Octave spinet
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Cypress body and soundboard, with sycamore bridge and pearwood wrest-plank; painted inside of lid and board above keys, with carved and gilded putti at each end of the keyboard
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
- Download image
Octave spinets were portable keyboard instruments, widely used in private homes in Italy throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to accompany singing. Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814), the great English musicologist of his day, wrote in 1771: 'the keys are so noisy, and the tone so feeble, that more wood is heard than wire'.
The inside lid of this example is painted with the tale of Arion and the Dolphin, a suitable decorative theme for a musical instrument, as the story tells of a famous singer, from ancient Greece, who was rescued by a dolphin after being robbed and thrown overboard by pirates.
Physical description
'The spinet can be removed from its outer case. The cypress is painted black, on which gold ground decoration is applied. There are sparse arabesques on the inner faces and a delicate arcaded pattern of portière motifs with figures on the panel behind the keyboard. Gilded cherubs form the key-blocks at the ends of the keyboard. The outer case, painted plain brown without, bears two paintings within on the lid and falling front. The larger painting shows a mythological scene, including a large ship and a merfolk. On the smaller hinged flap are depicted a number of dancing figures and musical trophies. (Some draperies added to the nude figures, presumably out of prudery, at some later date, were removed when the case was cleaned in 1964.) The outer case has a lining of cloth to protect the spinet as it is removed and replaced. The nameboard and mouldings are ebony, as is the jack-rail on which traces of the former decoration can still be discerned.
Howard Schott, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part I: Keyboard Instruments(London, 1978), p. 46.
Place of Origin
Italy (made)
Date
ca. 1600 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Cypress body and soundboard, with sycamore bridge and pearwood wrest-plank; painted inside of lid and board above keys, with carved and gilded putti at each end of the keyboard
Dimensions
Length: 71 cm front, Length: 75.6 cm back, Length: 162 cm bass end, Length: 43 cm treble end
Exhibition History
At Home in Renaissance Italy (Victoria and Albert Museum 05/10/2006-07/01/2007)
Labels and date
OCTAVE SPINET
About 1600; Italian
Body and soundboard of cypress, the name board decorated in grotesques. The painted inside of the lid illustrates the story of Arion and the Dolphin. The sharps are ebony and the naturals covered with ivory. The instrument's range is forty-five notes, C/E - c3.
Keyboard Catalogue No.: 11
Dr Burney reported in The Present State of Music in France and Italy (London: 1771) that with such instruments 'the keys are so noisy, and the tone so feeble, that more wood is heard than wire'.
218-1870 [pre September 2000]
Spinet
details to follow
Small keyboard instruments like this spinet were ideal for domestic use. Their softer sound meant that they were particularly recommended for women. Highly portable, they could be played anywhere in the house, often set upon a table. Although their cases were often painted, this is an unusually spectacular example, featuring Tritons and mermaids [5 Oct 2006 - 7 Jan 2007]
Production Note
When the instrument was acquired in 1870, the paintings were attributed to Frederigo Zucchero.
Materials
Gold leaf; Sycamore; Pearwood; Cypress
Techniques
Carving; Gilding; Joining
Subjects depicted
Ships; Dolphin; Mermaids; Mermen; Nereids; Pirates; Arion and the Dolphin
Categories
Musical instruments
Production Type
Unique
Collection code
FWK
