STRADIVARI'S GREAT SUCCESS--HIS SO-CALLED "GRAND EPOCH"--HIS
PATRONS--HIS VIOLINS REPUTED FOR TONE WHEN QUITE NEW AND SOUGHT
AFTER--THE HELP HE RECEIVED--HIS ASSISTANTS AND PUPILS--PARTS OF THE
WORK REQUIRING HIS INDIVIDUAL TOUCH--THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY WHO
MAY HAVE ASSISTED HIM--STRADIVARI'S VARNISH--HIS IMITATORS.
The period 1700-15 or thereabouts, found Stradivari not only an
acknowledged master of his craft but among his contemporaries recognised
as the head. His business had been all along steadily flourishing, his
patrons had been of high social position, some most illustrious, others
actually royal. Among the latter the King of Poland stands out in relief
as having specially sent an envoy to Cremona and that he had to wait
three months before he could return with his commission fulfilled.
Whether he ran in danger of being decapitated for "hanging about"
Cremona so long is not known, but one thing is certain, that patrons
royal, illustrious, of high social standing and refined tastes, wanted
the newly made violins of Stradivari that could never have been played
upon, almost in the absolute sense of the term, while they could have
easily obtained well seasoned, well tried instruments of makers who had
lived long before. Here is "a nut to crack" for those who persistently
assert the necessity and efficacy of age and use to bring tone to
maturity. If any further evidence should be thought necessary to
support the assumption of the equal excellence of the new Stradivarius
with those that remain with us at the present time, it is contained in
the praise of those who heard and used them when quite fresh, declaring
the agreeableness of the tone to be beyond rivalry.
Stradivari may be said to have been now in the enjoyment of the
plentitude of his powers. Success was attendant upon him without
intermission. Tradition says he was reputed in the locality as
positively rich, but we do not hear of his aspiring to civic honours as
alderman, vestryman, guardian or councilman--common or otherwise--as the
outcome of the possession of full coffers. Stradivari simply went on
making fiddles. In a position to secure the best materials in the
respect of quality, artistically and acoustically considered, he put the
best workmanship upon them; also he further selected the best help
which, in common with all eminently successful artists, he must have
found it necessary to employ.
We now arrive at a point when the question may be fairly put, how much
help did he have, and of what kind was it?
As Stradivari left no record behind as to the number of pupils trained
on his premises, or assistants who came perhaps as improvers, we are
left to do our best in the way of inference. In the first place we may
take up the acknowledged fact of his having turned out an enormous
number of musical instruments during his very lengthy career; and it
must be remembered that his energies were not centred alone in turning
out magnificent violins, but that the viola, violoncello, double-bass,
besides some of the then not quite obsolete viols of different sizes and
fantastic forms, received his attention. These had to be produced at the
requirements of his patrons, of whom many had probably not yet
completely emerged from the misty musical atmosphere with which the
fanciful forms with florid decorations seemed so intimately bound.
Further, the fittings for them had to be made presumably on the
premises of the maestro and not as at present in foreign parts. At the
time there was not existent that extensive and special manufacture of
bridges, tailpieces, tail-pins, and pegs that forms a large and
significant branch of commerce at the present day. That the violin
bridge especially was a production of the Stradivari establishment and
not "made in Germany," is sufficiently indicated by its present form
having been introduced by Stradivari. On comparing it with the different
patterns of bridges that had been issued by the previous masters of
Cremona, it will be seen at once that the master mind of Stradivari had
effected improvements that have their counterpart in the designs of his
violin patterns. We may notice the successful efforts at stability with
simplicity, just enough of detail that would lend itself in completing
the harmony of the whole design, while dispensing with every unnecessary
angle or curve. Of the fingerboard and tailpiece we cannot speak in the
same terms; the master seems to have accepted the manner of treating
these parts as handed down by preceding generations from Gasparo da
Salo, and thought there was no need for alteration. The design of the
inlaid ornamentation on both these accessories, was, of course, of a
kind with which the house of Stradivari would be identified and the
execution also in accordance. Of the tailpin and pegs, with the
decoration of both, the same may be said.
