Music, allegory of conjugal harmony

Depicting music as an allegory of conjugal harmony reflected a Renaissance and Baroque tradition linking the consonance of musical intervals to the harmony of well-matched marriage. The metaphor appeared in emblem books, wedding poetry, and learned iconographic programmes across Europe. Van Thulden painted this work in 1652 for the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, likely on a commission related to a marriage celebration or the furnishing of a domestic space. The use of musical instruments as a framing device was well established in Flemish art — lutes, viols, and keyboard instruments regularly appeared in vanitas and love allegories — and Van Thulden brings this tradition to bear on a specifically marital theme. The work's presence in a Belgian royal collection suggests it remained in Flemish institutional ownership from early in its history.

The allegorical figure of Music likely holds or plays an instrument while other symbolic elements — paired birds, intertwined flowers, an entwined cord — reinforce the marriage theme. Van Thulden's handling of musical instruments is characteristically precise: he renders wood, metal strings, and pegs with the same material care he gives to fabric and flesh. The warm domestic palette suits the subject's intimate celebratory tone.