On the 26th of April 2017, Art History PhD student and lutenist Adam Busiakiewicz presented a public talk on Ter Brugghen's Lute Player at the National Gallery in London.

The lute was used by painters to express various ideas in their works, apart from the obvious allusions to harmony and discord. The musical associations with Orpheus, the melter-of-hearts, would not have been lost on the contemporary audience of this painting. Various symbolic links to notions of youth, flippancy and the transience of life and worldly pleasures are also all associated with the mythology of the instrument and its music. Paintings such as Ter Brugghen’s Lutenist allow us to open up a world of understanding how music was appreciated and consumed in the past.

The talk was accompanied by several live performances of lute music relevant to the period and themes of the painting.