This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

The Musicians

Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c. 1595
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	92 cm × 118.5 cm (36 in × 47 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

The Musicians (c. 1595) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). It is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Caravaggio entered the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte sometime in 1595. His biographer, the painter Baglione, says he "painted for the Cardinal youths playing music very well drawn from nature and also a youth playing a lute," the latter presumably being The Lute Player, which seems to form a companion-piece to The Musicians. The picture shows four boys in quasi-Classical costume, three playing various musical instruments or singing, the fourth dressed as Cupid and reaching towards a bunch of grapes.The central figure with the lute has been identified as Caravaggio's companion Mario Minniti, and the individual next to him and facing the viewer has been recognised as a self-portrait of the artist. The cupid bears a strong resemblance to the boy in Boy Peeling Fruit, done a few years before, and also to the angel in Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy.

Scenes showing musicians were a popular theme at the time - the Church was supporting a revival of music and new styles and forms were being tried, especially by educated and progressive prelates such as Del Monte. This scene, however, is clearly secular rather than religious. The manuscripts show that the boys are practicing madrigals celebrating love, and the eyes of the lutenist, the principal figure, are moist with tears--the songs presumably describe the sorrow of love rather than its pleasures. The violin in the foreground suggests a fifth participant, implicitly including the viewer in the tableau.

This was Caravaggio's most ambitious and complex composition to date, and the artist has evidently had difficulties with painting the four figures separately - they don't relate to each other or to the picture-space, and the overall effect is somewhat clumsy. The painting is in poor condition, and the music in the manuscript has been badly damaged by past restorations, although a tenor and an alto part can be made out. Nevertheless, it remains one of the artist's most popular pieces.

v • d • e Caravaggio List of works 1593–1594 Boy Peeling Fruit (c. 1592) · Young Sick Bacchus (c. 1593) · Boy with a Basket of Fruit · The Fortune Teller (Buona ventura) (c. 1594) · Cardsharps (I bari) (c. 1594) 1595–1599 the Del Monte paintings The Musicians (c. 1595) · Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (c. 1595) · Saint Francis in Meditation (c. 1595) · Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1596) · Apollo the Lute Player (c. 1596) · The Lute Player (c. 1596) · Bacchus (c. 1596) · Penitent Magdalene (c. 1597) · Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1597) · Medusa (c. 1597) · Portrait of a Courtesan (Fillide Melandroni) (c. 1597) · Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597) · The Fortune Teller (c. 1597–98) · Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1598) · The Sacrifice of Isaac (Princeton version) (c. 1598) · John the Baptist (c. 1598) · Martha and Mary Magdalene (c. 1598) · Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (1598) · Basket of Fruit (c. 1599) · Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1599) · David and Goliath (c. 1599) · Narcissus (c. 1599) · Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1600) 1600–1606 Most famous painter in Rome The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) · The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) · The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600) · The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601) · The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601) · Supper at Emmaus (London) (1601) · The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew · Amor Victorious (1602) · Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602) · The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) · John the Baptist (Capitoline) (1602) · John the Baptist (Pamphilij) (c. 1602) · The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1602) · The Taking of Christ (1602) · Saint Francis in Meditation (Cappuccini) (c. 1603) · The Entombment of Christ (c. 1603) · The Sacrifice of Isaac (1603) · Madonna of Loreto (Madonna dei Pellegrini, Pilgrims' Madonna) (c. 1604) · John the Baptist (Kansas City) (1604) · John the Baptist (Palazzo Corsini) (1604) · The Crowning with Thorns (Prato) (1604) · The Death of the Virgin (1604) · Christ on the Mount of Olives (1605) · Ecce Homo (c. 1605) · Saint Jerome in Meditation (c. 1605) · Saint Jerome Writing (Borghese) (c. 1605) · Portrait of Pope Paul V (1605) · Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge (1605) · Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Madonna de Palafrenieri, Grooms' Madonna) (1606) 1606–1608 Naples and Malta Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy (1606) · Saint Francis in Prayer (Cremona) (1606) · Supper at Emmaus (Milan) (1606) · The Seven Works of Mercy (1606) · The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew (1607) · David with the Head of Goliath (Vienna) (1607) · Madonna of the Rosary (1607) · The Crowning with Thorns (Vienna) (1607) · The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1607) · Christ at the Column (c. 1607) · Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London) (c. 1607) · Saint Jerome Writing (Valletta) (1607) · Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page (1607–1608) · Portrait of Fra Antionio Martelli (1608) · The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) · Sleeping Cupid (1608) · John the Baptist (John the Baptist at the Fountain) (1608) 1608–1610 Sicily and Naples The Annunciation (1608) · Burial of St. Lucy (1608) · The Raising of Lazarus (1609) · Adoration of the Shepherds (1609) · Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (1609) · Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid) (1609) · Denial of Saint Peter (1610) · John the Baptist (Borghese) (1610) · The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610) · David with the Head of Goliath (1610) Works attributed to Caravaggio Still Life with Flowers and Fruit · John the Baptist (Reclining) (1610) · The Tooth Puller (1607–1609) · John the Baptist (Basel) · Boy Peeling a Fruit (c. 1593) · Holy Family with St. John the Baptist · Cardsharps (pre-1594)