Amati, Andrea

Amati. Italian family of violin makers. The patriarch of the family, Andrea Amati (b before 1511; d Cremona, 24 Dec 1577), was possibly the founder of modern violin making; certainly he was the first violin maker to work in Cremona, the city whose name today is synonymous with the craft. Little is known of his life.

His earliest documented instrument, a violin with three strings dated 1546, was still in existence in Milan at the beginning of the 19th century, according to a contemporary source. Of his surviving instruments – violins of two sizes, large violas (tenors) and large cellos – most have the coat-of-arms of Charles IX of France painted on the back and are dated between 1564 and 1574. The authenticity of these instruments has recently been challenged. If they are genuine then, Andrea must have been working well before that time for his fame to have reached the French court prior to the commissioning of these instruments (see Violin, §I, 3(iii)(b)). In this period Gasparo da Salò, also sometimes considered the inventor of the violin, was just beginning his work in Brescia.

While there may have been violins before Andrea Amati , he appears to have originated the form of violin, viola and cello as they are known today. His concept of design was carefully thought out in accordance with contemporary standards of measurement and proportion. These classical construction principles distinguish the instruments of the Cremonese school from those made almost anywhere else and give them much of their visual superiority. To those accustomed to later violins, it is difficult to appreciate the astonishing modernity and sophistication of Andrea’s work. The shape and curvature of the bodies have become the standard look of a violin. The scrolls show immense originality and have virtually set the rules for scroll design for all time. Only in the fuller archings and the somewhat archaic soundholes do Andrea’s instruments reveal the era of their creation. The work is delicate, the tone sweet, but they are less substantial and robust than those of the later generations. Andrea’s golden or golden brown coloured varnish is very much the same as that which followed in his family.