Grand piano converted into a 3-manual harpsichord
Maker
Vincenzio Sodi
Distributor
Leopoldo Franciolini
Date1789
Place MadeFlorence, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedIn ink, on the cutoff bars under the soundboard:on the bar near the bridge: Firenze 1789 Agosto
on the second bar: Vincenzio Sodi Fece A essere stato chiesto da tre Speriamo anc[h]e possa essere ― un’ re’
Markingsnone
DescriptionAs made by Vincenzio Sodi in 1789, the instrument was originally a piano with compass FF to g3 (63 notes); the missing action would have been of the German (Viennese) type. Shortly before its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1900, it was fraudulently and crudely altered, almost certainly by the firm of Leopoldo Franciolini in Florence, into an elaborately decorated three-manual harpsichord with compass FF to f3 (61 notes). With no provision to change the stops, the disposition was:
4' >dogleg, upper and middle manuals
8' >dogleg, middle and lower manuals
< 8' lower manual.
Of Sodi’s work the principal remains are:
The entire case (with walnut walls, presumably originally varnished)
The interior structure
The wrest plank
The soundboard
Probably the lid (also of walnut)
Possibly most of the wrest pins (which, if not by Sodi, might well have been taken from old Italian harpsichords)
From Franciolini are:
All of the action parts: jacks, jack guide, and keyboards (possibly incorporating some older material, e.g., for the bone coverings of the lower-manual naturals; the middle- and upper-manual naturals are covered in ivory)
The wrest-plank veneer
The nuts and bridges (which were so badly glued as to be almost entirely loose)
The nameboard and jackrail
The decorative painting
The stand.
The case exterior, now with painted decoration added by Franciolini, was presumably originally the natural walnut of the walls.
DimensionsPrincipal (unaltered original) dimensions of the case, excluding moldings:
Length: 2086 mm
Width: 1014 mm (measured at the bottom, at the front of the spine and cheek piece)
Height: 227 to 232 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1900 for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Mary Elizabeth Crosby Brown from intermediaries in Italy, presumably acting for Leopoldo Franciolini of Florence. Deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983. Purchased by John Koster and, subsequently, donated to the National Music Museum.
Published ReferencesBoalch, Donald H. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840. Third edition, edited by Charles Mould (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 636.
Brown, M. E., ed. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments of All Nations: Catalogue of Keyboard Instruments (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1903), pp. 92-97.
Koster, John. “Three Grand Pianos in the Florentine Tradition,” Musique-Images-Instruments, Vol. 4 (1999), pp. 94-116.
Rolfo, María Virginia. Vincenzio Sodi: Life and Work (M.M. thesis, Univeristy of South Dakota, 2011), pp. 186-195.
Russell, Raymond. The Harpsichord and Clavichord: an Introductory Study (London: Faber and Faber, 1959), p. 29.
Winternitz, Emanuel. Keyboard Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: a Picture Book (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1961), pp. 28-29.
Credit LineGift of John and Jacqueline Block Koster, 2008
Object number14356
On View
Not on view
1625-1675 ca.
