A group of elegantly dressed people playing the piano and other instruments 1740 - 1768

Curator: What an intriguing scene we have here. This print, titled "A group of elegantly dressed people playing the piano and other instruments", was created by Bartolomeo Crivellari sometime between 1740 and 1768. Editor: It strikes me as terribly formal, but there’s an air of mischievousness about it too, don’t you think? Like they’re all in on a joke we’re not privy to. Curator: Absolutely. The engraving itself lends a certain gravity. Look at the clothing—all so detailed—they just couldn't achieve that free and informal look, though perhaps they wished they could. Do you agree? Editor: I think you're right that engravings capture detail well but they also add social significance to things depicted. Prints like this one, broadly speaking, had a role in shaping visual culture, standardizing imagery and circulating specific class ideals in this case to be copied and consumed in various levels of society. You see, there are also some sentences and I wonder if these are clues for the public's perception, they translate as "How agile are the beautiful fingers / of her who touches the harpsichord/ With that candid nimble hand!" Curator: The music, in the air it seems... What kind of feelings do these lines inspire? Editor: Sensuality perhaps? And with the harpsichord as the literal and figurative keyboard? I love how prints can do that: make me wonder. Overall, seeing those little marks carefully and meticulously layered gets me in a reflective mood as I trace the layers of thought behind this work. What do you take away from seeing this piece, considering all of our discussion points? Curator: Well, seeing this has definitely changed my mind; I'm not so sure that they wish they had had looser garments or poses! Now it's even clearer, that what we have in front of us is an idealized image which reflects not so much the real society, but their collective ambitions to convey a noble appearance. Thanks for pointing this out.