Two Beggars Fighting
Jacques Bellange · 1610–20 · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Since antiquity, music was considered to inspire two different effects: it could elevate the soul to spiritual thoughts, or arouse passions both violent and sensual. In this genre scene, two transients engage in an epic struggle. The hurdy-gurdy, slung across the body of one of the vagabonds, was considered a "base" instrument whose melodies heated the senses without uplifiting the spirit. In his Syntagma Musicum of 1618, the musical theorist Michael Praetorius dubbed the hurdy-gurdy a "fiddle for peasants and loose women."
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC0
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Details
- Maker
- Jacques Bellange (French, c. 1575–1616)
- Date
- 1610–20
- Medium
- etching
- Place of origin
- France
- Held by
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · Not on view
- Credit line
- Fortieth Anniversary Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in honor of William Mathewson Milliken
Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0
More by Jacques Bellange
Shown in
- Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and PrintsJan 25, 2015 – May 17, 2015
- Generous Donors: A Tribute to The Print Club of ClevelandApr 2, 1991 – Aug 4, 1991
- Rococo, Revolution, RestorationJul 11, 1989 – Sep 24, 1989
- Images of the MindJul 7, 1987 – Aug 30, 1987
- French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792Feb 2, 1982 – May 16, 1982
