Violino piccolo
Alternate name(s)
- Violin
Maker
Girolamo Amati
Date1613
Place MadeCremona, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted on paper label, year in black ink: Antonius, & Hieronymous Fr. Amati / Cremoneñ. Andreæ fil. F. I613MarkingsIncised below end pin on rib: 22
Written in pencil in base of peg box: 28
DescriptionThis small-sized violin is preserved in original condition with the inlaid maple fingerboard and tailpiece and thick neck typical of the early 17th century. It may have been made to perform at a higher pitch, as the neck is of the dimensions comfortable for an adult hand. The Cremonese composer Claudio Monteverdi called for "violini piccoli alla francese," or small violin in the French style in his Opera L'Orfeo in 1607.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: fine grain, pin hole in top into upper block- maple pin into lower block
Back: one-piece, slab-cut maple: medium curl descending from treble to bass- maple pins into blocks, compass mark on button
Ribs: slab-cut maple: broad curl, one piece lower rib
Head and neck: maple: faint medium curl- three black nail stains in heel; neck notch at upper edge of neck; tool marks on peg box/ scroll
Arching: low on top
Edging: deeply & broadly scooped on back
Purfling: narrow (wider on fingerboard) does not extend under fingerboard
Decoration:
Varnish: medium red brown with some craquelure
Fingerboard: maple with geometric purfled inlay- pin marks & purfling
Nut: ebony, later
Tailpiece: maple with inlaid geometric purfling, pins & purfling over cut marks- platform with concave chambers on under side
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: boxwood, added by Witten
Saddle: very dark brown or stained; does not extend past purfling pointed extension into rib, top wider than bottom, possibly later
Endpin: turned boxwood with three rings
F-holes: narrow, curved tapered wings, chamfered lower wings, rounded notch corners
Linings: willow wide
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce, grain running perpendicular to plane of back, four iron nails
Bottom block: spruce, grain perpendicular
Bassbar: triangular cross section with rounded lower edge
Technical drawing available for purchase.
DimensionsTotal violin length: 476 mm
Back length: 267 mm
Upper bout width: 126 mm
Center bout width: 84 mm
Lower bout width: 150 mm
Upper rib height: 23-24 mm
Center rib height: 23-24 mm
Lower rib height: 24-25 mm
Stop length: 152 mm
Vibrating string length: 269 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 118 mm
ProvenanceFormerly in collection of Andrew Fountaine, acquired by Witten at Sotheby’s sale, London, April 1968, through J. and A. Beare.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published References"Purchase of Witten Collection Attracts Widespread Attention," Shrine to Music Museum, Inc. Newsletter 11, No. 4 (July 1984), p. 2.
"Witten Collection is Acquired by Shrine to Music Museum at USD," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society 13, No. 3 (October 1984), pp. 1-3.
Roger Hargrave, "Preservation Order," The Strad 96, No. 1142 (June 1985), pp. 125 and 127.
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 8, No. 3 (1987), pp. 33-35.
"Violino Piccolo to be Exhibited in Boston," The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 14, No. 3 (April 1987), p. 4.
“Museum's Strads Go To Italy for Exhibit,” The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 14, No. 4 (July 1987), p. 4.
Margaret Downie Banks, "Small is Beautiful: A Violino Piccolo from the Age of Monteverdi," La Voce (July 1987), p. 4.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), pp. 10 and 48.
Herbert W. Myers, "The Renaissance Violin: An Introduction for Players," Strings 4, No. 5 (March/April 1990), p. 34.
Margaret Downie Banks, "The Violino Piccolo and Other Small Violins," Early Music 18, No. 4 (November 1990), pp. 588-596.
Peter Walls, "Mozart and the Violin," Early Music 20, No. 1 (February 1992), p. 11.
Roger Hargrave, "The Failure of Brotherly Love?," The Strad 104, No. 1237 (May 1993), p. 471.
Paul R. Laird, "That Gut Feeling: The World of Early Strings - The Shrine to Music Museum," Continuo 20, No. 3 (June 1996), pp. 14-15.
Robin Stowell, The Early Violin and Viola (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 172-173.
André Larson, “Andrea Amati's 500th Birthday . . . Secrets, Lives & Violins of the Great Cremona Makers 1505-1744,” National Music Museum Newsletter 32, No. 2 (May 2005), pp. 1-2.
André Larson, “Three Great Violins From the Witten-Rawlins Collection Will Go Home to Cremona, but Only For a Short Visit!,” National Music Museum Newsletter 33, No. 3 (August 2006), pp.4-5.
Alvin Thomas King, "Where Science Meets Art," The Strad 135, No. 1612 (August 2024) p. 53.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03361
On View
Not on view
