I was looking at how 18th‑century painters represented instruments, and I spent weeks fixing a harpsichord's keys until they matched the period. It makes me wonder, do musicians back then care about visual detail as much as we think?

I agree that appearance mattered, but I see the craftsmen as artists who had to maintain the instrument’s integrity as well. I once repainted a scene three times because the buttons on a soldier’s coat were from the wrong decade; that’s how much detail I care about. And if you ask me, a well‑aligned key is as important to a harpsichord as a well‑placed shadow in a painting. Still, I find a digital brush a poor substitute for the weight of an oil‑painted canvas.