The Lute Player (Caravaggio)

The Hermitage version, Saint Petersburg Musicians love this one for a detail most viewers miss: the open part-book on the table is real music. The bass part has been identified as a madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt, Voi sapete ch'io v'amo, "You know that I love you," which tells you exactly what kind of song the young player is singing to his lute. A violin rests beside the music, and the whole table reads like an ensemble waiting for its other members. Caravaggio painted the subject more than once, and in the Wildenstein version the music changes to songs by Francesco de Layolle on a text by Petrarch, so it pays to know which one you are looking at.