The Bagpiper, 1624
Oil on panel
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
This one of my favorite paintings. Hendrick ter Brugghen (sometimes spelled Terbrugghen) was from Utrecht but it's fairly obvious that in 1604, while in Italy, he either studied with or saw the paintings of Caravaggio.
Our piper, perhaps in the middle of playing a vigorous bransle, has thrown open his shirt to reveal a lovingly rendered shoulder, smudged from rubbing against the chanters of his pipes & glistening with a sheen of perspiration. The hands are beautifully modeled as well.
In an oblique way, this is also a sexy painting…
