Vedere la Musica: Depictions of Music Making in the Sixteenth Century Italian Villa

The significance of daily musical activities in 16th-century Italy can be found in the letters, chronicles, dialogues, and treatises of the period. Villas, like those owned by the Boiardo and Costabili families,were decorated with musical imagery that parallels textual descriptions,such as that found in Cristoforo da Messisbugo's cookbook of 1529 (published 1549). The visual imagery found on the walls and ceiling of thePalazzo Costabili in Ferrara (1518-20); Nicolò dell'Abate's frescosfrom the Salone delle Feste in Rocca Nuova at Scandiano (1530s; GalleriaEstense, Modena); and Marcello Fogolino's works in the Castello Buonconsiglio, Trent (1530s) are compared with the written documents, in order to determine the function of the painted imagery.