This thesis examines sixteenth-century self-portraits by women painters who portrayed themselves as musicians rather than their actual professions. In Marietta Tintoretto’s Self-Portrait, she appears standing; her right hand is placed on the keyboard behind her while her left hand holds sheet music. Three other self-portraits by Lavinia Fontana and Sofonisba Anguissola present these women in moments of musical performances. Besides portraying themselves as musicians, other forms of representation include these artists painting, writing, and reading. Unlike styluses and books which have been understood by scholars as signs of literacy and intelligence, the keyboard instrument is a complex object that is more than a sign of intellect. By treating the keyboard as a gendered, domestic object and considering its use and purpose in early modern culture, this thesis will argue that the keyboard instrument tethers these women artists to the domestic interior. How does the keyboard reflect early modern gender identity and the domestic sphere? This question is answered by this thesis and its three chapters which address early modern society and women’s connection to music. I explore the concept of music and the physical keyboard in these self-portraits by discussing the following topics: women’s education and how music is incorporated into learning; how music is visualized in the early modern period; and finally, how concepts of sensation and sound relate to these self-portraits. These three topics work together to show how music was controversial in the early modern period, especially in relation to women. However, music was also a visual motif that reflected social expectations. By focusing on the keyboard and the popularization of secular music, this thesis works to better understand how the early modern keyboard became a complex symbol of education, artistic achievement, gender, and domesticity as seen in the self-portraits by the highly successful artists Fontana, Anguissola, and Tintoretto.