Albani, Mathias
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2017-07-08
B. 1621, d. 1712, Bolzano (Bozen)
Important early maker working in the region of south Tyrol which is now part of Italy. Instruments known from 1680 onward are very sophisticated and independent in design, though strongly influenced by Amati. Distinguished by the richly textured deep red varnish which found its way to Venice through the work of other Tyrolean makers. Succeeded by sons, Michael (1677-1730) and Joseph (1680-1722). |
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Alberti, Ferdinando
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2004-03-08
Active 1735-1765, Milan
Milanese maker strongly influenced by both Grancino and Testore. Good craftsmanship but inconsistent in style. Adopted the sign of the Crown (al segno della Corona) as the address given on his labels previously used by Giovanni Grancino. |
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Amati, Andrea
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2019-01-08
B. ca 1505, d. 1577, Cremona
Presumed pupil of Giovanni Leonardo di Martinengo in Cremona. Maker of the oldest surviving instruments of the violin family, several of which bear the arms of Charles IX of France (1560-1574). Founder of the overwhelmingly important Cremonese violin making tradition. Craftsmanship of the highest order. Around twenty small and large sized violins, violas and cellos extant. The earliest reliable date is that of the King Charles cello, which has the year 1566 incorporated into the decorative painted detail on the body. |
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Amati, Antonius
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2023-05-08
B. before 1540, d. 1608, Cremona
Elder son and pupil of Andrea. Recorded as a lute maker in 1559, and probably assistant to Andrea in the making of the Charles IX instruments. Working with his brother Girolamo, the Amati workshop produced relatively large quantities of instruments, and virtually standardised the form of the instrument. Antonio sold out his interest in the business to Girolamo in 1588, and seems to have taken no further part in the profession. |
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Amati, Hieronymus
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2020-01-08
B. 1561, d. 1631, Cremona
Second son of Andrea, who worked in tandem with Antonio until 1588. Virtually all the instruments from the workshop both before and after this date bear the label of the Fr.(atelli) Amati, although some rare instruments from the first decade of the seventeenth century are labelled by Girolamo alone. Considerable numbers of violins, violas and celli survive, and some viols. His work consolidated the primacy of the Cremonese school of violin making throughout Europe, and his death in 1631 is attributed to the plague which swept Northern Italy at that time. |
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Amati, Nicolo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2015-07-08
B. 1596, d. 1684, Cremona
Son of Girolamo, and most prolific member of the family. Probably active in the workshop from around 1610 and increasingly influential after 1620. After the death of his father in 1631 he used his own label. Introduced a widened form of his father's violin model, now known as the Grand Amati, the most admired and desirable of Amati instruments for playing quality. During the recovery from the plague years of 1630, Nicolo enlarged his workshop by taking apprentices from both within and without the city of Cremona. This played a significant part in the dissemination of the art of violin making throughout... Read More |
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Amati, Hieronymus The Second
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2018-01-08
B. 1649, d. 1740, Cremona
Son of Nicolo, his hand is evident in instruments from 1670 onwards. Faced with strong competition from the more recently established Guarneri, Rugeri, and Stradivari families, the Amati workshop slipped into decline and Girolamo briefly left the city around 1700. Some rare labels give Piacenza as his domicile at this time, but he evidently returned to Cremona and continued to make instruments fitfully for another ten to fifteen years. His work, by any standards other than those of his own family, is very fine, and shows intelligence in rejecting the more extreme archings used by his father in... Read More |
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Amati, Dom Nicolo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2009-01-08
B.1662, d. 1752, Bologna
Dom Nicolo Amati was the pseudonym of the priest Dom Nicola Marchioni. In all probability a pupil of a member of the Tononi family and possibly Giovanni Guidantus, he worked in an inconsistent style between 1718 and 1748, although generally keeping to the best principles of Bolognese violin making, and retaining the soft red varnish of Giovanni and Carlo Tononi long after it had fallen into disuse in other workshops. |
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Antoniazzi, Gaetano
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2005-05-08
B. 1825, Cremona, d. 1897, Milan
Presumed to be a pupil of Enrico Ceruti, from 1856 he lived in Mantua, probably assisting the aged Giuseppe Ceruti. Following his death in 1860, he returned to Cremona where he remained, apart from a year spent in Genoa in 1865, until 1870 when he moved finally to Milan. Assisted Leandro Bisiach during his last decade. Stylistically he owes much to Enrico Ceruti, and his workmanship is generally very refined, although sometimes undermined by poor materials. |
