Frans Hals, Singing Boy with Flute, c. 1623

Frans Hals, Singing Boy with Flute, c. 1623, oil on canvas, 68.8 x 55.2 cm (Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

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