Lutherie

In Focus: A 1729 violin by Pietro Gallinotti

2021-03-23T20:55:00

IF3

Written by Dmitry Gindin

Pietro Gallinotti was born in 1885 in Solero, a village in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, about halfway between Genoa and Turin. He apprenticed as a cabinet maker, and according to legend his first encounter with instrument making came during his time as a prisoner in the First World War, when he was ordered to build a violin. In the years immediately following the war, Gallinotti spent time in Genoa, where he was no doubt influenced by Genoese makers such as Cesare Candi, who all worked in a characteristic Ligurian style. He embarked on a career as a violin maker on his return to Solero and remained there until his death in 1979 aged 94, making him one of history’s very long-lived violin makers…

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