Child musicians

Cittadini, known as Il Milanese for his place of birth, was the most important figure in a family of painters who mostly painted still lifes. Although he was a noted portrait painter, in his own lifetime he was best known for his fine compositions of flowers, fruit, animals and landscapes — viewed scornfully by other painters of the time as inferior genres. Although the theme of Child Musicians is not in Cittadini’s preferred style, his predilection is nonetheless evident in the anecdotal presence of the parrot and the dog. The main figures in the work are four emphatically painted children, whose volumes are highlighted by the strong shadows used in the modelling of the faces. The group can be divided into two pairs: while the pair on the left gaze closely out at each other, those on the right are staring at the spectator.

Mikel Lertxundi Galiana

Inventory number: STM-000033-001