Storioni and the late Bergonzis

Cremona, of course, had already lost its greatest violin makers, and its unique position as the home of the violin throughout Europe. With the death of Stradivari and, although to a lesser extent it must be said, Guarneri del Gesù, violin making in the city was reduced to the Bergonzi family, raking through the remains of the Stradivari workshop, and living what seems to have been a quite precarious existence.  Violin makers were now widely established throughout the cities of Europe and within Italy itself, and although not yet, if ever, to achieve the finesse of the great Cremonese, still represented a challenge to Cremona’s previous dominance. It may be indicative that Stradivari himself encouraged his youngest son, Paolo, to become a cloth merchant. After his death, Stradivari seemed to leave relatively little imprint on the violins subsequently made in the city.

The Bergonzi family survived through Carlo II and Nicola, sons of Zosimo, but their work, when identified, has little in common with that of their grandfather Carlo, founder of the dynasty. In 1760, the little-known Zosimo Bergonzi was the only active violin maker left in Cremona, and he left precious little evidence of his activity. None the less, his two sons, Carlo II and Nicola, did leave a recognisable body of work.

Into this scene steps Lorenzo Storioni, often seen as the saviour of a two-hundred year old tradition. He was brought up in the same neighbourhood as the Rugeri, with whom his family seem to have been aquainted. He clearly had a strong ambition to become a liutaio, and was actively making instruments at the age of 24.

The Storioni labelled 1786, but dating from circa 1800, is also a very well-constructed instrument, built, by contrast, on a large scale, particularly broad across the centre, and with a clear Stradivari influence in the flat arching, but Storioni’s own distinctively tapering corners. It is also, with the exception of the beautifully even-grained spruce front, constructed of oppio throughout. The scroll is typical of Storioni, with widely thrown volutes and an extended last turn to the eye. It is clearly carved with some haste – knife marks abound on the uneven chamfer and energetic gouge cuts all round the spiral. The varnish on this instrument is in superb condition and is a warm orange-red, lacking a little of the intensity of a Stradivari or del Gesù.

According to Duane Rosengard’s research in the Gindin book, from 1787 Storioni and Nicola Bergonzi were living in close proximity, and from 1790-1795 they actually shared a workshop, which would also explain a maturing of their styles. Storioni died in 1816, Nicola Bergonzi in 1832, and his brother Carlo II in 1836. Between them they had sustained the Cremonese violin making tradition through a transformative period, but their pioneering use of the del Gesù model came to nothing in the short term.