I.History of Antonio Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737)

A century of violin making in Cremona culminated in the instruments from the workshop of Antonio Stradivari. Violins are judged by their tone, responsiveness, elegance of design, visual appeal, and precision of their craft, and the instruments of Stradivari are superlative in all categories. From his extraordinary seventy-year career as a luthier, 650 instruments survive, a testament both to his productivity and longevity, and to the high value placed on his instruments. During the 1680s, Stradivari moved away from Nicolò Amati's style, experimenting with his own soundhole shapes, softer varnish, wider purfling (the inlaid border near the edges of the violin's back and front), and a stronger tone. During the 1690s, he worked to perfect a "long pattern" violin, with a longer, narrower body and a darker tone than most Cremonese strings. Two of the Museum's Stradivari violins are of this type (55.86a-c; 34.86.1).

Beginning about 1700, Stradivari reverted to a shorter, wider design, his "grand pattern," and embarked on the two decades that many writers call his "golden age." The third of the Museum's Stradivari violins (34.86.2) dates from this period. After 1700, Stradivari also experimented with building smaller violoncellos, influenced by the instruments of the Brescian maker Giovanni Paolo Maggini (ca. 1581–ca. 1632) and later Cremonese makers; these smaller instruments aided in the rise of the cello as a virtuoso solo instrument. Stradivari also made violas and a number of stringed instruments, including viols, lutes, mandolins, guitars, and harps. At his death, Stradivari's business passed into the hands of his son, Francesco (1671–1743).





Stradivari's Posthumous Reputation and the Modernization of His Instruments

While the instruments of Stradivari were certainly appreciated during his long lifetime, it was not until the late eighteenth century, when several violin virtuosi publicly favored instruments by Stradivari and Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri ("del Gesù") (1698–1744), that his work was seen as the epitome of the luthier's art.

Throughout the 250 years since, professional violinists have considered the best instruments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by Stradivari and others, to be the most highly valued. During the same time, the demands on the violin have grown and changed. As a result, nearly all of the extant Stradivari violins have been modernized to accommodate later virtuosi's musical demands. While the body of a Baroque violin is essentially the same as a modern instrument, other traits differ. The Baroque neck is a bit shorter and thicker, and projects straight out of the body, rather than bending back. The fingerboard has gradually lengthened as the instrument's range has grown higher. The Baroque sound post (a wooden stick wedged inside between the belly and back of the violin under the treble foot of the bridge) was slimmer, and the bass bar (a piece of wood glued inside under the bass foot of the bridge) was thinner and shorter, changing the tone of the instrument. Modern violin strings are made of steel, not gut, and are strung about 50 percent tighter than Baroque strings. The Baroque bridge was lower and flatter. Violin chin rests were not used until the nineteenth century, and so shifting the left hand from position to position was audible. All three of the Museum's Stradivari violins were modernized at some point, but "The Gould" (55.86a-c) has been restored with a Baroque-style neck, fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece, bass bar, and gut strings.

Bows have changed as well. Eighteenth-century bows, many built by French makers, were differently shaped, with hair not as tightly strung as later models. The older bows had a more pronounced difference between up- and down-strokes.