Amati Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made by Nicolo Amati in Cremona, Italy in 1675. Nicolo Amati (1596-1684) was from the third generation of the famous Amati family in Cremona. The son of Hieronymous I, Nicolo is commonly regarded as the greatest maker of the family. He is renowned for having

developed refinement, elegance and attention to detail not seen in the work of earlier makers. While using a variety of models, he developed a favorite large pattern of exquisite proportions which is known in our time as the “Grand Pattern” Amati. These instruments, with bodies of greater length and width than others of his output, have powerful voices suitable even for the modern soloist. The violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, back of two-piece slab maple with irregular fine gently descending figure with broad figure at the upper bout corners, ribs of similar maple, grafted maple neck terminating in the original pegbox and scroll of even medium figured maple, and golden-orange-brown varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1675
• maker: Amati, Nicolo
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 1/2 in x 8 1/8 in x 3 3/4 in; 59.69 cm x 20.6375 cm x 9.525 cm
• Place Made: Italy: Lombardy, Cremona
• ID Number: 1979.0548.01
• accession number: 1979.0548
• catalog number: 1979.0548.01
• Credit Line: Anonymous
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.