A Seated Man Playing a Guitar Gm-25599101

Pietro Antonio Novelli (Italian, 1729–1804) A well-dressed young man serenades his beloved outside her window. With his feathered cap and the abundant folds of his cape flowing to the ground, the guitarist makes a striking visual statement against a plain backdrop. His body faces the lover's window, but he turns his head toward the viewer granting access to his confident, comfortable gaze.

The object of his musical affection is not shown. But in the lower margin, an inscription in Venetian dialect narrates the man's actions. Loosely translated it reads: To relieve the beloved of her longing, he sings while scratching the guitar. The work's inscription seems innocent enough, but the words smara and chittara had rather vulgar meanings in Venetian slang of the period. The phallic guitar reinforces these salacious undertones. That the entire scene is placed within a lined border suggests that the drawing served as a design for a print and was perhaps part of a series of engravings illustrating bawdy Venetian sayings.

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Our Giclée Prints are printed here in Switzerland, one at a time, on heavy matte German art paper using the finest 12-color Canon archival inks. Some images are panoramic or tall and narrow—please select the 18" x 36" format for these.

Our Premium Museum Frame in Black is custom-made in Lugano, Switzerland, using natural wood moulding in a matte black satin finish. Each includes thick, hand-cut white mat boards and Plexiglass glazing. We tailor and print each image to fit its specific ratio and dimensions within our custom-made frames. The hand-cut mats are extra thick. Each bespoke museum frame ships in a custom box. Rush shipping is available for projects with tight deadlines—this is our specialty, and you will not be disappointed.

Our Antiqued Museum Frame in Gold is a high-quality frame made of solid wood, featuring traditional 19th-century cast plaster moulded details and closed corners. These frames are works of art in themselves, each with a unique patina. The hand-rubbed corners and gold finish evoke the elegance of times past. Your selected image is printed on German art paper with archival inks and mounted to quality art board within the frame. Plexiglass is added for print protection and the back is covered with Kraft paper and a hanger is supplied ready to hang..

Our Stretched Canvas prints are hand-stretched over 1.25" thick pine bars and printed with archival inks on a cotton-poly matte finish canvas. These are best-in-industry Swiss-quality canvases, hand-coated for UV protection.

Wall Murals are printed on a matte-finish, self-adhesive poly/fabric material that mounts easily and is ideal for smooth wall surfaces.

Our Note Cards are amazing—each is printed individually on 100% cotton art paper, comes with a kraft envelope, and is individually sleeved. (Image is scaled to fit the format.)

All of our images are digitized from the original negative or print and printed by our master printer to museum standards.

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Artwork in this collection is from The J. Paul Getty Museum. Reproduction rights are reserved by the copyright owner and used under license by Archivea GmbH.