All these particulars point to considerable time spent in direct
supervision after the preliminary designs had been made by the
principal. This would reduce the available time for direct manual labour
at his disposal. There would occasionally be some time spent in the
discrimination for purchasing of particular choice kinds of pine and
maple, these requiring the closest attention. Whether samples were
brought for Stradivari's inspection by agents or their principals, or
whether the maestro took journeys to particular districts where the
exact kind of wood suitable to his requirements was to be had, we know
not, but there seems to be much probability that the latter was his
mode of obtaining that splendid growth of pine, both in appearance and
tone-producing quality, with which he brought about such beautiful
results. This, when obtained, had to be carefully stored away until such
time as it might be required for immediate use. The cutting down and
sawing up into lengths for different instruments would not be such as a
maker with less patronage would personally engage in; we can therefore
place this aside from the time consuming duties. There is, in the
foregoing, enough and much over for reasonable inference that with a
master, such as Stradivari, having the refined taste and adaptability
for work, there was a considerable amount, if not all, of the merely
mechanical work done according to his command or under his eye. This
would naturally enough increase in proportion as the business connection
grew. There would be in this nothing differing from what has been
habitual with eminent professors in all branches of art; as far back as
Phaedias, Praxitelles and Appelles of the ancient classic Greek period.
Later on it is well known that many of the masterpieces of the
Renaissance period had much work upon them other than that immediately
from the master's own hand. If this were not permissible, the number of
the grandest creations of artistic genius would be most seriously
limited. Raphael and his contemporaries, Rubens and Rembrandt, besides
many other masters, are well known to have had numerous pupils in their
studios engaged in carrying out ideas previously determined upon and
drawn out for their guidance. These assistants were gradually drawn into
the way and habit of thinking of their masters, and on leaving them,
their own individuality or natural tendency uniting with what they had
absorbed of their master's manner, the blending of the two became a
fresh production of style. If we take this as our guide in summing up
the probable amount of help that was drawn upon by Stradivari during his
career, especially that part at which, in our consideration of him and
his works, we had arrived, it cannot possibly lead us far from the
actual facts. Taking into account the known pupils or assistants who
received the benefits of personal instruction from Antonio Stradivari,
they are more numerous than we can affix to the name of any other
master, as it must be borne in mind that Stradivari had initiated a
fresh style, the influence of which was destined to be of a far more
reaching character than any hitherto coming to the front. The
Stradivarian school became the foremost, most numerous and soon was to
be the most imitated, of all. Among the earliest of his pupils (the
precise number or even the names of all will never be known), may be
placed Alexander Gagliano of Naples, working with him about the period
of 1680 and some years later, one or two others of the Gagliano family
may have been workmen in the Stradivari atelier. Lorenzo Guadagnini,
Joannes Battista, his son and Josef of Pavia all claim to have lent a
helping hand and received instruction, and there is nothing in their
work that is in contradiction. The first became a great master of the
Milanese school and was afterwards rivalled by his son, who was more
cosmopolitan and not identified with one place in particular. I cannot
include the names of Montagnana or Gobetti, which have been frequently
referred to by various authors as pupils of Stradivari; a close
examination of their style and workmanship leads to a different fountain
of inspiration, notwithstanding which they both unquestionably were at
one time influenced by the work of the great Cremonese artist as it
arrived in Venice. Of Carlo Bergonzi, a great master, it is a well
established fact that he worked with Stradivari and probably did much
more for him as assistant than is generally acknowledged, but that he
was originally a pupil is not in keeping with the early and varying
patterns which have gone under his name. Further on it will be necessary
to refer to this luminary of the art. We must not forget the two sons of
Stradivari, Franciscus and Omobono, who received their initiation at the
hands of their father and worked with him for many years, carrying on
the business after his decease. Rumour has brought forth another name
as pupil or workman with Stradivari, and whose identification with some
fine specimens of the liutaro's art may yet prove an interesting study.
