JAVS Summer 2025

Featured Article

The Forgotten Instrument by Jeanne Clausen

“The lira da braccio was one of the most important bowed string instruments of the Renaissance,” in the words of the distinguished musicologist Howard Mayer Brown. 1 Although the lira da braccio appears in over forty period paintings—testament to the high regard in which it was held—surprisingly little is known about the instrument today.

Figure 1 shows a drawing by the great fifteenth-century artist Raphael, offering an example of how intimately during the Renaissance the lira da braccio was integrated into artistic imagination and musical performance. The instrument’s prominence in luminous paintings reflects its esteemed status within Italian Humanist circles. Influenced by the grandeur of Antiquity, fifteenth-century artists and musicians sought to reconnect with the spirit of the Ancients. As Emanuel Winternitz observed, “more than any other instrument of the Italian Renaissance, the lira da braccio is associated with the attempted revival of ancient musical practice.” 2 By singing poetry to the accompaniment of the lira da braccio , Renaissance musicians were attempting to emulate the rhapsodic art of classical antiquity—specifically the tradition of reciting poetry while accompanying oneself on a harp. By adding a bow to this tradition, the Greek lyre was transformed into a “lyre of the arms,” or lira da braccio .

Figure 1. Seated Male Nude Playing the Lira da braccio by Raphael, c. 1510. Pen and ink over graphite, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France.

Figure 2. Greek Rhapsodist with his Lyre.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, Summer 2025 Online Issue

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