A MASTER COPYIST

A comparison of Gaetano Sgarabotto’s own work (Ieft side), a violin made in 1929; and (right side) one of his replicas after Lorenzo Storioni. The scroll of the right violin is illustrated in Figure 5, page 49

PHOTO G. MOVILLI (LEFT) AND TARISIO AUCTIONS (RIGHT)

Gaetano Sgarabotto (1878–1959) and his son Pietro (1903–90) are known by most violin enthusiasts as makers of rened instruments, and Gaetano in particular is also famed for his expertise at making copies, as a counterfeiter of classical Italian instruments which have been able to deceive expert observers even in recent decades. Less known is their remarkable contribution as scholars and educators, and as 2019 marks the 90th anniversary of their founding of the Parma violin making school within the city’s conservatoire, it seems an opportune moment to explore further their contribution to the history of lutherie.

Gaetano moved from his native Vicenza to Milan in 1897, initially drawn there for the purposes of continuing his cello studies. Having also been trained as a craftsman in the field of decorative arts, he soon became fascinated by instrument making, and after a few years he started a collaboration with the renowned atelier of Leandro Bisiach. In 1911 he moved back to Vicenza and eventually settled in Parma in 1926.

FIGURE 1 Sgarabotto frequently used parts of large instruments, in this case an old German cello he attributed to the Müller family, to form the exterior surfaces of his replicas. This remnant clearly shows the outline of a violin he cut out from the back plate.

FIGURE 2 PHOTO COURTESY TARISIO AUCTIONS

FIGURE 2 Head from a ccllo by Gaetano Sgarabotto after Grancino

COPYING CLASSICAL WORKS OF ART WAS THE USUAL WAY IN WHICH ARTISTS WERE TRAINED, AT LEAST AS FAR BACK AS THE RENAISSANCE

From the year of his arrival in Milan, Gaetano made a record in a set of small notebooks of all the instruments he saw and repaired over the next four decades. Pietro then arranged these notes into a text entitled Storia documentata della liuteria (‘A documented history of violin making’). He also drew together all that he had learnt from his father regarding the classical method of violin making and, in 1936 (the year the Parma school closed and left room for the nascent Cremona school), wrote what can be considered the first violin making method in modern Italy, the Teorico e pratico di liuteria (‘.eory and practice of violin making’).

In addition to these (and other) unpublished writings, there is an extensive collection of Gaetano’s plaster casts from classical instruments which Pietro donated in 1961 to the Cremona violin making school, where he taught from 1958 to 1973… These items include hundreds of casts of scrolls, f-holes, corners and other details from instruments by most of the classical Italian makers, as well as wooden fragments obtained while repairing them.

Gaetano also reused original parts from classical instruments to create fakes and replicas, using refined techniques such as preserving a thin section of wood and varnish from an original instrument and then modelling it and gluing it to new wood (for example, a violin back) so that it became its exterior ‘skin’. Gaetano was so skilled that he was even able to insert a pur.ing and create an edge in the original material with minimal reworking of the antique surfaces. His working methods become obvious on examination of some of the cut-outs still preserved in Cremona, their shapes clearly showing what happened to the now missing section (figure 1). These processes were detailed by the maker himself in notes which were probably not intended for publication.

Scientists studying mirror neurons have recently explained why copying is such a highly e.cient method of learning. In fact, copying classical works of art was the usual way in which artists were trained at least as far back as the Renaissance. The Sgarabottos themselves were clearly aware of this phenomenon, and in the Teorico e pratico, Pietro expressed his respect for the activity of the imitator – and no doubt, by extension, his own father – when he wrote: ‘To make a perfect copy, one that is so similar to the original that it might be mistaken for it, you must be a great artist, far more skilled than the maker you are trying to imitate.’

FIGURE 3 PHOTO G. MOVILLI. FIGURES 4 AND 5 PHOTOS COURTESY TARISIO AUCTIONS

GAETANO SGARABOTTO FELT FREE TO TAKE ONLY THE FEATURES OF THE ORIGINAL THAT HE CONSIDERED TO BE USEFUL TO HIS PURPOSES

According to Pietro, ‘On an artistic level, the scroll is the most difficult part of the entire violin making process. Besides housing the four tuning pegs, it is an expression of artistry and skill. Making a scroll may require little effort for a sculptor or carver, but making one that has artistic merit is a rare gift.’ For this reason, the focus here is on Gaetano’s scrolls. Moreover, his scrolls show how his approach to making replicas was quite different from today’s common practice of painstaking imitation of the original in every minute detail down to each dent and scratch in the varnish. In the early 20th century, obtaining a photo of an original classical instrument for the purposes of judging the quality of a copy was not a straightforward process, hence Sgarabotto felt freer to take only the features of the original which he considered to be useful to his purposes, while elsewhere he took the liberty of expressing his personality without. filters. And so, although it is going to be difficult for experts in, say, 2070 to recognise from their style the replica makers of today, it is extremely easy to identify Sgarabotto’s hand in his copies. This does not, however, imply that Sgarabotto lacked creativity: his copies are, in fact, highly imaginative and have been inspired by a huge variety of different makers.

