It's as if he's saying,
"No, no more. I don't want to play
yet another song." [laughing]
You imagine that he's been singing
and playing the flute
so beautifully that
his audience is asking for more
Well look at the pleasure on his face
he looks so self-satisfied
He's just turned away,
his hand is up
The other hand is still on the flute
as if he's just stopped with his finger
in one of its holes
I can't possibly play another.
[laughs] Or, he could just be pausing
and singing
Which is a standard type
that we see in 17th century Dutch paintings
The thing, of course, that carries this painting
is the brushwork
its sense of formality, its sense of the momentary
the way in which the fluidity
of the artist's hand moving through
this canvas, and the motion
of the figure himself
are so beautifully brought together.
I thought what you were going to say
what carries this painting is the feather
[chuckles] Okay. Because it's so wild,
this giant white feather
that completes this circular form
that starts down by his mouth
There's all that space above,
so that his face is even
slightly lower than center
also the sense of the space to move in
that the artist has only captured this one frame
there are plenty of other things
that are going around outside of what
we could see