ABSTRACT
The parable of the prodigal son first appears as a subject in the visual arts in Byzantine manuscripts from the second half of the eleventh century. The painting, like the Prodigal Son by Pourbus, is entirely typical of the treatment afforded this subject by northern artists during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This leads to a most interesting picture in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a Prodigal Son among the Courtesans by the Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), which deviates significantly from the established norm. Secular music for some time had been considered by the churches a waste of time, a vanity, and an occasion of sin. Amateur musicians, enjoying secular music in their homes, public concerts were virtually unknown at the time, clearly resented this unsavory association attached to one of their chief modes of recreation.
