Portrait of Antonio Stradivari

Posted on | September 5, 2007

Antonio Stradivari (1644 – December 18, 1737) was an Italian luthier, a crafter of stringed instruments such as violins, celli, guitars and harps.

Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field.

“Strad”, is often used to refer to his instruments.

He is the one of the most famous Violine maker in the world and respected one for many centuries.

Still today Antonio Stradivari (1644 - 1737) is the most famous violin maker ever lived. He optimized the violin’s tonal qualities to achieve a firmer sound and “beautified” the outline which had been prosumably designed by Gasparo da Salo and finally sized to its nowaday’s measures by the Amati family. He foresaw the need for a firm sound as concert halls grew steadily.

During his lifetime violins of his teacher Nicolo Amati and those made by the Austrian violinmaker Jacob Stainer were thought of as the best. They were well-balanced and sweet in tone but the firm sound suitable for being heard distinctly even in the most distant corners of large concert halls was missing. Amatis and Stainers are first choice for chamber music still today.
During his ripening period he made to combine the beautiful sound of the Amatis and Stainers with the increasingly demanded strength and loudness. The quality of this combination is said to be unreached until now, although there is proof of instruments of excellent modern violin makers which truely withstand a comparison to a Stradivari instrument.

Prices for a genuine Stradivari can be worth millions of DM and so it is not surprising that since the 19th century until today Antonio Stradivari’s instruments are the most copied and faked ones. There is an anecdote, that for some decades a fake was mistaken for a genuine Stradivari. Finally the instrument was taken for a violin made by the french master Vuillaume who is thought of as the “French Stradivari”. Nevertheless, Vuillaume had become famous as an ingenious cheat after he presented his “Tiefenbrucker-Fakes”.

Only two of his children worked as a violin maker in his workshop, Francesco und Omobono. From the year 1700 on the master’s ripening period begins. At this time his helping sons are 29 and 20/21 years old. The golden period ends after 1720, Antonio is more than 70, his sons 50 and 40 years old.

There are not many instruments of the sons, which are seen as genuine. Perhaps they had to do the “lower” parts like cutting scrolls and similar works. Besides, Antonio was in his ripening period and a man with a high reputation so that the workshop could only stay in this state by doing the tonal adjustments only by Antonio himself or by glueing his labels into the instruments not those of his sons.

A big problem is that recordings on the process of violinmaking occur some decades after 1750. As an early example there was a prize-winning theoretical essay on the proportions of the violin at the end of the 18th century. The first book on violin making was written by Jacob August Otto in 1809, a master which said of himself having invented the sixth string on the modern guitar which is constant in its tuning (guitar) until today.

J. A. Otto takes it for granted that “the old masters” would have used amber varnish. This is a position of many american violin makers of today although it is very doubtly.

Back to Stradivari: His date of death is undoubtly the 18th December 1737. He enjoyed a long life and prosumably was still working in his workshop until shortly before “the end”. The works of his last years lack the quality of former years. In his time he made it being well-off which does not happen very often to an artist during his lifetime.

His violins are said to sound cleanly, well-balanced, firmly and dynamically. Paganini, one of the earliest true virtuosos and composers in one person and a man characterized as the “devil player” did in fact not use a Stradivari.

After his death Paganini made the name “Guarneri del Gesu” famous to the world, a master forever standing in the shadow of his famous neighbour Stradivari, part of his time living in jail and making violins unter adverse conditions. Guarneri del Gesu died impoverished and was accepted decades later through Paganini. Today his rare instruments are absolutely top class. The quality of craftsmanship is not as superb as of Stradivari but his instruments do have “undescribable tonal passion” which even is not present in Stradivari’s instruments.

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