The Musicians

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1595

Oil on canvas, 92.1 × 118.4 cm

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Room I · The Early Years (c. 1592–1597)

Four youths prepare to play, one tuning a lute, another reading a score; the winged boy on the left is Cupid gathering grapes. It was painted for Cardinal del Monte, a great lover of music, and the youth behind the horn may be a self-portrait.