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Antoniazzi, Gregorio
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2008-07-08
Active 1730-60, Colle, Bergamo
An uncommon but significant maker of the Bergamo school, not connected with the later Antoniazzi family of Cremona and Milan. His origins are not established but he used a very fine, soft orange or darker red varnish together with a classically proportioned form, but a rather undistinguished head. |
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Antoniazzi, Riccardo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2023-09-08
B. 1853, Cremona, d. 1912, Milan
The son and pupil of Gaetano Antoniazzi. A significant figure in the establishment of the modern Milanese school, he worked with Leandro Bisiach and the firm of Monzino & son and was responsible for the training of a new generation of Milanese makers. His best and most prolific period dates form around 1889 to 1904. |
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Antoniazzi, Romeo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2006-11-08
B.1862, Cremona, d.1925
Younger son of Gaetano, like his elder brother, he worked with Bisiach and Monzino in Milan, as well as training a large number of pupils. Generally a little less consistent in his work than Riccardo. |
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Bagatella, Antonio
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2011-03-08
B.1726, d. ca 1799, Padua
A distinguished maker with a refined and well-proportioned Amatese model. His informants are not known, but many Tyrolean luthiers were active in Padua in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Presumed to be the teacher of Giovanni Danieli. Wrote a paper on the geometry of the violin, dated 1782, which together with the wider discourse of the Bolognese maker Giovanni Antonio Marchi published in 1786, are the earliest texts on the subject. |
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Baldantoni, Giuseppe
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2017-04-08
B.1784, d.1873, Ancona
The best of a small group of violin makers in Ancona on the Adriatic coast of Italy in the nineteenth century, following the South Tyrolean maker Emiliano Gotti who settled there in the second half of the eighteenth century. Flat-arched Stradivarian model with remarkably good varnish. |
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Balestrieri, Tommaso
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2011-01-08
B.ca 1735, d. ca 1790, Mantua
The leading maker in Mantua, following Pietro Guarneri, Antonio Zanotti and his presumed teacher Camillo Camilli. Worked in a slightly coarsened Cremonese style, with an authentic technique acquired through Camilli from Guarneri. A bold, Stradivarian style with a powerful sound, but substituting the great Cremonese varnish with a slightly harder recipe. |
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Bellosio, Anselmo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2024-09-08
B. 1743 Cassine, d. 1793, Venice.
Successor to the workshop of Giorgio Serafin in 1777. A very refined maker who sustained the Venetian school of violin making beyond the end of the classical period in Cremona, where it had already expired by 1750. Instruments have an Amatese quality, but with a full and tonally effective arching, and extremely fine orange-red varnish. His pupils, Pietro Novello and Marc Antonio Cerin could not continue his success much beyond 1790, and the slightly prolonged period of classical lutherie ended in Venice before the end of the century. |
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Beretta, Felice
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2005-11-08
Active 1758-1789, Como
A pupil of Giuseppe Guadagnini. Undistinguished craftsmanship, but good model and sound. |
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Bergonzi, Carlo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2009-11-08
B. 1683, d. 1747, Cremona
His work is among the rarest and best of the classical Cremonese, and the influences seen in it are broad. Historical evidence suggests initial contact with the Rugeri family, and his own label appears with gradually increasing regularity only after 1720, by which time he was in his late thirties. Following the death of Antonio Stradivari in 1737 and his sons Francesco and Omobono in 1743 and 1742 respectively, Bergonzi moved into the empty workshop, and occupied himself with the assembly and finishing of various incomplete Stradivari instruments. His own work is very highly finished and of exceptional... Read More |
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Bergonzi, Michelangelo Angelo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2011-08-08
B. 1721, d. 1758, Cremona
Son of Carlo Bergonzi. Faced with increasing competition from growing numbers of violin makers throughout Europe, Michele Angelo Bergonzi made compromises in his technique which lead to a loss of quality in materials, workmanship and varnish compared to his Cremonese predecessors, which inevitably forced a further decline. A relatively short working life left only a small number of instruments which are tonally very fine, if lacking in finish. |
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Bergonzi, Zosimo
Author: James Buchanan, Published: 2022-11-08
B. 1724, d. 1779, Cremona
Son of Carlo and younger brother of Michele Angelo. His work is extremely rare, confined to a mandolin and childs violin presently known. |
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