A relative of the master, we should expect to find his work strongly
tinged with the Stradivarian characteristics. His tickets are said to
have been all removed in very early times after their insertion and that
one only is known to have been preserved intact. Of the great rival--in
public estimation--of Stradivari, Joseph Guarnerius, I.H.S., it can only
be said there is not a single feature in his handiwork, style or tone,
agreeing with the supposition that he at any time was his pupil or
assistant, moreover, having by me distinct evidence of his pupilage of
another maker of a different school, will of course prevent the
inclusion of his name.
The number of pupils and assistants who worked with or under the
supervision of Stradivari in his prime, might, if we knew all, be more
considerable than we should be prepared to expect. The proportion in the
usual course of nature, of those able to single out a path for
themselves, prove their individuality superior to their fellows or
eventually become of great eminence, must of necessity have been
comparatively small. There may have been many working "on and off" under
the eye of the master at different periods who were without ambition or
the talent to rise above the position of humble helpers among their more
talented brethren, born to be assistants only, and, in consequence,
never heard of outside the studio. These, and the before mentioned, must
all have had something to do with the instruments their master was
sending forth into the world; the more clever ones being intrusted with
some responsibility on particular work. It is not impossible to fix upon
the parts the assistants probably would be allowed to work upon. In the
first place, all the designing, drawing out and tracing down of the
pattern on to the mould, or on to the unprepared blocks that were to be
carved into necks, scrolls, or marked out for ribs, would be
Stradivari's.
The different stages succeeding each other would be most likely as
follows--firstly, the master having been commissioned by a wealthy
patron to make of his best pattern and highest finish a quartet of
instruments, he would take from his store of choice pine and sycamore,
which he had taken so much trouble and skill in collecting together,
such pieces that appeared to him suitable for the instruments to be
constructed. The upper and lower tables had previously been hewn or sawn
to size, then the jointed back and front, if both were so, planed
carefully and made ready for the master's work, which would first come
on to the wood as a careful tracing from his original design. Sometimes
the tracing down may have been done by some advanced pupil or competent
assistant. We may fairly assume the presence here of one or two, if not
more, assistants, besides a pupil or improver. One would be selected for
the bow-sawing of the pattern, another afterwards receiving it for
roughly gouging out according to measurements at hand or marked by the
master. Another had meanwhile the bending of the thin slips for the ribs
to the necessary curves, or working down the corner and end blocks that
had been affixed to the mould. Another, if not the same, might have been
carrying out the first stages of the working of the scroll, or perhaps a
very competent and trusty assistant would be allowed, under the eye of
the master, to work on more advanced forms, making ready for the final
or necessary touches of the master hand. The sound holes may have been
traced down and even the upper and lower circular holes bored. Further,
it is not impossible, that after the modelling back and front had been
sufficiently advanced, the glueing and screwing down was intrusted to an
assistant, and even some of the finishing up with glass paper or other
material in use at the time and place, of parts of minor importance.
These are, perhaps, the majority of the details in which the
individuality of the handwork of the master was not obligatory in
evidence.
In summing up what could have been done by other hands than those of the
busy master, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, unless
we admit its presence, to account for the extremely large output of the
great Cremonese, even when taking fully into the balance his very
industrious habits and extraordinary long working career. Assuming the
above view to be reasonable, the number of new instruments which left
the Stradivari house must have been very large. It is well known that
the master undertook the repairs of musical instruments, which
department would require some personal attention or supervision, even if
actually executed by his assistants or his two sons, Francescus and
Omobono, who, when their father died, were not very young, the first
being sixty-five years of age, and the other fifty-five. They had most
likely worked with their parent for about forty years and must have done
much of making and repairing, that is, crediting them with some of their
father's industrial tendencies. Stradivari had two other sons by his
first wife, Francesca Ferraboschi, one, Giulio, died 1707, aged forty;
the other, Allesandro, in 1732, aged fifty-five. Nothing seems to be
known as to whether they were brought up by their father in his own
craft or not; if they were, there was time for them also to have done
much work with him. There was a son by his second wife, Antonia
Zambelli, who died 1727, aged twenty-four, who under the same
circumstances may have helped. We have thus five sons of Stradivari,
who, if they were all taught the art, may have been working together,
besides other assistants at the same time. Carlo Bergonzi has already
been mentioned, but although he came late into the field, yet there
seems a slight indication that he may have had to supply the place of
others who had departed for the carrying out of their own schemes.
