Caravaggio next worked with Monsignor Fantin Petrignani, who allowed him the use of a room in which to paint. Later, around 1595-1597, thanks to the art dealer Maestro Valentino, his work caught the attention of Cardinal del Monte, and from then on the artist was under his protection[31]. He was welcomed with magnanimity into the Cardinal’s home, where he benefited from this new environment. His entry to the palace, where he rubbed shoulders with scientists, in particular Galileo, musicians and artists in pursuit of innovation, allowed him to develop new forms of expression. He painted a “group of young musicians, portraits painted from life, very well made” for the Cardinal, which launched a new form of genre painting with music as the subject, which was common right into the 18th century. Of course there were occasional isolated forerunners on this subject, notably a concert (from the 15th century) with a mandolin player and a man and a woman singing, pictured from the waist upwards, attributed to Ercole dei Roberti[32]. In the same way, on the theme of “The Prodigal Son”, there are several similar subjects in the Nordic art of the early 16th century, for example in the works of Hemessen and Lucas van Leyden[33]. As for members of the Venetian School, they had depicted similar subjects in a nobler way, such as Giorgione’s depiction of a concert in the Palazzo Pitti and another concert by one of Titian’s successors in the National Gallery in London.

 

However, Caravaggio used his own means to lift this genre to the height of an almost tendentious monumentality. A number of such Musiche – the attribution of which are not completely certain – are thought to be in English private collections, such as a concert with an old man with a lute, a younger man with a flute, and a singing boy in the collection of Lord Ashburton[34]. In Chatsworth House there is a concert of guitar and flute players with a singer, who is holding a full glass in his hand, which was previously attributed to Caravaggio but is now thought to be the work of one of his disciples, the great Valentin de Boulogne[35]. In Kassel there are two similar depictions of concerts[36]. Baglione mentions another painting, depicting a young man with a flute, which Caravaggio may also have made for the Cardinal, but whose attribution is still contested. In this painting he intensified his skill in imitation in competition with the Nordic artists, as in all the paintings of this genre. Remarkable also in the work is the vase of flowers, in whose water is reflected the window and other objects in the room. Baglione states that these works were created “with an exquisite application”, recognising the great art of his adversary in the courts. The Musicians highlights the elegant setting that would evolve within Caravaggio’s work from then on. Vegetables, fruit and other still-life objects were exchanged for lutes and violins. However, this genre is in no way naive.