Follower of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

A 17^th century copy after Caravaggio's original now in the Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth (see J. Spike, Caravaggio, New York and London 2001, p. 37, cat. no. 4, reproduced pp.38-39). Caravaggio’s original (94.2 by 130.9 cm.) is among his most popular and influencial compositions and along with its likely pendant, the “Fortune Teller” (99 by 131cm), can be dated to circa 1594. They were quickly acquired by one of Caravaggio's most important patrons Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte (1549-1626) for the Palazzo Madama, Rome.

The card game depicted is primera, it was one of the most popular gambling games of the period, and an ancestor of modern poker. It was played with only forty cards, but the aim of the game was very similar. Only four cards are dealt to each of the players and there are only four combinations, a primiera (one card of each suit), supremus (6, 7, ace of the same suit), fluxus (four cards of the same suit) and a chorus (four of a kind), otherwise the game is decided by face points, as in poker.

Surgeon Captain W.G. Thwaytes was a very keen and important collector of compositions by Caravaggio, and indeed sold Caravaggio's original of The Musicians to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.