Books › The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880 › scan 42
Scan 42
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880
2 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1Violin making was at its zenith, the list is indeed a glorious one. At this point we reach the constellation of Scarlatti, Geminiani, Vivaldi, Locatelli, Boccherini, Tartini, Piccini, Viotti, Nardini among the Italians; while in France it is the epoch of Lecler and Gaviniès, composers of Violin music of the highest excellence. Surrounded by these men of rare genius, who lived but to disseminate a taste for the king of instruments, the makers of Violins must certainly have enjoyed considerable patronage, and doubtless the artistes of tried ability readily obtained highly remunerative prices for their instruments, and were encouraged in their march towards perfection both in design and workmanship. Besides the many writers for the Violin, and executants, there were numbers of ardent patrons of the Cremonese and Brescian makers. Among these may be mentioned the Duke of Ferrara, Cardinal Ottoboni, with whom Corelli was in high favour, also the Elector of Bavaria and Charles IX., all of whom gave encouragement to the art by ordering complete sets of stringed instruments for their chapels and for other purposes. By the aid of such valuable patronage the makers were enabled to centre their attention on their work, and received reward commensurate with the amount of skill displayed. This had the effect of raising them above the status of the ordinary workman, and permitted them as a body to pass their lives amid comparative plenty. There are, without doubt, instances of great results obtained under trying circumstances, but the genius required to combine a successful battle with adversity with high proficiency in art is indeed a rare phenomenon. Carlyle says of such minds: "In a word, they willed
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