Door lock - the allegory of Music

Lying rectangular plaque, applied separately over an octagonal knob lock mechanism of two parts. The relief on the plaque shows the bust of a young girl with tied hair, looking to the left, with her hand raised as she sings from the notes - the allegory of Singing. Being an amateur violinist himself, Charpentier liked music and often used musical topics or decorated music cupboards or pianos with his plaques. This pair of door plaques, which was introduced with two others (see Inv.Nos. 10.500 and 10.501) at the 1898 exhibition of Modem Arts in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, where it was purchased. They were possibly made for his own music room. The artist exhibited the pieces at later exhibitions (e.g. the 1902 Torino International Exhibition of Decorative Arts). It is supposed that four identical, though silver plaques (La Peinture, La Sculpture, Le Violon, Le Chant), supplemented by two further ones (Les Dominos, Les Echecs) decorated the cover of six leather car boxes, exhibited by the artist in 1899. Analogous pieces of the door locks (Inv.No. Kg. 64.59 - Music, and Kg. 64.60 - Singing) were found in the Gewerbemuseum in Darmstadt, see Cat. 1965b No.221-220 with ills. Their copies without the lock can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, Inv.No. 66-6. P (Music), 66-7. P (Singing), and also in the Musee du Luxembourg in Paris, No. 1161 (Music) and 1162 (Song), see Benedite. Similar plaques were exhibited in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts at the Medals and Plaques exhibition in 1924, see Cat. 1924 No. 3198 (Music) and No. 3196 (Singing).