2 mins
DOMENICO DEGANI
Domenico Degani is now best remembered as the father of the more wellknown Eugenio Degani. However, he was an accomplished maker in his own right, although his instruments were often made very simply, with secondrate materials to keep the costs down. He lived and worked in the small village of Merlara in the region of Veneto, a few miles from the town of Montagnana and around 30 miles from Padua. His workshop was located in the Via Borgofuro.
Degani was a versatile craftsman who made violins, violas, violas da gamba, lutes and organs. He sold his work through Giovanni Battista de Lorenzi (1806–83), an organ maker based in Padua, who signed his name on Degani’s instruments. It was therefore thought for a long time that de Lorenzi was a violin maker as well, and even that Degani had been influenced by his work. Degani, who favoured Maggini and Amati models throughout his career, also did business with Francesco Lazzaretti (1852–c.1900) from nearby Vicenza.
FORM AND CONSTRUCTION
The 1875 viola shown here is made on a personal model in the style of Maggini. As with much of Degani’s work, the craftsmanship is not too meticulous but we can see very confident and elegant handiwork.
The two-piece top is made from spruce of medium to wide grain. The 19mm-high arch is full and the fluting is soft. The plate thickness ranges between 2.2 and 4.2mm. The back, made from sycamore, has an arching height of 17mm. The plate thickness varies from 2.0 to 5.5mm. The paperthin ribs are also of sycamore, with that of the lower bouts in one piece.
EDGEWORK AND PURFLING
Stained rosewood and maple have been used for the purfling. Each strip is about 2mm in width, and ends in delicate bee-stings in the centre of each corner. The width of the purfling is around 2mm all round.
SCROLL
Degani used field maple for the shallowcarved scroll, which is in the style of Antonio Pedrinelli (1781–1854).
INTERIOR
The design of the bottom-block is irregular, and seems to have been carved according to the maker’s mood at the time. The surprisingly long spruce corner-blocks are cut in the style of the south German masters. The linings, made from flamed maple, are fitted in the corner-blocks.
The neck and top-block construction is like that of a lute or guitar. They are made in one piece and the ribs are fixed into a channel in the top-block using wooden wedges and glue. This style is commonly seen in the instruments of 18th- and 19th-century Bohemia and Klingenthal, but not very often in Italian work.
VARNISH
Degani has used a red–orange varnish. On the top plate he has used brown pigment or walnut stain to darken the wood.
LABEL
The label is original and handwritten, but is very hard to read. Only the word ‘Montagnana’ can be made out in the lower left corner.
MAKER DOMENICO DEGANI
NATIONALITY ITALIAN
BORN 1820
DIED 1887
INSTRUMENT VIOLA
DATE 1875