Domenico Montagnana

Domenico Montagnana (born June 24, 1686 in Lendinara , Province of Rovigo ; died March 6, 1750 in Venice ) was a Venetian violin maker .

Life

Domenico Montagnana's father Paolo Montagnana was a shoemaker ( calzolaio ) and had married Adriana Spinelle in Lendinara in 1669. Domenico Montagnana had seven siblings, some of whom, like his mother, died early in 1695. A brother later also came to Venice and worked in Domenico's workshop. It is believed that Montagnana had been in Venice since 1701 and that he was apprenticed to Matteo Sellas and Matteo Goffriller . Pietro Guarneri ( Pietro II , 1695–1762 / 63) (brother of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù ) was in his workshop for a while before he became his competitor.

"Battezzato 29 Giugno 1686 - Sabato" - Montagnana was baptized in the Cathedral of Santa Sofia in Lendinara

His “Lauter” workshop, which he opened in 1711 or 1712, was located on Calle dei Stagneri in the municipality of San Bartolomeo in Venice. He carried the sign sub signum Cremonae .

In Venice he married Caterina Berti and had six daughters with her. Lodovica, the first, was born in 1719, but died in 1734. Since the last birth, Caterina was ill and finally died after twenty years of paralysis in 1748. In 1734 he valued the estate of colleague Angelo Sopran, in which was a number of German instruments. After Domenico's death in 1750, a contract stipulated that Domenico's son and journeyman, Giorgio Serafin, had to merge his father's business Scolo dei Marzeri into the business of the daughters alla Cremona and that he would have one sister, Antonia, within eight months should get married. This wedding took place on November 21, 1751, the highest holiday in Venice. Serafin was now not only able to dispose of extensive working capital and to continue the contracts for the equipment and maintenance of the string instruments of various Venetian church orchestras and the orchestras of the hospitals , but he also took over various instruments, two from Girolamo Amati and one from Stainer , into a well-ordered one Company whose profits he had to share with the sisters.

The Montagnana house was demolished in 1857 as part of the urban redevelopment measures initiated by the Austrian rulers.

Montagnana built string instruments such as violins , violas , cellos and also double basses . In 1730 he succeeded in constructing a special type of construction for the violin. Montagnana is best known as the maker of cellos.

Dissemination of his instruments

It is estimated that there are still more than 100 instruments built by Montagnana today, many of which are still in use and played by famous musicians and are in the possession of private or public collections.

Mischa Maisky has been playing a Montagnana cello since 1973

Play or have played a Montagnana instrument: Lynn Harrell , Mischa Maisky , Orlando Cole , Nathaniel Rosen , Ralph Kirshbaum , Truls Mørk , Alfred Wallenstein , Yo-Yo Ma , Emanuel Feuermann , Jan Vogler , Heinrich Schiff , Wilhelm Melcher .

In Lendinara, Montagnana's birthplace, there is an annual festival where his instruments are shown to their best advantage.

Famous instruments

• Ex-Hekking (1721) - played in 2011 by Jan Vogler, Dresden; since 2015 played by Norbert Anger .
• Petunia (1733) - owned by Yo-Yo Ma
• Feuermann (1735) - a Swiss collector
• Sleeping Beauty (1739) - formerly owned by Heinrich Schiff, previously Gregor Piatigorsky
• Baron Steinheil (1740) (unknown)
• Duchess of Cleaveland (1740) (unknown)
• Ex-Servais (1738) - owned by Nathaniel Rosen
• Montagnana (1710) - was owned by Guilhermina Suggia

literature

• Duane Rosengard:  Montagnana, Domenico. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 12 (Mercadante - Paix). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5 , Sp. 367–369 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
• Stefano Pio: Liuteri & sonadori . Veniceresearch, 2002
• Willibald Leo Freiherr von Lütgendorff : The violins and lute makers from the Middle Ages to the present . 2 volumes, Frankfurt 1922
• Thomas Drescher: The violin and lute makers from the Middle Ages to the present day . Tutzing: Schneider 1990 (ie. Supplementary volume to Willibald Leo Freiherr von Lütgendorff, The violins and lute makers from the Middle Ages to the present )

Web links

• Domenico Montagnana , short biongraphy on the side of the commune of Lendinara (Italian)
• Stefano Pio: Violin and Lute Makers of Venice 1640-1760 , from it the chapter Giorgio Serafin and His bottega "alla Cremona" , at Veniceresearch (English)
• Jan Vogler plays André Hekking's ex Hekking (1721)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Campo San Bartolomeo see Italian Wikipedia it: Campo San Bartolomeo
2. ↑ Ralf Kirshbaum estimates 40 cellos, according to other information, so Cozio ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. there are 112 in total, including 27 cellos, 3 violas and 2 double basses.