A new take on an old classic

To combat the tedium of the Covid-19 lockdowns, Andrea Schudtz embarked on a project to copy a decorated Andrea Amati violin – but with a modern twist

The finished ‘il Portoghese’ copy. The figures on the original appear more rounded and less defined than the others of the ‘Charles IX’ set

Making a copy of one of Andrea Amati’s decorated instruments had been one of my life’s ambitions for many years. In October 2007 I had attended the exhibition ‘Andrea Amati: Les Violons du Roi’ at Cremona’s Museo Civico, which brought together a number of instruments that the 16th-century luthier had made for the court of Charles IX of France. I was deeply impressed by that exhibition, bought the catalogue and decided to learn more about the instruments.

However, owing to pressures of work, the project remained on the back burner until 2020, when Cremona was seriously hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the government instigated a two-month lockdown. This gave me all the necessary free time to devote myself to projects such as this.

I had initially planned to make a copy of the ‘King’ Amati cello, with the preserved allegorical figures of Piety and Justice, and some fragments of crownbearing angels. But due to the strict regulations in force, I had to work at home and it was too difficult to move all the tools from the workshop to my place to make the cello. I realised it would be easier to make a violin, so I changed my mind and instead decided to make a copy of ‘il Portoghese’, one of the less-copied Andrea Amati instruments. I also saw that the decoration on the back was very different from those of the other ‘Charles IX’ instruments. For this reason it is assumed that this violin’s decoration was painted after his reign had ended.

In beginning the project, I looked for similar wood to that of the Amati violins, which needed to be very well seasoned. I selected it from the spruce and maple that belonged to my father, also a luthier and my first teacher, from whom I had learnt the craft of violin making at a very young age.

Of ‘il Portoghese’, only the back and ribs are original. The back is a single piece of maple with an optimal flame pattern. The model and the body dimensions are very similar to those of other Andrea Amati violins. However, when it came to establishing the shape I realised there were contemporary concerns that precluded my making an exact copy. The Amati instruments were designed for Baroque and chamber music, which was composed for a small group of instruments that could fit in a palace chamber or in a large room, and was performed by a small number of performers. It does not usually include solo instrument performances, and the needs of today’s musicians are substantially different from those of a 16th-century player. So in fact I made a copy inspired by ‘il Portoghese’, essentially converting the Amati model to modern use.

The project required the building of a new internal mould

ALL PHOTOS COURTESYANDREA SCHUDTZ

First of all, I slightly changed the thicknesses, trying to make them closer to those of Stradivari instruments while remaining faithful to the original. I also had to change the bass-bar, which is longer in modern instruments. I made the ribs slightly wider than the original ones to make the soundbox appear a little bigger. Finally, I used a modern set-up for the neck, fingerboard, bridge and tailpiece, as opposed to the original Baroque set-up. As a result, this violin does have a softer sound if compared to modern violins but, according to the musicians who have tried it both at my workshop and at the Mondomusica exhibition, it is an instrument they would gladly play even in a solo concert for violin.

A professional painter added the decoration

As I said, the decorative technique on ‘il Portoghese’ is different from that of the other violins in the set. The figures appear more rounded, with less definition; on the ribs, the black border provides a depth that is normally absent; the C-bout embellishments are unique; and the crowns appear to be designed directly in gold. Most obviously, the usual allegorical figures of Piety and Justice are not present on this instrument, although Charles IX’s motto ‘Pietate et Iustitia’ appeared on each side of the ribs. Only a few letters can still be read, however.

I WAS GLAD TO HAVE BROUGHT ANDREA AMATI’S STUNNING WORK INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

Much of the human figure on the right has been worn away. It wears a crown and an ermine mantle and has a fish at its feet, so it might be the symbol of Poissy, the native city of King Louis IX. So this figure could be the monarch who lived 300 years previously. But – according to other studies – it could be King Charles IX himself. The human decoration on the left, with a red dress, is accompanied by the symbol of a small dragon, which is a typical attribute of St Margaret of Antioch.

According to the exhibition catalogue, there are many similarities between the painted decorations on the ‘Charles IX’ instruments and the work of artists living in Cremona at the time. Generally they correspond to the style of Cremonese Mannerism; in the absence of any documentary evidence, they cannot be securely attributed to any specific artist, but the work of the contemporary Campi family was obviously a clear influence. Painters such as Giovanni Battista Trotti ‘il Malosso’, and Sofonisba and Elena Anguissola, have been named in connection with these decorations.

Hence, Amati himself probably turned to his contemporaries to obtain the decoration he needed. Knowing this, I had no hesitation in finding a good professional painter to make the drawings on my own violin, to be as faithful as possible to the original. It was not easy to find somebody with good experience both in fresco painting and in instrument decoration, but I was very pleased with the final result.

In September 2022 I had the chance to hear my ‘il Portoghese’ copy played in the G. Arvedi Auditorium of the Museo del Violino. Violinist Yulia Berinskaya performed on it, giving me the chance to find the best sound setting. All in all, I was glad to have brought Andrea Amati’s stunning work into the 21st century with a new interpretation of his classic design, in a way to appeal to modern players as well as traditionalists.