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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