Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/385

 VIOLIN 365 been lost for about a century, although great pains and much money have been expended in the endeavor to recover it. It is sometimes red, sometimes brown, and sometimes yellow ; but in its best and most beautiful form it is of a clear dark amber color, and indeed makes the violin appear as if it were coated with a thick film of that precious fossil gum. Nicholas, son of Hieronymus, is one of the three great Cremonese makers, the other two being Guar- nerius and Stradivarius. Nicholas still further modified the Amati pattern by lowering the arch. He lengthened the / holes and added grace to their curve. He was very choice in the selection of his wood and in his varnish, under which the backs of some of his instru- ments (cut so as to show both grains of the wood) flash like the sides of a richly colored fish, while the bellies have a soft silken surface. He made two patterns : one in his earlier years, which was rather small, and in his mature and later period a large one, the instruments which he then made being known as the " grand Ama- tis." Andrea Guarnerius (Guarneri) was the next of the great Cremonese makers. He was a pupil of Nicholas Amati, whose pattern he followed, but reduced yet again the height of the modelling. His workmanship is not equal to that of Nicholas Amati, but his instruments are in high repute, and his violoncellos are particularly fine. He was followed by his son Joseph, who was a great maker and formed a style of his own. He modified the bowing- curves, narrowing the instrument at the upper part of the waist, but giving it a large outward sweep below. He adopted the pointed form of Gaspard di Salo's f hole, but not its width, thus introducing what is known as the Guar- nerius f hole, one of the most characteristic forms that appear in the history of violin ma- king. Other members of the Guarneri fam- ily were violin makers; but the greatest of the name was Joseph Antony, who did not use his second christened name, and who is called Joseph del Gesu, to distinguish him from the other Joseph, and because of a cipher con- sisting of a cross and the monogram I. H. S. which he printed on his labels. Joseph Guar- nerius del Gesu, a nephew of Andrea, was born with a genius for violin making. The dates of the birth and death of these great ma- kers are rarely known ; for in their day they were mere hard-working artisans, who sold for a few florins instruments which now com- mand hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. But we know that Joseph del Gesti was born June 8, 1683. His originality is shown by the fact that he was in no respect an imi- tator of Antonius Stradivarius, who had during his lifetime the reputation of being the great- est of violin makers, and who was 40 years older than Joseph del Gesu. The outline, the modelling, the/ holes, and the scroll of Guar- nerius all differ from those of Stradivarius, and are full of character. His workmanship was rarely very fine, rather bold than highly finished ; but his instruments have a tone which for breadth, richness, and a peculiarly penetrating human quality, has never been surpassed, if indeed it has been equalled. He did not work by rule apparently, for his in- struments differ somewhat in outline and even in the thickness and proportion of the wood ; but they all show his unmistakable style. They all have a noticeable breadth in the waist, owing to the comparative shallowness of the bowing curves ; and their tone is prob- ably due in a great measure to this peculiar- ity. A fine specimen of his work in peffect preservation is worth from $2,000 to $2,600. We now turn back to Antonius Stradivarius, who, although he was not the superior or per- haps the equal of Joseph Guarneri del Gesu in natural gifts, we may almost say genius, stands confessed as the greatest of all violin makers. He was born in 1644, and became a pupil of Nicholas Amati, whose pattern he at first adopted without change, so that it is difficult to distinguish his earlier violins from those of his master. What he did indeed was to carry the principles of Nicholas Amati to perfection. He worked almost scientifically and by rule. He had three periods : the first was imitative ; in the second he narrowed the waist of his instruments, producing in this way what is known as his "long" pattern, which is long only because of its proportions ; and in the last he perfected his style. He reduced the swell of the arching to the lowest possible point, carrying it gently to the very edge of the instrument. He also straightened some- what the upper curve of the outline, thereby increasing the vibrating surface. He adopted what appears to be the best proportion of thickness in the wood, his bellies and backs diminishing gradually from the middle line to the edges ; the result being a remarkable firm- ness, evenness, and equality of tone on all the strings and in all the positions. He brought the/ hole to the perfection of proportion and grace of outline, and the same may be said of his scroll, which has no peculiar character like the Amati, the Guarnerius, and the Stainer / holes, its proportions being so perfect that it cannot be caricatured. His workmanship AVBS absolute perfection, and his varnish soft, rich, brilliant, and generally of a dark amber color, but sometimes red or reddish brown. The wood that he used was selected with the utmost care both for vibratory power and beauty of grain. In brief, he left nothing to be desired, except perhaps a little more expression of in- dividuality. (See STEADIVAEI.) A fine Stradi- varius violin commands from $1,500 to $3,000, and in the case of celebrated instruments even more. Violoncellos are considerably less in price, owing only to the smaller demand for them. A very celebrated violin maker was Jacob Stainer of Absom in Tyrol, born about 1620. He has been said to have studied his art with the Amatis, and has therefore been reckoned among the Italian school ; but there