Having so far roughly estimated the kind and amount of work, not
necessarily his own, on the violins that were sent forth by Antonio
Stradivari, we may glance at the particulars of detail that demanded his
handiwork and that solely. That there were keen connoisseurs living at
the time of Stradivari, as also in the previous century and earlier,
there is no room for doubting. Workers in art reduce their inspirations
to tangible forms helped by colour that people may see them and,
comparing them with what may have gone before and have been executed at
the same time, pass judgment on them. In like manner Stradivari, like
other masters before him, knew that his handiwork would be scrutinised
as well as the tone of his instruments. It was therefore obligatory that
purchasers should know his work, that in fact his sign manual should be
always present. Contemporaneous with him were makers, artists, who had
been initiated in the mysteries of the manufacture and application of
the wonderful varnishes which have since by their qualities made them
famous throughout the civilised world. There was nothing, however, in
the material or its application that could, under the closest
examination, be discerned as different to what might be seen on the best
instruments of the Amatis--these must have been numerous at the
time--the Ruggieris or the Venetian masters, but these did not in the
application invariably work up to a certain standard of excellence,
whereas Stradivari always did. There was a consummate beauty of result
in this branch of the liutaro's art known at the time to many, beyond
which it seemed not possible to go. It was, therefore, more in the
construction and workmanship then, that the sign manual was perceptible.
With this view Stradivari seems to have been careful to let the evidence
of no hand but his own be seen in parts that were sure to be closely
scrutinised as evidence.
Standing first perhaps in importance would be the cutting of the sound
holes, the design and careful drawing of these being completed, and cut
in metal--it is said thin copper was used by him--they may have been
mostly traced down by himself on the pine of the upper table prepared
and in readiness to receive it, although this part without much danger
could have been done by an intelligent and experienced assistant. The
cutting and finishing with the thin keen edged knife, however, must be
his, the slightest shaving over the traced line or not quite up to it
would be sufficient to impart a totally different character to the
whole. There is no part of the violin in which the sum total of the
native characteristics and ability are shown to such exactitude as the
cutting of these all important and expressive openings. In those of
Stradivari is to be seen the same firmness of purpose and strict curbing
of the fancy from proceeding too far, or allowing stability to be over
balanced by love of gracefulness, as seen in the designs of his eminent
master. To allow no weak part to be perceptible; strength of line with
sufficient grace, admirable proportion and balance, and yet withal
sufficient expression of mobility and freedom from heaviness were each,
seemingly in turn, given the best attention by the great genius of
Cremona. It is not using extravagant language when they are termed the
eyes of the violin, for it is to these that experienced connoisseurs
turn their attention at once when inspecting a violin of character newly
placed before them. Cut by an Italian, cut by a Frenchman, by a German,
by a nobody in particular or who understood nothing about it, are the
thoughts arising in the mind. Each country has its peculiar and native
rendering of every sound hole that was first designed in Italy. This
tendency to impart their own national characteristics by each native
workman, runs parallel with that in pictorial art in the transferring to
various materials the impressions received after study of the original
or animated reality. To many the sound holes of an Italian gem of the
highest class are but sound holes that are more neatly done or prettier
than usual. To others they will be the expression in that simple form of
an exquisitely acute perception of what will excite pleasurable emotions
with regard to delicately balanced proportions, graceful flow of line,
and freedom from all appearance of effort. That there is much in little
concerning this, is proved by the non-success of all foreign copyists
to give a reproduction of the Italian native touch to these details.
