I found this wonderful old painting--tempera, I believe, on brown paper bag or craft paper--in a very dirty old frame where it was taped to piece of cardboard and starting to deteriorate, but I loved it so much there was no way I was not going to rescue it! You can see that the area around the top of his shirt and right arm shows loss and is quite fragile; I've just set it atop a new sheet of cardboard to stabilize it for the time being, but best would probably be to mount it to a backing sheet and then get it in a frame. The colors are still very vivid, best of all I think this bright white flute and mint green cap!
The legend of the Pied Piper originated in the Middle Ages, as a character from the town of Hamelin in Germany. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refused to pay for his services as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical powers on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. There are many theories about the Pied Piper, including one that makes this feel very timely for the moment: it is suggested that he was a symbol of hope to the people of Hamelin, which had been attacked by plague; in driving the rats from Hamelin, he saved the people from the epidemic!
13" x 10 " with old masking tape adhered to the back around the edges. There in a horizontal surface crease or wrinkle in the paper 2/3 of the way done, minor and not detracting. The painting will be carefully packaged in glassine between sheets of cardboard.
