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Thursday, June 29, 2023
Man with Two Flutes
An original of "Man with Two Flutes" was recently sold for $1200.
It does look like he is playing two flutes simultaneously, which is very evocative of the Classical world. They can be combined into one instrument which the Italians call a flauto doppio (a double flute). These look as if they are the same, but many flauti doppi had different tones, one to provide a drone in a lower register and the other in higher tone to provide the melody. (This is the origin of the bagpipe, which works on the same principle, except that the wind is provided by the bag - which is one of the major indicators of Celtic origin.) Europe was slap, bang, wallop in the middle of a Classical Revival at the time this photograph was taken, except that for the Italians, it was quite literally their history. I'm not surprised it went for that pretty sum. It's worth it.
You could argue that he has three flutes.
ReplyDeleteYes, but one of them is not being played at the moment.
DeleteIt does look like he is playing two flutes simultaneously, which is very evocative of the Classical world. They can be combined into one instrument which the Italians call a flauto doppio (a double flute). These look as if they are the same, but many flauti doppi had different tones, one to provide a drone in a lower register and the other in higher tone to provide the melody. (This is the origin of the bagpipe, which works on the same principle, except that the wind is provided by the bag - which is one of the major indicators of Celtic origin.) Europe was slap, bang, wallop in the middle of a Classical Revival at the time this photograph was taken, except that for the Italians, it was quite literally their history. I'm not surprised it went for that pretty sum. It's worth it.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who already plays seven instruments, including the flute. He is about to take bagpipe lessons at age 71.
Delete