That this is not an overdrawn description, may be seen on a close
comparison between an original Stradivari of almost any period and the
most closely traced, laboriously studied and keenly cut sound holes of
any of the modern imitators. All have failed signally over these two
apparently simple openings on the surface of the upper table.
Notwithstanding this, it may be said there are scarcely two violins
alike in respect of expression of these adornments of the structure,
each instrument is made to convey its own impression, or display its
particular kind of beauty. There is a difference, scarcely to be
measured mathematically, that in one will be suggestive of masculine
strength, while in another it will be exquisite feminine grace.
In none of the imitations of the master are there seen these qualities
expressed in the same degree and kind. It has often been said, and there
is more than a substratum of truth in the remark, that, "to copy a
Stradivari successfully"--of course, in the fullest sense of the
word--"the copyist must be a Stradivari himself." There might,
appropriately, be an addition put to this, namely, that a man who could
work up to the dizzy height of his ambition in this way, would not copy,
but make originals.
Another detail of the workmanship always attended to by the master
himself, was that of the purfling. Much has been said of the wonderful
accuracy of Stradivari's purfling and that as a purfler he stands
unrivalled. This must not be taken in the widest sense, as there have
been, and are living, scores and scores of makers who have cut a rut
round the border of a fiddle as sharply, and inserted the three
conventional lines of dark and light wood as deftly as it could be by
the hand of any man, be he named Amati, Stradivari, Ruggieri, Tononi, or
Montagnana. There is a degree of evenness and keenness of cutting and
clean insertion beyond which it is not possible to go. But there the
imitators come to a full stop. Without the inventive power which will
make this curious, simple, yet wonderful little fillet, aid in giving
the desired expression to the whole work, the imitator is not--as people
say nowadays--in the race. The finishing of the border, the corners and
the delicate and often very elaborate system of curves around the sound
holes, the hollowing of the wings of these latter, and the final
surfacing of both back and front, I have no doubt had Stradivari's
individual attention. All the delicate and small work of the scroll,
perfecting that elegant flow of line and finish of each turn of the
volute, as if everything depended on the exactness of its individuality,
obliterating all marks of the tooling and giving his own impress to the
gouging of the shell and even the completion of the peg-box; then last
and not least, the preparation and application of that pellucid envelope
that was to serve two purposes, utility and enrichment of effect.
With regard to this, much has been written and said about its
incomparable quality, its elasticity, colour and transparency, with
other excellences needless to dilate upon. Summarily taken as a whole,
the simple fact is, that in no respect is his varnish different, or
better than that of his predecessors, the Amatis and masters of the
Brescian school; it had been done before and his most famous
contemporaries were doing it still, and he was in this position for the
simple reason that no better could be done.
If it was not possible for Stradivari to improve upon the varnish of the
Amatis who had preceded him and the masters in the art belonging to the
Brescian school,--among whom may be mentioned Giovanni Maggini, Antonio
Mariani, and the first one to use it on violins, Gasparo da Salo--it was
strictly in accordance with his invariable rule of putting forth his
best that he so dexterously manipulated it, probably both as to its
composition and final application, that faultiness in some respects to
be seen in specimens of other masters is not noticeable in his. Thus, as
is well known, the Brescians, perhaps without exception, were often
very careless regarding the thickness of the film, it being occasionally
of irreproachable evenness, at other times having almost the appearance
of being laid on with a large brush in great haste. On some connoisseurs
this haphazard fulness of treatment, this oft times generously effusive
manner, carried out with a careless consciousness of power, acts as a
charm, inciting to intense admiration the like of which is roused by the
rich, juicy brush of Rembrandt and the masters of the Venetian school of
painters. But this is not the perfect realization of aim with regard to
the envelopment of masterpieces by the old Italian liutaros; in the
instances referred to, and sufficiently numerous, we wonder at the
wealth of material and smile at its manipulation. Antonio Stradivari
would in no wise act thus at any time. To him it was enough that he was
possessor in full of the knowledge of materials, and to deviate from the
good paths pursued by the artistic Amatis, was not to be considered for
a moment; we therefore find that with him the best material was laid
with the utmost skill and care. It must be indeed rare that "frizzling,"
or contraction of the upper surface of the varnish, is to be seen to any
appreciable extent. I do not recollect one instance, while with the
Ruggieris, most of the Venetian school, and a number of makers of lesser
note, it is quite common.
