Art Institute of Chicago

The Organ Player and His Wife

Israhel van Meckenem the Younger

Date: 1495–1503
Medium: Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Culture: Germany
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago

This husband-and-wife duo performs an intimate domestic concert, jointly playing a diminutive pipe organ with four stops. The wife operates the two bellows in time to the music, giving voice to the notes, while her husband creates the melody on the keyboard. He is clad in a housecoat and comfortable slippers and she wears a cozy fur-trimmed dress. Shown at the same scale and working in tandem, they symbolize a harmonious marriage. The little dog listening attentively is both an emblem of loyalty and a realistic detail of their well-to-do home.

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