1566

Giorgio Vasari’s image of a muse holding an instrument features what both Edmund Bowles and David Guion label an alto trombone. The image is associated with a performance of The Genealogy of the Gods for the wedding festivities of Prince Francesco de’ Medici and Johanna of Austria (see below image; public domain) (Bowles, Musical Ensembles 55; Guion, A History 127). Stewart Carter, apparently reluctant to call it an alto trombone, says the following: “The trombone in this illustration—very small, with an oddly truncated bell—may have been a theatrical prop, not a real instrument” (Carter, The Trombone in the Renaissance). However, research has shown that 1) “very small” trombones existed within only a few years of this date (see, for example, 1594 and 1597, below, from Carter’s own book), 2) additional iconography from the time period also depicts relatively small trombones (see 1496, 1564, 1595, etc.), and 3) another depiction of a trombonist by the same artist, Giorgio Vasari, is also relatively awkward, but, counter to Carter’s logic, the instrument is clearly not a prop (the man is actually playing the instrument in an ensemble); see this blog post to view the painting.