Concerning the colour or variety of tints adopted by Stradivari at most
times, it was most likely done to the requirements of his different
patrons, many having a desire for the rich orange, some, the light red
or "cherry" tint, while others were not content with any than the red or
rich full bodied port wine tint. The simple brown seems to have been
less in demand, as it is during the period under consideration, rather
exceptional. While using the lustrous coverings for his works with
consummate skill, there is one qualification that must not be lost sight
of. Beautiful, refined and artistic in the strictest sense of the term,
Stradivari never gave way to a desire to outbid the rest of the
fraternity for congratulations in respect of gorgeousness, he seems
never to have fallen back upon his reserves in the direction of
intensity of colour. Thus if a finely preserved specimen of his orange
varnish is viewed side by side with one by Joseph Guarnerius, I.H.S.,
the extra degree of fieriness will be on the side of the latter, but it
by no means places Stradivari on a lower level, as the combined
qualities of his work, taken as a sum total, is not reached by any
liutaro of old Italy.
It may be fairly taken as certain that if there was any master having at
command all the necessaries for turning out musical instruments of
matchless superiority, both as to acoustical and artistic qualities, it
was Stradivari, and many connoisseurs would expect to find nothing but
maple used of the richest curl, and that would throw up with delightful
effect the lustrous varnish so carefully laid upon it; but, strangely
enough, his most magnificently curled backs and sides are mixed with a
few that are comparatively plain. A variety of reasons might be assigned
for this, but that which bears the greatest probability about it
is--that the instruments being chiefly made to order, the maple of
richest curl was not always to be had, at least in time for the
construction as required. In other respects these plainer mapled
instruments are fully equal to anything that came from his hands. Of the
proper tone-giving pine he seems never to have been short; there it is,
always of beautiful growth, having, like his own handiwork, both
delicacy and strength and of a general appearance such as would attract
the eye of the veriest tyro in the liutaro's art. How many imitators of
the great manipulator have looked at this growth of pine and wondered
where the old master obtained it! and how he knew that it possessed the
proper qualifications for his purpose. Swiss pine of course! obtained
from the lower parts of the forests of the Alps, is an immediate loud
response, and cut only from the south or sunniest side of the particular
tree when found of course.
This idea was started in the early part of this century in books on the
violin, professing to tell the reader all about it or nearly so, and he
had only to go, get the stuff, and make Stradivari violins, in fact with
the addition of the amount of scientific knowledge of the subject
peculiar to modern imitators, he would make "old Strad" "take a back
seat." This has been often tried by would-be "Strads," "Guarneris," or
"Bergonzis," and full of specious promises that if you will but purchase
their wares you be rewarded for your pains by being possessor of
everything good that they could endow the instrument with. Keep it,
persevere, and the precious qualities will come; some were daring enough
to assert that they were already there, if even your mental vision was
so obtuse as not to perceive it, absurd prejudice was the cause of this
they said, oblivious to the fact that the best musicians of Stradivari's
time used the violins fresh from the atelier of the master perfectly
new, expressing their unbounded admiration for their beautiful acoustic
properties or "pleasurable sounds."
Is the like said of new violins at the present time? These imitators,
some of them might be with perfect truth termed forgers, are legion, as
in the case of everything that is of a high standard of excellence and
which makes acquisition desirable. These artificers had their day, so
far as forcing their imitations upon the credulous and unwary could be
accomplished, and others have replaced them, yet there aloft still sits
the grand master upon his high eminence, unapproached, with the whole
world clamouring and struggling for the possession of what in the
earnestness of his purpose was only his everyday work.
