Antonio Stradivari

ork, Nothing Striking, but Slowly Progressive-Which of the Designs of his Master he was most Impressed by, and his

Cremona famous throughout the civilised world. For in that city and in that year was born a male child, whose surname was eventually to eclipse by its own refulgence the renown of the city itself. Its paternal name was Stradivari, people trouble themselves very little about the prefix Antonio, common enough in Ita

ions that as the time arrived when he was supposed fit for training to fight life's battle, he had already exhibited talent

o us: but there is a lightning like flash thrown out by the fact of old Nicolas Amati bequeathing his collection of tools, patterns, etc., to Antonio Stradivari, and, be it noticed, not to his own son, then over thirty years of age. That the future master of his craft had been a steady and beloved pupil of his great teacher, there is no room for doubt; indeed, steadiness, fixity of purpose and honest intention, are manifested in his work during the whole of his career. The earliest of his handiwork has become k

ne the earliest known work of his hand-it may be observed on some of the late violins of his master-there is plainly perceptible the efforts at excelling where at all possible; and if, as is extremely probable-his ma

alone in competition among the growing swarms of makers who were now busy as bees in most parts of Italy. The start is generall

ost distinguished maker of the city-he carried others no less necessary for the long course of thought and labour that he was about to enter upon. These were, an earnest desire for improvement in all his undertakings, natural, indig

work of his great teacher, and which as pupil he had been studiously and conscientiously carrying out. On the contrary, his efforts seem to have been rather to draw the mantle thrown by his master closer around him than to dispense with any part of its protective power. Thus we see in his works of this period which have remained to us, very little more than replicas of those of his master in which he for s

OF ANTONIO

complex in the subdivision of its curves, and a more simple looking thing altogether. To him it may have seemed to have more of the true characteristic quality always accompanying the grand in art, that of simplicity. It was this pattern, and this only, so far as our information goes-that Stradivari took as the basis on which any future developments should be grounded. He worked upon it for some time seemingly to his own contentment and probably the satisfaction of his patrons, these being sufficiently numerous and influential to enable him ere many years had passed to think of purchasing a house.[A] This he accomplished in the year 1680, when he was thirty-six years of age. Now be it noted Stradivari had been working on the simplest of Amati patterns for fourteen years, and during that time from his steady industry the number of violins, besides other instrumen

ARI'S W

ico, Cremona, was demolished some twenty years since and our illustration is from a photo taken just before the event. The Chapel of the Rosary

No. 2.

las Amati pattern of Stradivari. No. 3.

flow with ease and grace to the squared corners. The slightest possible narrowing or decrease in the size of the upper of the waist curve and a corresponding enlargement of the lower part, served in the hands of Stradivari to impart a different aspect to the whole pattern. The waist, now less pinched in at the middle, looked longer without being really so. The parts above the upper corners and those below the lower ones were modified, the large curves becoming a little flatter just before blending with the smaller ones. From these alterations, each one trifling in itself, there resulted what may be called the first