Boccherini at the Gallery: Melbourne (AUSTRALIA)

Ahhhh.. this is a luxury that my wife and I haven't had for quite some time. A weekend away without the kids... this wasn't possible for us in Europe, partly because the kids were too young to just leave with babysitters, and also because it would be just too expensive.

However, now that we are back in the land of the family network of support... we are able to look after cousins, and in return... sometimes the relatives are able to watch our kids as well. And that means that my wife and I can get away for a weekend. Well, the object of the getaway was work for me, and for my wife... well, she was looking at a piano that she was interested in purchasing. So, there was more to it than just a sneaky second honeymoon!

But it was nice to have free days to just go and do things together. And one thing that we did manage to do was to visit the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Now, we did spend a few hours there... so, I do have quite a bit to show... but for this post, I will just show a couple of music related paintings. Partly because they are pretty interesting and important historical relics for musicians... and partly because I have to get on stage in a little bit, and so I can't really sit and write a lot of things in that time!

Anyway, the above painting is of a famous late-Baroque cellist, Luigi Boccherini. Boccherini was the master of the cello back in the late Baroque period, and even to this day... he is revered as the first virtuoso of the tenor instrument... born in Italy, he spent most of his life in the Spanish city of Madrid.... and Spain was a huge influence on his compositions, with many of the pieces evoking and imitating the various sounds-scapes of the Spanish life.

... and the National Gallery of Victoria has this single rare portrait of the grand cello master by an unknown contemporary painter (possibly Italian?). Most of the visiting cellists to this southern Australian city will immediately make a beehive to pay homage to this painting of the master!

And we were lucky on this visit to have the painting out on display for us to see!

Meanwhile, sitting right next door is a similar era Baroque painting of famous Baroque opera singers. Farinell is the main focus of the painting, but he is surrounded by equally famous stars of the period!

I'm not entirely sure what the sitting was for... but I understand it might have been the cast for a particular opera at the time. So, in some ways... an early marketing poster!

Anyway, I will have to quickly get dressed and dash to the concert hall... probably shouldn't be late for the concert!