Musical Group on a Balcony

Honthorst was born in Utrecht; there he was Abraham Bloemaert’s pupil. He is said to have been in Rome as early as 1610-12, but he is not documented there until 1616. Nothing is known about his artistic activity until the last year of the decade, and not a work painted before he went to south has been discovered. He became the best-known Dutch follower of Caravaggio. A typical example of his religious paintings executed in Italy is the Christ before the High Priest (National Gallery, London).

Though Honthorst continued to depict scenes from the Scripture after his return to Utrecht in 1620, the religious pictures he made in Rome are from many points of view the climax of his work as a painter of biblical themes. During the 1620s he painted works in the arcadian mode which shows that he had looked at the Carracci as well as the Caravaggio while in Italy. Besides religious and mythological scenes he painted at least one illusionistic ceiling, Musical Group on a Balcony, which was done for his own house in Utrecht. The painting, only partially preserved, is the earliest existing Dutch illusionistic painted ceiling.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Georg Muffat: Concerto grosso No. 9, VI Borea