Violin
private collection
Since the mid-16th century, both the history of violin making and the lives of the luthiers who have marked the evolution of this instrument have been inextricably bound up with the history of Cremona.
Andrea Amati (1505c.-1577) first appeared in a 1539 rental deed found in the town’s archives. The document stated that the Magister, son of Gottardo, rented a house and workshop in the quarter known as Isola, where other great Cremonese makers would work in the following years.
From 1566, Andrea built a whole orchestra of instruments for the French court’s dances. The last group of instruments, of which this violin is one of the rare surviving examples, was probably delivered in 1572, on the occasion of Charles IX’s marriage. Two centuries later, the fury of French revolutionaries did not spare the works of Andrea, then preserved in Versailles: the set of instruments was dispersed, and part of it was lost forever.
On the bouts, only the letters TAT of the original royal motto PIETATE ET IUSTICIA are visible; they appear between two parallel lines, again in gold leaf, that outline a geometric decoration on the middle bouts that is visible on other instruments of the consort for Philip II.
At the centre of the back, we find the coat of arms with the three fleurs-de-lys of the Valois dynasty surmounted by the royal crown. The coat of arms is framed by a festoon featuring the St James scallop at regular intervals and, in the lower part, the seal of the Order of St Michael.
Above and below this coat of arms, traces of two mirrored crowns are positioned above the letter C or K of Carolus. Immediately above and below these letters are two intertwined columns enveloped in swirling festoons with the royal motto Pietate et Iusticia.
The parts of the instrument considered to be original are the back, the bouts and parts of the head; in the upper part of the back there are signs of a replaced portion due to accidental damage or, given the position of the joint, one might even consider that the instrument was originally a soprano viol, with the fold corresponding to the gluing line.