by Jean-Philippe Rameau; Elaine Comparone, harpsichord; David Barnes, recording engineer; Steve Jambeck, videographer; A Harpsichord Unlimited Production. Copyright 2009
Grand Piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori (89.4.1219) played by Cristofori Dongsok Shin at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 13, 2013."The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, Courtesy Shout! Factory
Performance of Giga of Sonata number 6 in B flat major by Lodovico Guistini (1685-1743) by Dongsok Shin at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 13, 2013.
Production support was provided by The Donna and Marvin Schwartz Foundation

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Contributors

Bradley Strauchen-Scherer
Associate Curator, Department of Musical Instruments

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Grand Piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori  Italian, Cypress, boxwood, paint, leather, fir, Italian (Florence)
Bartolomeo Cristofori
1720