The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 30, 2023

The Organ Player and His Wife

1495–1500

Israhel van Meckenem

(German, c. 1440–1503)

Germany, 15th century

Engraving

Image: 16.6 x 11 cm (6 9/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Sheet: 16.6 x 11 cm (6 9/16 x 4 5/16 in.)

Delia E. Holden Fund 1960.73

Catalogue raisonné: Lehrs IX.397.507

State: undescribed state/III

Location

not on view

Description

In a cozy, domestic setting, an organ player plays a portative with four registers. His wife operates the two bellows, producing the wind that gives the instrument its sound. The activity of one would be inconceivable and pointless without the other. The music they create together--as well as the faithful dog placed prominently in the foreground--refers to marital harmony.

Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 108 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 108 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 87 archive.org
Exhibition history

Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).

Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).

Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 2-August 2, 1987).

Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.73