Scan 92
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 50. See the scan on archive.org.
1That this was in the power of young Joseph Guarnerius, all connoisseurs will readily admit; his training, his apparent means of obtaining the exact quality and growth of pine for the upper tables or soundboards of his violins, all being evidenced by his work taken as a whole.
3But there is one consideration that must not be overlooked in our criticism. There was the requirement of the hour; the fulfilment was in the hands of the man found ready and determined to do his best.
5Had the man been only of a stamp such as can be seen upon many works of an even respectable standing in the same branch of art, Joseph Guarnerius might have been known to but few connoisseurs of the present day, and only by them as a quaint, unrecognised Italian liutaro.
7He was not of such a disposition, but being a man of the most marked individuality, so noticeable during the middle and later portion of his career, it could not be expected in reason that evidence of it would be absent in his earliest works, notwithstanding the very close alliance with the ideas of his teacher.
9We are fortunately able to make a fair comparison between the work of Joseph Guarnerius of 1706 and that of Andreas Gisalberti, as exhibited in the several specimens which have been reproduced for these pages. Supposing the separation of master and pupil to have occurred within a year, or very shortly before the construction of this violin, 1706, we can perceive already a hint thrown out as to the direction in which a possible development of his powers might manifest itself. This is in the lengthening or spreading of the curves, in parts where his master's lines may have seemed to him somewhat cramped.
11This, doubtless, was with the view of introducing more of the gracefulness combined with breadth of style in design, and which was to be a retained peculiarity as he advanced in his studies. It is further particularly noticeable in the form and position of the soundholes: these, while having strongly over them the Gisalberti character-
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