Before leaving the imitators and forgers, for they are distinct one from
the other, the first simply taken being honest, the other not, it may be
as well to refer as briefly as possible to the general aspect as
afforded by such specimens of Stradivari's art that remain with us after
fairly constant usage during the generations that have passed since his
decease. Most connoisseurs and dealers are well acquainted with the
appearance of a "Strad" of fine model, work and varnish that has done
its duty in former times, and is yet able and willing to answer all
requirements of the present day and many to come. If the instrument has
not been hidden and forgotten in the cabinet of some deceased collector,
but has been handed down from one player to another, kept in healthy
exercise, not meddled with, muddled, and maddened by the numerous
would-be improvers, bridge regulators, sound post agitators and varnish
vivifiers, then--it will probably present an appearance of what is
called handsome wear, or as a writer has termed it, "adorned, not
injured, by a century's fair wear."
Striking the eye first will be the varnish that has been chipped off
from the back chiefly, often from a large space of a rough triangular
form; the front being usually more smoothly denuded of its lustrous
envelope. This chipping away of the varnish from the maple has been
effected a long time ago, and is the result of a custom in olden times
of hanging the instrument after use on a peg attached to the wall, or
may be the interior of a cabinet. Fiddle-cases seem to have been used
almost solely for travelling purposes. They are now in general use as
the best means of preservation against damage and a good resting place
at all times. During the last century there were scores and scores of
makers in Italy who were ready, willing to, and did turn out excellent
instruments with fine, artistical and acoustical properties, but the
race has died out and their remaining works are of daily increasing
value, and consequently much under lock and key, out of harm's way as
much as possible. This old habit of hanging up violins not wanted for
the moment was, as a matter of course, effected with a slight bang or
two each time, and a corresponding cost, small or large, according to
the blow to the top layer of varnish most highly charged with colour.
Each instrument used in this way will declare to the sufficiently acute
observer, its course of handling and even the peculiarities to some
extent of the owner; for it will be seen that the chippings give
indication of different degrees of energy or hurry, when the violin has
come in contact with the more or less hard surface of the wall.
It must be borne in mind that the times referred to were prior to the
introduction of wall-papers; the good, old-fashioned panelling of oak or
hard wood, often of bold design, shattered or nicked away much of the
old, delicate and precious varnish used for enveloping the works of the
Italian masters. All these constantly recurring slight collisions by
degrees brought about the results that have been defined by some as
picturesque wear or accidental adornment, if such a thing be reasonable.
Besides this there was going on the wear caused by handling by one or
another of players, rough or mild, contact with the garments, especially
the sleeves, all being larger and looser than are fashionable at the
present time. The action of these would be more gentle if more
continuous. It is noticeable at the lower end of the back of the violin,
which is often worn away much below the penetration of the varnish, the
corners being rounded down and if rather protuberant, even losing their
original character. The upper table of pine being incapable of equal
resistance to the destroying influence, wears away sooner, also the
border at the lower end and at both sides of the tail-piece--for the old
performers placed their chins on the contrary side to what is thought
best now--and the right upper shoulder where the palm of the hand and
part of the wrist is apt to work, too often, against the edge. We thus
see when a handsome, fairly worn specimen of Stradivari's work comes
under our notice, the different pieces of tell-tale evidence, varying of
course in degree with each instrument. Now all this must have been going
on during the time the master's works were being sent out to parts of
Italy and to other countries. It had been progressing and was showing
the onward march of Father Time in the instruments left by the Brescian
makers a century before.
As before observed, the varnish of Stradivari has, often as not, been
worn, chipped or cracked off in, as some fanciers still call it, a
picturesque manner or adornment, although from the highest prices being
given for those specimens that have the least of it, the taste seems to
be growing healthily in favour of perfection of preservation as far as
is possible.
