Putti with a Small Keyboard Instrument and Music Books 1597 - 1630

Daniele Crespi made this pen and brown ink drawing of Putti with a Small Keyboard Instrument and Music Books in Italy, sometime around the 1620s. Crespi lived in Milan during a period of reform for the Catholic Church. You might describe the mood of the time as newly serious. Art was regarded as a tool for moral instruction. And as a good Milanese painter, Crespi's religious scenes tend to be especially pious and emotionally restrained. In this drawing, the artist is imagining heavenly figures enjoying the pleasures of music-making. But who would have seen this image? Was it made for public display? Or was it a preparatory sketch? Art historians might ask, what other kinds of musical instruments were popular at this time? What did the institutions of the church think of musical expression? To learn more about Crespi and the art of the era, we can consult original documents, biographies, and critical analyses. By studying the culture, we can see how art and society reflect each other.