Andrea Amati

Andrea Amati (* around 1505 in Cremona ; † in December 1577 there ) was the progenitor of violin making in this northern Italian city and the founder of the Amati dynasty . His workshop was continued by his sons Antonio (approx. 1555–1640) and Girolamo (approx. 1556–1630), his grandson Nicola (1596–1684) and his great-grandson Girolamo II (1649–1740).

Life

Little is known about his life. An earlier opinion that he came from a patrician family whose origins can be traced back to Germany as far as 1097 should not be correct; in any case, his father was a certain Maestro Gottardo, so probably a craftsman. It is not certain where and what Andrea learned. In 1526 he was already working as a "liuter" ( lute or violin maker) and lived in the family of Giovanni Liunardo Martinengo, who, however, was hardly likely to have practiced this craft himself, but was apparently a businessman. In 1539, when Amati rented a house in the city center on a long-term basis, which he later bought, he was mentioned in a document as an independent craftsman; In 1576 he explicitly mentions instrument making; At that time he ran the only violin making workshop in Cremona and is considered to be the founder of the so-called Cremonese School. He was probably married around 1530/35; The name and origin of his wife are not clear. Two of his daughters married around 1552/56, his second son Girolamo married in 1574 and again in 1584, while the older son Antonio apparently remained single. The growing sons worked in the workshop, Antonio from around 1575, Girolamo around 1570. Andrea Amati was buried on December 24, 1577 in the (no longer existing) church of San Domenico in the center of Cremona, where there is now a small park is located.

plant

Andrea Amati did not invent the instruments of the violin family, but had a decisive influence on the development that began in northern Italy in the 16th century, especially in Brescia (e.g. Zanetto de Micheli ). He refined the execution of string instruments in terms of wood selection, shape, curvature, Head ( screw ) and painting and adapted them for the use of such instrumentalists. B. in terms of dimensions better. With the use of an inner shape around which the frame wreath was built, he laid the foundation for the work of his descendants, students and the other Cremonese violin-making families of the Guarneri , Ruggeri , Stradivari , Bergonzi and others. a. in the following 200 years.

After years of preparatory work, "Andrea Amati Opera omnia" from all over the world could be seen in Cremona in autumn 2007: 21 of the master's still known and widely recognized works. There are 13 violins (body length partly 350–355 mm, partly 340–345 mm), 5 violas (395–471 mm) and 3 cellos (740–756 mm). Not all of them still belong together in their essential parts; rather, there are replaced tops, frames and heads, and some instruments were later reduced in size. All of them come from about the last 20 years of Andrea Amati's life; however, a clear chronological order could not be established.

Two groups of instruments stand out: It was probably through the Cremonese musicians in Paris that the Amati workshop was connected to the French royal court. H. to Caterina de 'Medici , the mother of the then underage King Charles IX. To order from Paris, Andrea Amati delivered a number of instruments that bear the coat of arms of the King of France and more or less completely his motto PIETATE ET IUSTITIA - or also: IUSTICIA - (with piety and justice) (les violons du roi, not to be confused with Vingt-quatre Violons du Roy ). Some of them have been preserved. On the instruments of a second group, the motto QUO UNICO PROPUGNACULO STAT STABITQUE RELIGIO (religion stands and will exist through this bulwark alone) can be found in whole or in part, on two of them the coat of arms of Philip II , King of Spain and as Duke of Lombardy also Lord of Cremona; his third wife was Elisabeth von Valois , a sister of Charles IX. According to another interpretation, the instruments of the second group were made for Margerita of Valois-Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. She was also a sister of Charles IX. The instruments of both groups still show traces of an ornamental painting thematically related to these ruling houses, which was probably carried out by Cremonese artists.

Andrea Amatis instruments can be found in the following publicly accessible collections:

• Witten-Rawlins Collection. National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, USA: 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 violoncello
• Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation & Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan: 2 violins
• The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: 1 violin, 1 tenor viola
• Tullie House Museum, Carlisle: 1 violin (not on permanent display)
• Comune di Cremona, Cremona: 1 violin
• Musée de la Musique , Paris: 1 viola
• Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York: 1 violin

Julius Berger plays a cello attributed to Andrea Amati.

Web links

• A. Amati instruments at NMM Vermillion, South Dakota ( August 10, 2009 memento on the Internet Archive )
• A. Amati instruments at www.cozio.com

literature

• Carlo Bonetti: La genealogia degli Amati liutai e il primato della scuola liutistica cremonese. In: Bollettino Storico Cremonese. Vol. 8 = Series 2, Vol. 3, 1938, ZDB -ID 433192-8 , pp. 76-95, 105-139.
• Gianpaolo Gregori: Del ritrovamento della data di morte di Andrea Amati. In: Liuteria. Vol. 14, 1985, ZDB -ID 1232397-4 , pp. 21-35.
• Andrea Mosconi, Laurence C. Witten (eds.): Capolavori di Andrea Amati. Ente Triennale Internazionale degli Strumenti ad Arco, Cremona 1991.
• Carlo Chiesa: Qualche notizia storica su Andrea Amati. In: Renato Meucci (ed.): Un corpo alla ricerca dell'anima… Andrea Amati e la nascita del violino 1505–2005. Volume 2: Saggi. = Essays. Ente Triennale Internazionale degli Strumenti ad Arco - Consorzio Liutai Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 2005, ISBN 88-89839-01-5 , pp. 92-107
• Carlo Chiesa: Un'introduzione alla vita e all'opera di Andrea Amati. In: Fausto Cacciatori (ed.): Andrea Amati, opera omnia, les violons du roi. Ente Triennale Internazionale degli Strumenti ad Arco - Consorzio Liutai Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 2007, ISBN 978-88-89839-12-6 , pp. 11-24.
• Renato Meucci: Gli strumenti di Andrea Amati with the motto "Quo unico propugnaculo ..." by Marguerite de France (1553–1615). In: Fausto Cacciatori (ed.): Andrea Amati, opera omnia, les violons du roi. Ente Triennale Internazionale degli Strumenti ad Arco - Consorzio Liutai Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 2007, ISBN 978-88-89839-12-6 , pp. 25-39.
• Philip Kass: Exhibition Report: Big Daddy. In: Strad. Vol. 119, No. 1413, January 2008, ISSN  0039-2049 , pp. 40-44.
• John Dilworth in Brompton's Catalog , Sale 13th December 2010, p. 99.
• Friedemann Otterbach: Beautiful musical instruments. Schuler Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1975, p. 66 f.