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About This Work
A collection of musical instruments lies scattered and damaged on the ground. A stringed viol with a carved animal-head scroll, a triangle, and wooden pipes are shown with realistic cracks and structural damage. The bare and sandaled feet of robed figures stand among the wreckage, which occupies the lower foreground of the larger composition.
In Renaissance Neoplatonism, these broken instruments symbolize the rejection of earthly music (musica instrumentalis) in favor of the divine or celestial music (musica mundana) perceived by the soul in a state of ecstasy. This reflects the philosophical hierarchy of the senses where material beauty is merely a shadow of higher spiritual truths.