As I’ve mentioned before, one of the things I’m always looking to do is upgrade the historical images on my site. The 3 pictures below are upgrades—the previous images I had were all black and white. I’ve included their captions for reference. You can see them in context in the Trombone History Timeline (17th century, 1601-1625) (17th century, 1626-1650), (19th century, 2nd half). As always, click on the image for a larger version.

1605-1609—Piacenza, Italy: A fresco by Ludovico Carracci and Camillo Procaccini (also attributed to Lorenzo Garbieri) on the ceiling of the Cathedral of Piacenza includes an angel playing trombone (see below image; public domain) (Brogi pl. 203; Neilson, Camillo Procaccini, Paintings and Drawings, pl. 147).

1650—Turin, Italy: Marriage festivities for Princess Adelaide of Savoy and Prince Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria include trombones. First, on the way to the Cathedral of San Giovanni for the service itself, “Swiss Guards and arquebusiers of Their Majesties…lent their presence to the retinue setting out for the cathedral from the great hall of the palace [along] with trumpets, trombones, oboes and drums.” After the wedding service there are “signals by trumpets and trombones to those present who, because of the huge crowd, couldn’t observe the nuptials.” Later, during a series of races in the palace courtyard, races alternate with musical performances by musicians in a gallery (see below image, an engraving by Tomasso Borgonio titled Gli Hercoli domatori; public domain): “From the other palace, above the gallery, among the various events alternating with the races was the reverberation of the sound of an ensemble of instruments; that is, trumpets which, animated by the virtue of such glorious love [of the newlyweds] became the voices of Fame; trombones, which, with harmonious notes echoed the praises of everyone, rousing more ardently by the hour the affections…” (Bowles 275-279; Tim Carter, North Italian 42).

c. 1855—Artist Albert Kindler includes a trombonist in his painting After the Wedding. The trombonist stands in the musicians’ boat in the background (see image below; public domain).