PIETER CODDE (Amsterdam 1599 – Amsterdam 1678)
A Musical Company
signed with conjoined initials PC on the book in the lower left
oil on panel
12.2 x 16 inches (31 x 40.6 cm.)
In the Company of Music
Music. The sound track of our lives. Where words fail, music speaks. The quotes are countless and the words likely ring true for many of us. Music plays an integral part of most of our lives. People pick music to express emotion at every major event in life. Weddings, funerals, special birthdays; all sorts of occasions have a built-in sound we have chosen.
Music has always been woven into society. The origins of music go back as far as man himself, with instruments dating to the Late Stone Age (50,000 – 12,000 years ago) and song thought to pre-date this. Even from its earliest beginnings it has been tied to emotions. Often intertwined with some sort of faith, religion allowed music to develop technically, if not creatively.
Traveling entertainers in the Dark and Middle Ages performed music outside of the confines of religion in a more secular environment. This gave music an opportunity to be tied to feelings other than religious ones. Further on through time, in the Netherlands music increased its link with personal emotions. Calvinists frowned on music during church services, so complexity waned, but the existence did not. Simplistic music was produced in song books and played as entertainment in all levels of society.
So, what made the paintings of Musical Company scenes so popular? Just like the joy and emotional outlet of music after the plague, the joy of visuals and sounds celebrating the wealth and stability of the country is one likely reason. People were ready to embrace their hard work and success. The idea that after 80 years of war and repression, they were able to live in a ‘free’ society – many felt –gave them optimism. Musical Companies were romantic, just like music itself. They romanticized everything from morality, courtship, and wealth to domestic life, all rolled into one picture.
If people already had an emotional connection to music, why wouldn’t they have a connection to a painting of people playing and singing music? That it helped their social standing too didn’t hurt. To have a beautiful ‘Musical Company’ on your wall, like this one, meant you had arrived and you were proud of it! It meant you believed in morality (as so many had small moral messages) but it also meant you believed in romance, success and joie de vivre.
The appetite for Musical Companies eventually moved on as the bourgeois found other ways to show their emotional and social clout. As prolific as he was, Pieter Codde isn’t on record painting another Musical Company after 1638. In all likelihood, having achieved financial success he only took work on commission. We should not underestimate the importance of Codde providing us with these vibrant Musical Company scenes. It may not be a soundtrack to our lives, but it is a sound track to their lives. Musical Companies are a window into the soul of a Dutch middle class craving joy, love, moral direction and status! It really is true, people never change. Music and art weaving through history. We would be nothing without them both.
28 April, 2022
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