Images(36)

Viola d’amore

Maker Bernardo Calcagno

Date1742

Place MadeGenoa, Italy, Europe

SignedPrinted on paper label, with cut corners, the last two digits of year written in black ink: BERNARDUS CALCANIUS / Fecit Genuæ Anno 1742 [maltese cross]
MarkingsBranded on bridge toward neck: A.VIDOUDEZ GENEVE [Alfred Vidoudez, Geneva,1879-1943]
DescriptionBernardo Calcagno was based in Genoa, but likely trained with a Bavarian maker working there, Christopher Rittig. This viola d'amore, a bowed instrument with sympathetic strings running under the fingerboard, is in the German style. The instrument was popular in the eighteenth century for its silvery sound. The head at the top of the pegbox is blindfolded, as "love is blind."

6 melody and 7 sympathetic strings
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain with slight bear claw figure
Back: one-piece maple cut off-the-quarter: medium curl descending from bass to treble
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: medium curl; lower ribs divided by piece of plain maple
Head and neck: fruitwood; head terminates in blindfolded head; neck widened with later wings; outermost strings do not fit inside pegbox
Arching: back not arched, with slight bends at upper and lower bouts
Purfling: inlaid on top, double black-painted lines on back
Varnish: light golden brown
Fingerboard: possibly cherry with ebony binding; decoratively cut and pierced lower end; probably later
Nut: ebony melody string nut; bone sympathetic string nut
Tailpiece: possibly cherry with decoratively cut and pierced outline; bone pin in face near strings; brass button at tailgut position; brass pins hold melody string loops; later
Tailgut: twisted metal wire; later
Pegs: possibly cherry; possibly later
Saddle: ebony; finished with same varnish as body
Endpin: boxwood or maple; decoratively turned face; steel screws affixed to lower rib hold sympathic strings
F-holes: curved wings; extra eyes at each terminus; inside edges slightly undercut and stained dark brown
Linings: willow or poplar; very low and thin
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce; later
Bottom block: spruce; later
Bassbar: spruce; low height; later
Other: wide maple brace on inside of back at soundpost position, over which part of label is applied

DimensionsTotal viola d'amore length: 717 mm
Back length: 356 mm
Upper bout width: 173 mm
Center bout width: 121 mm
Lower bout width: 217 mm
Upper rib height: 30-39 mm
Center rib height: 31-39 mm
Lower rib height: 30-38 mm
Stop length: 188 mm
Vibrating string length: 328 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 139 mm

ProvenanceLaurence Witten acquired from private collection of Emil Herrmann, New York, New York,1962.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesAndré P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 52.

Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984

Object number03379

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