Violin
Maker
Andrea Amati
Date1559 ca.
Place MadeCremona, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsPainted in gold over black on sides: QVO VNICO PROPVGNACVLO STAT STABITQVE RELIGIO
Branded on bridge toward fingerboard: J&A.BEARE
DescriptionThis violin bears a motto on the ribs, QVO VNICO PROPVGNACVLO STAT
STABITQVE RELIGIO, by this one bulwark religion stands and will stand. For many years scholars have searched for this motto as that of an individual, but in light of the surviving viola in Paris with the same motto and combined armorials of Phillip II and the Valois family, it was more likely made for the marriage of the Spanish king and the daughter of the French king, unifying the great French catholic royal courts against the incursions of Protestantism.
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain at center, narrow at edges
Back: two-piece maple cut off-the quarter: medium, irregular curl descending from bass to treble; single maple pins through back into top and bottom block through center joint; later ebony button cap
Ribs: maple cut off-the-quarter: prominent, narrow curl; one-piece lower rib; mark on rib toward back at center joint position; rib corners chamfered
Head: maple; faint, broad curl; inside of pegbox stained dark brown; later
Neck: maple; faint, broad curl; grafted; later
Decoration: painted on sides and back with fleurs-de-lys, other flowers, and mottos, the lettering black with gold paint over; the fleurs-de-lys on back had been crudely defaced and re-added in a more recent restoration; central armorial effaced, the bare oval visible under UV light
Arching: deep channeling around edges
Varnish: medium brown; no varnish under fingerboard
Fingerboard: ebony; later
Nut: ebony; later
Tailpiece: ebony; later
Tailgut: black gut
Pegs: rosewood; later
Saddle: ebony; later
Endpin: rosewood; later
F-holes: very narrow wings; lower wings channeled; large eyes; rounded notches; undercut; edges stained black
Linings: poplar or willow
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce; later
Bottom block: poplar or willow
Bassbar: spruce; later
DimensionsTotal violin length: 582 mm
Back length: 355 mm
Upper bout width: 163 mm
Center bout width: 107 mm
Lower bout width: 201 mm
Upper rib height: 28-30 mm
Center rib height: 29-31 mm
Lower rib height: 29-30 mm
Stop length: 194 mm
Vibrating string length: 328 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 132 mm
ProvenanceAcquired by Laurence Witten from J. and A. Beare Ltd, London, 1977.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesLaurence C. Witten II, “The Surviving Instruments of Andrea Amati,” Early Music, Vol. 10, No. 4 (October 1982), pp. 489, 490, 491.
Andrea Mosconi and Laurence C. Witten, Capolavori di Andrea Amati, Cremona, 1984.
Roger Hargrave, “Preservation Order,” The Strad, Vol. 96, No. 1142 (June 1985), p. 128.
Margaret Downie Banks, “The Witten-Rawlins Collection and Other Early Italian Stringed Instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum,” Journal of the Violin Society of America, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1987, pp. 30-31 (photo p. 30).
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), inside front cover, p. 17, 49.
Greg Dean Petersen, "Bridge location on the early Italian violin," Early Music 35, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 49-64.
---------, Cremona 2007: A Guide to the city of Andrea Amati (London: Newsquest Specialist Media Ltd., June 2007), pp. 1-17.
The Strad Calendar 2009: the Museum Collection. Featured on January 2009.
Philip Ihle, “Between the Lines,” The Strad 123, No. 1470 (October 2012), pp. 34-41. [article about Cremonese purfling corners]
Technical Drawings
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03366
On View
Not on view
