VIHUELA DE ARCO

IN FOCUS

A close look at the work of great and unusual makers

This one-of-a-kind vihuela is part of the collection of the Encarnación Monastery in Ávila, 70 miles north-west of Madrid. It is in a remarkable state of preservation and shows no appreciable modifications. Its body outline is not far from those of violin-family instruments. The vihuela has five strings and no evidence of frets. String pressure from the instrument bridge has left a faint imprint on the top which, combined with some maker’s marks on the inside of the ribs, suggest a string length of around 580– 600mm.

Unfortunately the instrument has no label or interior brands or inscriptions. Some dendrochronological tests have been attempted but no matches found, which necessitates the use of alternative dating methods. The monastery was founded in 1479, and even though the appearance of the wood and craftsmanship point to an early date of construction, it is not easy to argue that the vihuela was made around this time. The closest reference is a 1580 painting by El Greco titled The Martyrdom of St Maurice, housed in the Royal Monastery of El Escorial. This painting shows an instrument with similar outline and dimensions being played by an angel. With this in mind, the instrument could be dated to around the mid-16th century, in which case it would be one of the earliest-known bowed stringed instruments.

MATERIALS

The vihuela’s top and back are made from local coniferous wood, while the neck and ribs are of European walnut. The wedged fingerboard and tailpiece are made from a very tight-grained brown wood that might be almond. The pegs could be either boxwood or pearwood. It has light corner-blocks and a bottom-block with the grain running horizontally. All the blocks are made from the same coniferous wood as the top and back. The rest of the internal reinforcements are glued linen.

CONSTRUCTION

Given the vihuela’s symmetry, the assembly process could have been assisted by the use of a mould. All the rib joints are very tight and are clearly the work of a fine artisan. The neck is not strictly made out of a single block: it has a small but noticeable glued piece in the heel, near the back, in order to achieve the whole rib height. A continuous flat is perceptible from the bottom to the nut, a detail that suggests the vihuela was assembled upside-down in the first stages. Then, once the instrument was turned over and the mould removed, the top and fingerboard were added. The angle of the wedged fingerboard increases from 0 to 5 degrees towards the bridge, in order to give the strings the proper angle.

Both materials and construction techniques are in accordance with the contemporary regulations for vihuela making, to be found in trade ordinances for Seville (1502), Lisbon (1572) and Toledo (1617). This vihuela accurately matches their indications in many aspects, such as the use of walnut, the method of using heat to bend the ribs, and the reinforcement of the joints using glued linen.

BELLY

The soundboard was made from three pieces of half-slab-cut wood. The central piece is wide enough to hold the entire bridge itself. The arching is quite flat, reaching a maximum height of 30mm, while the thickness varies from 5mm near the edges to 6mm under the bridge area, and 7–8mm near the fingerboard. There is no bass-bar of any kind. The overhang at the edges varies from 3–6mm wide, and shows a little refined fluting. There is no purfling. All the external wood has been roughly carved, and marks from different tools are visible all over the surface.

ALL PHOTOS PABLO SORIANO

The instrument’s arching is quite flat

El Greco’s The Martyrdom of St Maurice (1580) shows an angel holding a similar vihuela de arco (top right)

Despite the visible line, the rib for the lower bout is made from a single piece of walnut

The hole in this block was intended to hold an endpin

The back is made from a local coniferous wood

All measurements taken with callipers

BACK

The back is also made from three pieces, joined and planed together to thickness of 7–9mm. There are no traces of any soundpost use in the interior. One very interesting feature is the original block on the treble side of the bottom bout, reinforced with glued linen. It has a tapered hole that can accommodate a bar to function as an endpin. This is the only instrument known that has such a feature, giving us a fascinating insight into the contemporary playing position.

RIBS

The rib height increases down the instrument, from 110mm at the neck to 115mm at the bottom. Again, the wood is not quarter-sawn. Its thickness varies from 1.2mm to 2.5mm. The bottom bout is composed of a single piece of walnut. The transitional corner-joints are not mitred but overlapped.

DECORATION AND VARNISH

Apart from the uncommon four soundholes, the sober decoration is restricted to the finial, where there is a carved scroll of beautiful proportions. A light coating of shellac and probably some wax are the only protective layers.