Lute

A lute is a plucked string instrument featuring a neck and a deep round back that encloses a hollow cavity, typically with a sound hole. It may be fretted or unfretted, and its strings run in a plane parallel to the sound table. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, the term denotes a broad category of necked chordophones, encompassing both long-necked and short-necked varieties. More specifically, the word commonly refers to the family of European lutes, which were profoundly influenced by short-necked Gandhara lutes from modern-day Pakistan, the predecessors of the Islamic, Sino-Japanese, and European lute families. The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud share a common ancestor but diverged over centuries. As a relatively small instrument, the lute produces a quiet sound, and its player is known as a lutenist, while its maker is called a luthier.

The lute appears in 173 works within the collection. The instrument is depicted across a broad range of genres and formats, reflecting its widespread cultural presence. Examples of works featuring the lute include The Musicians, Vanitas Still Life with the Spinario, Virgin and Child with Four Angels, The Dissolute Household, Self-Portrait as a Lute Player, Virgin and Child in an Apse, The Triumph of Death, A Musical Party, Woman with a Lute, and Allegory of Music. The collection also preserves physical historic instruments, such as a lute made in Egypt between 200 and 500 during the Roman or Byzantine period. Carved from wood with traces of paint, this artifact measures 4 3/4 by 1 7/16 by 28 13/16 inches.

The lute's treatment and construction evolved significantly from antiquity through the Baroque period. Archaeological evidence, including a cylinder seal from around 3100 BC, places early long and short lutes in Mesopotamia, with subsequent developments in Egyptian, Gandharan, and Persian cultures. The instrument entered Europe via Moorish Spain and the Crusades, initially retaining the plectrum playing style of the Arabic oud. Around 1500, European players adopted finger plucking and added frets, enabling true polyphony. During the Renaissance, the lute was considered the queen of instruments and was central to secular music. Over the 16th and 17th centuries, composers continually added courses, expanding the instrument from four or five courses in the Middle Ages to six, then ten, and eventually eleven courses in the Baroque era. Alternate tunings, such as the d-minor tuning, replaced older quartal tunings in the 17th century. By the 18th century, the lute was eclipsed by keyboard and other stringed instruments, and it was eventually replaced by the guitar during the Romantic period.

Notable historical lutes survive in museum collections, offering concrete examples of the instrument's depiction and construction. A prominent example is a lute attributed to a member of the Tieffenbrucker family, a major dynasty of Renaissance stringed-instrument makers originally from the Fussen region of Bavaria. Built as a bass instrument with eight or ten double courses, it was later modified in the 18th century to have thirteen courses. Its back is made of thirty-seven bicolor yew ribs, a hallmark of Tieffenbrucker craftsmanship. The instrument remained in heavy use for centuries, necessitating the replacement of its original soundboard before the museum acquired it in 1989. Another significant survivor is a lute built by Wendelin Tieffenbrucker in Padua around 1590, which originally had seven or eight courses before being converted to ten or eleven.

Although the lute fell from mainstream use by the 19th century, its legacy experienced a significant revival. The early 20th century saw the guitar-lute become popular among the Wandervogel and youth music movements in Germany. More substantially, the rediscovery of early music in the 20th century spurred a broader revival of the instrument in its various historical forms. Today, luthiers and scholars rely on surviving historical instruments housed in museums and private collections to reconstruct and study the lute. Because original soundboards are typically too thin to withstand string tension, very few historic lutes remain in playing condition. To aid preservation and study, organizations have compiled extensive online databases of surviving instruments, and festivals are held to promote interest in lute performance.