[Illustration]
[Illustration:
Back of the Salabue Stradivari.
_Vincent Brooks, Day & Son Lith._
]
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[Illustration]
_THE SALABUE STRADIVARI._
THE Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments, held at the South
Kensington Museum in 1872, comprised a Collection of Violins such as had
never before been brought together, and afforded to the musical amateur
an unprecedented opportunity of studying the beauties of some of the
most precious instruments in Europe. Of these, perhaps none excited so
much interest among connoisseurs as a Violin by Stradivari, lent by
M^{sr}. Vuillaume, the celebrated Parisian maker and dealer, and thus
described by him in the official Catalogue of the Exhibition.[1]
91. Violin.
By A. Stradivarius, 1716.
“_Le Messie._”
“Cet instrument a été à peine joué. Il fut acheté vers 1760 par
le Comte Cozio de Salabue, grand seigneur et dilettante, qui l’a
toujours respecté et conservé jusqu’à sa mort. Ses héritiers
l’ont vendu à Luigi Tarisio, connoisseur et fanatique
d’instruments, qui l’a conservé sans le laisser voir à personne
jusqu’à 1854. A l’epoque de sa mort il était recommendé à ses
héritiers, et caché soigneusement dans la Ferme de la Croix, à
côté du Village de Fontaneto, près de Novara (Italie). C’est là
que son propriétaire actuel est allé le chercher dans le mois de
Janvier, 1855. Le bois dont il est fait est rémarquable par la
richesse de ses ondes. La perfection du travail, la beauté du
vernis, rien ne lui manque. C’est un violon qui semble sortir de
la main du maître. C’est enfin le seul, l’unique instrument de
Stradivarius, qui soit parvenu jusqu’à nous, en cet état de
parfaite conservation; or, ce monument intact de l’ancienne
lutherie, cet instrument que l’archet n’à pas fait resonner dans
l’espace de plus d’un siècle et demi, qui s’est ecoulé depuis
l’epoque de sa fabrication, cet instrument vient donner un
éclatant dementi à cette opinion d’après laquelle le son ne
pourrait se produire libre et pur qu’après un long usage,
parcequ’ici dans un instrument neuf on trouve toutes les
qualités réunies—force, moelleux, rondeur, finesse, vibration
facile, ton distingué, noble, incisif.”
Lent by M. VUILLAUME, PARIS.
The title at the head of the enthusiastic description above quoted
sufficed in itself to excite the great interest exhibited by the musical
public in this celebrated instrument. They saw for the first time a
violin, long known to them by repute, which, partly by design and partly
by accident, had been surrounded with a certain halo of romantic
mystery, ever since its existence had first been asserted, and long
before the instrument itself had been actually inspected by any of the
recognised experts of England or France. As will be seen later, the
title was conferred upon it in connection with its long deferred
production to the musical world.
The extraordinary industry of the great master Antonio Stradivari is
well known. Notwithstanding the minute care and precision which
characterised his work, he may safely be credited with the construction
of not less than two thousand instruments during his long and active
life. We have evidence that he remained at his bench to the very end of
his days, for in a document to which further reference is made below we
find mention of a perfect instrument bearing date 1736, with his age,
inscribed with his own hand upon the label as ninety-two.[2]
The instruments made by Stradivari were for the most part distributed
throughout the Courts and noble houses of Europe. We have records of
several concertos of instruments made by him upon the commission of the
Courts of Spain, Modena, Tuscany, Poland, and others, from the time when
he began to acquire a European reputation. Among these was the great
concerto presented by the Cremonese Nobleman, the Marchese Bartolommeo
Ariberti, to the Court of Tuscany, and containing that marvellous
instrument which, after being long hidden from the world, came to light
in recent times and excited so much admiration two years ago, when it
was first exhibited in this country. There were, however, undoubtedly
many fine specimens of his work remaining in their maker’s hands at the
time of his death, and these passed into the possession of his family.
