# Concert on a Balcony [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HONTHORST, Gerrit van]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 168 x 178 cm ## Commentary Besides religious and mythological scenes Honthors painted in the 1620s in Utrecht at least one illusionistic ceiling, the Musical Group on a Balcony, which was done for his own house in Utrecht. The painting is the earliest existing Dutch illusionistic painted ceiling. Equally innovative for Holland is his illusionistic Concert on a Balcony. The 'trompe-l'oeil' picture, which decorated the Palace of Nordeinde, shows, in steep perspective, life-size musicians and their companions in an architectural setting, but this one was intended as illusionistic wall not a ceiling. The prototype for Dutch illusionistic fields of walls and ceilings is found in decorative schemes executed for high-placed patrons in Italy. The unmistakable source for Honthorst's illusionistic paintings is Orazio Gentileschi and Agostino Tassi's life-size trompe-l'oeil frescoes, painted in 1611-12 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese's garden 'Casino of the Muses', now part of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome. Honthorst had ample opportunity to study them when he worked for the Cardinal. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 10 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/17\_cent/monteverdi\_madrigal.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Claudio Monteverdi: Charming Angioletta, madrigal</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [A Merry Group behind a Balustrade \(detail\)]() - [A Merry Group behind a Balustrade]() - [Adoration of the Child]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Childhood of Christ]() - [Christ before the High Priest \(detail\)]() - [Christ before the High Priest]() - [Convival Fellow]() - [Frederick Hendrick, Prince of Orange, with His Wife Amalia van Solms and Their Three Youngest Daughters]() - [Granida and Daifilo]() - [Lute Player]() - [Margareta Maria de Roodere and Her Parents]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()