Violin makers from 1600 until 1820

History and repertory, 1600–1820: Makers

At the dawn of the 17th century, the violin was beginning to develop a role as an expressive and virtuoso solo instrument. New idiomatic repertory appeared at a rate which suggests an almost feverish excitement in its possibilities. Already two towns, Brescia and Cremona, had emerged as pre-eminent in the manufacture of the instrument. Brescia had been known for its string instruments since early in the 16th century; its reputation as a centre for violin making was established principally by two makers, Gasparo da Salò (1540–1609) and Gio Paolo Maggini (bap. 1580; d ?1630–31).

Cremona's fame was due at first to Andrea Amati (b before 1511; d 1577) and his descendants. In the early 17th century his sons Antonio and Girolamo (i) were making superb instruments, working together as ‘the brothers Amati’. The violins made by Girolamo's son Nicolò are generally considered the pinnacle of the Amatis' achievement. Although the family's traditions were carried into the next generation by Girolamo (ii), Nicolò's mantle passed to more illustrious pupils outside the family, most notably Antonio Stradivari (b 1644–9; d 1737) but also Andrea Guarneri (1623–98).

Guarneri in turn founded a dynasty, the most distinguished member being his grandson Giuseppe Guarneri (‘del Gesù’) (1698–1744). The latter has for the past two centuries been regarded the greatest maker after Stradivari. His contemporary Carlo Bergonzi was followed into the trade by a son and grandsons. Numerous references in writings of the period point to the prestige of acquiring a Cremona violin. English court records from 1637 onwards distinguish between the purchase of Cremona and other, by implication more ordinary, violins. In the early 18th century Roger North observed that so many fine instruments had been imported ‘that some say England hath dispeopled Itally of viollins’.

Distinguished violin makers in other parts of Italy in the late 17th century and the 18th included Matteo Goffriller, Sanctus Seraphin and Domenico Montagnana in Venice, David Tecchler and Michael Platner (fl 1720–50) in Rome, the Gagliano family in Naples, Giovanni Grancino and the Testore family in Milan, Camillo Camilli and Thomas Balestrieri in Mantua, Giovanni Tononi in Bologna and his son Carlo in Bologna and Venice.

One non-Italian maker was of cardinal importance in the 17th century: Jacob Stainer, who worked in Absam in the Tyrol. His characteristically high-arched violins are easily distinguished from Cremonese models and were greatly prized (and imitated) in the 17th and 18th centuries (for illustration see Stainer, jacob; see also fig.13a below). Two other centres were the source of a large number of well-made, though not especially sought-after, violins. Mittenwald in Germany became identified with violin making in the 17th and 18th centuries through the work of Mathias Klotz and his descendents, and to this day it has sustained a reputation as a centre for violin making (and for the teaching of the craft). Mirecourt in France had similar associations in the 17th and 18th centuries, though many makers who learned their skills there moved on to Paris. (The last and most famous of these was Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who left in 1818.) By the early 19th century Paris had in fact taken over as the violin-making capital of the world; Nicolas Lupot, especially, was thought to have absorbed the principles of Stradivari better than the makers still working in Cremona. Fine instruments were produced by his friend and business associate François-Louis Pique and by his apprentice Charles-François Gand. (Paris was also identified with bows of the most advanced design and superb craftsmanship thanks to the work of the Tourte family.)

Preferences in the late 18th century do not match up with the modern view that Stradivari represents the doyen of violin makers. The 1785 edition of the Encyclopédie Méthodique names Jacob Stainer as the maker of ‘greatest reputation’ followed by the Amatis (and principally Andrea and the brothers Amati rather than Nicolò). ‘Among the skilled makers of more recent date’, Stradivari is singled out as having made ‘a very large number of good violins; the merit of his instruments consists in their masculine, powerful, and melodious tone’. This hierarchy was endorsed in the later 18th century by the violin makers Antonio Bagatella (1786) and Giovanni Antonio Marchi (1786) and, in a less clear-cut way, the theorist Francesco Galeazzi (1791). The change in fashion is thought to have started in France, thanks to G.B. Viotti's persuasive playing in the 1780s on Stradivari and Guarneri instruments. Michel Woldemar expressed a preference for Stradivari and Guarneri over Amati and Stainer because of their more vigorous sound but also because he considered the less pronounced arching more convenient for holding the violin when playing virtuoso music. A history of violin making written by the Abbé Sibire (1757–1827), La Chélonomie, ou Le parfait luthier (Paris, 1806), culminates in a paean to Stradivari:

I prostrate myself in front of the patriarch of violin makers. … If in his century a competition had been staged in which all the great violin makers had been judged by their best works, the five Amatis would have obtained honourable mention, Stainer would have been runner-up, but without hesitation and unanimously, Stradivari would have been awarded the prize. … The first six are simply admirable, each one in a particular aspect of the art, while the last is perfection itself.

That reputation remains intact: ‘Stradivari’ has become a byword for perfection and value.