Man playing the Theorbo

The instrument filling this little panel is a theorbo, a bass lute so long-necked that its extra strings run past the pegbox on a second head, the deep-voiced anchor of a 17th-century chamber ensemble. The man tuning it is usually taken to be van Mieris himself, who painted his own features into several pictures around this time. He made it in 1676, in Leiden, at the height of his fame, when collectors as far off as Florence were paying gentleman's prices for panels this size. Look for the sheen along the instrument's belly, the varnished wood catching the light against a plain dark ground.