Fondazione Antonio Stradivari Ente Triennale Strumenti ad Arco - Liuteria a Cremona
Cremona 1730 - 1750
Cremona’s mature Renaissance by Fausto Cacciatori
Last year’s celebrations of Andrea Amati
marked the culmination of a three-year project
researching the early development of the
violin. Now the Antonio Stradivari Foundation
begins a new three-year project to explore
violin making in Cremona in the 18th and
early 19th centuries. Our journey starts
with this year’s exhibition, which looks
at the period of 1730–50 and the mature work
of Stradivarius, Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ and Carlo
Bergonzi.We then continue in 2009 with the
Bergonzi family before concluding in 2010
with the last luthiers of the great Cremonese
school.
The new project will develop scientific research
methods adopted in recent years, and by studying
the instruments researchers will have the
opportunity to gain new insights into the
techniques of the past.
So what should we look for in these instruments?
The construction method is of great significance.
The Amati method, which represents the DNA
of the Cremonese violin making industry,
is a legacy that permeated workshops throughout
the city and is still visible in the late
18th- and early 19th-century instruments
of Storioni, Rota and Ceruti. And what about
those exquisite Cremonese varnishes?When
knowledge of such an art is no longer passed
from generation to generation, it can become
a secret. Certainly the sale of ten Stradivaris
and the master’s templates and tools by his
son Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775–6
symbolically marked the loss for the city
of a legacy that had been handed down for
centuries.
Researching the instruments will provide
important information, which will then be
corroborated by knowledge of historical and
biographical events.We will focus on the
work of a group of experts whose scientific
methods have proved successful in the last
few years, both in terms of the results achieved
and the acknowledgments received from the
academic world.We should not underestimate,
for example, what we have found as a result
of the research on the polychromatic decorations
of Andrea Amati’s instruments.
Today, thanks to that research, we have the
answers we have long been looking for. For
this new project we will rely, as in the
last three years, on the effectiveness of
the research method and in the skills of
dedicated individuals.
