In Focus: a 1682 violin by Nicolò Amati
2022-07-06T10:10:00
Precision and elegance abound in this grand pattern Amati once owned by the Italian virtuoso Spagnoletti, writes Christopher Reuning
It is fortunate that Nicolò Amati survived the plague and subsequent famine that swept Europe in 1630. It was this plague that halted violin making in Brescia and would also have done so in rival Cremona, had Nicolò not been the lone surviving violin maker there. He was 33 years old and probably already taking a lead role in the workshop of his father, Girolamo, who became a victim of the plague in that year.