Examples of Sgarabotto’s scrollwork are not limited to those on his numerous complete instruments, for there is also a collection of independent scrolls which he passed to his son and which forms a sort of repertoire of several violin making styles.

This collection is housed at the Cremona school, together with the above-mentioned casts and fragments.

Since Sgarabotto started his professional career in Milan, the makers of the Grancino and Testore families were a main source of inspiration for him. Figure 2 shows a Grancino-style cello head, distinguished by an enlarged volute far from the central eye, which is smaller compared with other models; and figure 3 shows a convincing violin scroll from a Carlo Antonio Testore replica. The profile of the latter is a true lesson in the style of Testore, with a typically oblique, ovalshaped scroll and the small eye far from the second turn; the toolmarks are also left on show, which is consistent with observations Sgarabotto made in his notebooks: ‘Remember that historic instruments were not polished with sandpaper, because it did not yet exist, so the toolmarks left during construction were visible. Once you finish varnishing, rub the instrument with deerskin or a rough cloth to oxidise the wood.’

SCROLL PHOTOS G. MOVILLI. SGARABOTTO PHOTO COURTESY ANDREA ZANRÈ

SGARABOTTO PARTICULARLY ENJOYED COPYING MAKERS CLOSELY CONNECTED TO THE CLASSICAL CANON BUT WHO ALSO HAD A HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL TASTE

Gaetano Sgarabotto in C.1920

Sgarabotto particularly enjoyed copying makers closely connected to the classical canon but who also had a highly individual taste or showed in their work a clear adherence to the style of a specific geographical area. His fine copies of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini are very well known to experts: in the violin scroll shown in figure 4, the volute is markedly oval-shaped and underscored by a powerful chamfer. It is interesting to compare the Guadagnini head with one on a Lorenzo Storioni replica (figure 5).

Sgarabotto was not an admirer of the work of the late Cremonese master, whom he described in his notebooks as being of ‘paltry aesthetics’ and ‘shaky craftsmanship’; Storioni’s ‘uninspired’ scroll is freely interpreted, although his typically shallow pegbox throat is maintained in the copy.

As far as regional schools are concerned, apart from Milan, Sgarabotto’s favourites were Mantua and Naples. The Cremona collection in fact includes two masterly interpretations of scrolls by the Mantuan makers Camillo Camilli (figure 6) and Tommaso Balestrieri (figure 7). The first is a perfect interpretation in the style of that maker, in its choice of materials (the local maple, or oppio), the hue of the varnish and the fact that the spiral of the volute is tight around the eye.

One of Sgarabotto’s notebooks contains a detailed description of Balestrieri’s scrolls: ‘Small, flat […] fluting with a rounded thin chamfer; the central ridge is wide, and on the throat two millimetres in from the level of the sides; also a deep spoonlike fluting around the volute […] The spiral of the volute is high. The peghole position is Italianstyle.

The back is wider than the front and the chin is oval.’

Sgarabotto was very familiar with Neapolitan maker Gennaro Gagliano’s instruments. For example, he describes the purfling as being made ‘of beech with linings, also made of beech, not set into the small blocks of spruce’, and the ‘magnificent scroll’ in which ‘the turn of the volute is low and the termination of the (sometimes oval) eye is short’.

The Cremona collection includes one of Sgarabotto’s Gagliano-style scrolls (figure 8), which would easily have found a place among authentic ones had Gaetano not remained faithful to his own shape of pegbox, instantly recognisable in the front view for its straight, geometrical shape and the sturdy pegbox cheeks.

Sgarabotto at his Vicenza workshop in September 1925

ALL SCROLL PHOTOS G. MOVILLI. SGARABOTTO PHOTO COURTESY ANDREA ZANRÈ

It is noteworthy how rarely one encounters Stradivari or Guarneri replicas made by Sgarabotto. These must indeed have only had a lukewarm appeal for him in his work as a copyist. In fact, since the early decades of the 19th century, dozens of French, German and British violin makers had been making Stradivari and Guarneri replicas, and Sgarabotto may have considered doing the same a sterile or boring exercise, and he certainly could not have foreseen how this practice would have continued in the following decades right up to the present day. As far as classical Cremonese violin making is concerned, however, he did leave to his son just one scroll in the style of Nicolo Amati (figure 9), who was the main influence on his own making. The remarkable craftsmanship explains the phrase written in pencil by Pietro on the flat surface of the neck: Tu sei il mio maestro (‘You are my master’), though it’s impossible to know whether the tribute is paid to his father or to Amati – or, as is more likely, to both.

Andrea Zanrè’s book I Segreti di Sgarabotto has recently been published by Scrollavezza and Zanrè, and will be available from November at The Strad Shop