Fortunately, from a manuscript which remained in the possession of an
enthusiastic Cremonese chronicler, Vincenzo Lancetti, we learn the fate
of some of the instruments inherited by the great maker’s sons. Lancetti
was an active man of letters, and the author of important biographical
works, including “Cremonese Worthies,” “A Dictionary of Pseudonyms,” “A
Dictionary of the Poets Laureate of every Nation,” and numerous other
books, published between 1796 and 1830, when he was in Milan as Director
of the Archives of the War Office. In 1823, having in contemplation a
biographical memoir of the violin makers of his native town, he enlisted
the assistance of the wealthy amateur and great connoisseur, Count
Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont.) The work
unhappily was never completed, but Count Salabue’s original sketch for
the memoir (in the hand of his amanuensis, here partly reproduced in
fac-simile) affords us some valuable information on the subject. From
this memorandum, dated “Milan, January, 1823,” we learn that, in
addition to the large number of Stradivari’s violins scattered
throughout Europe, ninety-one were in his possession at the time of his
death. In 1775 ten of these instruments were still in the hands of his
son Paolo, the youngest child of his second marriage, who sold them in
that year, together with two choice instruments by Francesco Stradivari
(the second son), and all the forms, models, and tools left by their
father, to the Count Salabue, whose collection has become so famous in
the annals of the Cremona School.
The name of this amateur must ever be held in grateful remembrance for
his loving care of the Italian masterpieces. It is to such men that we
owe the preservation of nearly all the finest existing instruments of
the 17th and 18th centuries. Endowed with great wealth and rare
judgment, he formed an unrivalled representative collection of the works
of the great masters of the craft, and by his careful researches amassed
an amount of information which might well have served as an invaluable
tradition of an apparently vanishing art. To such a man the acquisition
of ten undoubted specimens of the incomparable Stradivari must have been
one of the greatest events of his life.
The Count’s memorandum informs us that his purchase included two
masterpieces of the great maker; one of large size, with a label bearing
date 1716, and another of medium size, dated 1736, and bearing on the
label the inscription “d’anni 92,” in Stradivari’s own hand; both quite
new and untouched, and rare models for a good maker. The former
instrument, with which we are now concerned, is described in the
memorandum as of exquisite workmanship, and perfect quality of wood,
with a tone of great evenness and power.
This remarkable violin, received at first hand from the very workshop of
its great maker, remained carefully preserved in the Count Salabue’s
collection at Milan, until after his death. It is a noteworthy instance
of the fascination exercised by a perfect violin, that no one of the
successive owners of this splendid instrument, from Stradivari himself
downwards, would part with it until called away by death. After the
death of the Count, his heirs in 1827 sold the Stradivari of 1716 to a
man whose career merits a passing notice, on account of the important
part he played in rescuing innumerable works of the greatest violin
makers from obscurity and, perhaps, destruction.
[Illustration:
Si’ grande fu poi il numero de’
Violini principalmente che fabbricò
esso Antonio Stradivari che dopo
esserne sparsi per tutta l’Europa
nè lasciò al suo decesso. N^o. 91, entra
nel 1775. ve ne erano soltanto che
dieci che amperò dal figlio Paolo il
sudd^{to}. Conte Cozio assieme a due Capi
d’opera di suo figlio Francesco.
Nella più volte citata Collezione
del Sig^r. Conte Cozio si ritiene due de’
principali Capi d’opera di esso celeberrimo
Antonio Stradivari, cioè quello
dì forma più grande, e bellissimo di lavori
e di legno, e di perfetta qualità, egualianza
di voce, e di gran forza portante
nel Viglietto contropostovi 1716., e’l
altro sebbene di forma mezzana portami
nel biglietto l’anno 1736., ed al difratto
l’indicazione S’ anni 92. scritta dallo
stesso Stradivari, che’ assai si approssima
alla perfezione, ed alla forza
di voce del precedente, ed entrambi affatto
nuovi, ad intatti per cui’ possono
servire di scielti modelli ad un buon
fabbricatore d’istromenti.
]