It would be out of reason to suppose that full consideration of the
subject was omitted by a genius with such far reaching mental vision as
Stradivari. That he gave all the necessary study and forethought to the
effects of ordinary wear and such as was occasionally going on within
his knowledge, there is evidence enough. He saw how the delicate work of
his master, Nicolas Amati, was rapidly disappearing under sometimes
rough and too often ruffianly usage. It was not in his power to prevent
or interfere with this by any peculiarity of construction or quality of
the varnish used by him. But this he doubtless knew--that the generally
substantial work and total absence of any weak point of detail in design
and execution was all that an artist could do. This strength shown over
all of Stradivari's designs, even from the commencement, shows that in
his grasp of the highest scale of requirement he was also anticipatory
and in this wise, that he followed up the self evident principle in art,
that the best combination of forms, proportions and masses will answer
best for their permanence.
The numismatist knows full well how, on the coins used in various
countries, the masters of basso-relievo had concentrated their skill on
the subject. The balance of projection and depression for good and
proper effect under different situations of light and shade, or even
independently of them on occasion--is of paramount importance in all
branches of art in their widest range. The omission of proper thoughtful
attention in this direction is one of the obstacles to success among
copyists in any direction of art. In architecture the imitator or
restorer of some early English mouldings has often made ignominious
failures from the non-application of knowledge of this kind: just a
trifling variation from the original while in progress being deemed of
little consequence, but when finished and left for exhibition under the
truth testing rays of the sun, the qualities that should have been there
are, as the saying is, "conspicuous by their absence." In full view of
the above and with an intelligence unsurpassable, Antonio Stradivari so
arranged his forms and masses in construction that under fair usage and
wearing down of the projecting parts, the original beauty of the whole
should be retained as long as possible. A fine Stradivari much worn
still retains its air of distinction, and very much of its material must
have disappeared under bad treatment to make it beyond recognition
almost at a glance.
There can be very little question of there being more than mere
admiration for the appearance. Simply viewed, there is the spice of
romance in connection with it, the history is written in language more
or less intelligible of the knocks and bruises inflicted, unwillingly in
most instances, but not invariably so. And here attention may perhaps be
appropriately drawn in these pages to what has been asserted by a few,
very few, dealers and others, whose general intelligence should have
been a guarantee against the dissemination of utter nonsense and which
has even been in print! that--just think of this--Antonio Stradivari,
the acknowledged master liutaro of Cremona in his own day, and of whose
growing fame no one can foretell the limits--actually imitated wear and
tear of varnish on his violins. I have not the print at hand, and so
cannot give the exact words in which this scum from the boilings of a
distorted imagination was conveyed; nor point to the first unfortunate
who let it flow abroad. In all probability it came from the same old
source, a desire to lift up to a high level worthless imitations of the
master, confuse the public mind so as to make it more and more difficult
to tell "t'other from which."
A fine specimen, and well known, of Stradivari's art was once lying on a
table before me. An amateur of considerable attainments and honesty of
purpose then present was dilating upon its many beauties and fine
preservation; he, I soon found, had by some means become infected with
the absurd notion of the varnish having been artistically pecked away by
the original maker! Just fancy this--Raphael slitting a hole in his
chef-d'oeuvre to make it look old--Michael Angelo chipping some bits
from the ceiling of the Sistine just before the scaffolding was removed,
or Phidias snapping off a limb and browning the raw surface to please
future connoisseurs.
They might all have done this with an equal deficiency of reason and
consistency if we allow for one moment any possibility of the genius of
such a stamp as that of Antonio Stradivari descending to such depravity.
Those who have lent themselves to this incongruous notion, hastily
generalising from insufficient particulars, have strangely overlooked
the fact that the same kind of chipping is seen on the violins of other
masters, Joseph Guarnerius, Carlo Bergonzi, and others of the Cremonese
and Venetian School, besides--going far back--the older ones of Brescia
and Pesaro, any number in fact over all Italy.