Georges de la Tour's 17^th century scuffle gets the ol’ art historical juices flowing

Georges de la Tour did more than just paint your characteristic chiaroscuro pictures of mournful dames casting shadows besides candlelight. This is essentially an early fine artsy version of a fist fight between Will.i.am versus Perez Hilton (see Top Ten Rap Fights Caught on Camera). Back in the 1600’s, the music world seemed to be as TMZ newsworthy as it currently is.

De la Tour places us smack in the middle of this musician’s brawl (hence the title…) and one can’t be entirely sure of the reason behind this intense fracas. Could it have been a case of who gets to stand in front? Or is it to do with some kind of financial disagreement? We’ll never know. But here’s what de la Tour does let us in on: there’s a hurdy-gurdy player fighting for dear life with a knife and holding up part of his instrument to block the onslaught of his musical opponent, the guy with the shawm, which was the ancient version of the oboe. He’s squirting the juice of a lemon into the hurdy-gurdyist’s eye, and you’re probably wondering why a potential salad dressing is his weapon of choice. This is to check if the person he’s up against is really and truly blind or whether he’s a fraud. Maybe that’s what started the fight in the first place!

Around them are onlookers whose expressions vary from amused to horrified. While the fiddler on the far left is a gleeful voyeur, alongside his smirky compadre, the lady beside the allegedly “blind” musician looks like she’s just screaming, “Make it stop, s’il vous plait!” She doesn’t look like a band member, but could definitely be an aged groupie. Or, realistically, she could be a guide to the blind dude. While the characters in the painting keep us guessing, one can’t help but admire the way de la Tour has pushed up all of these guys so close together in a shallow space, which increases the feeling of urgency and action in this painting!