Gaetano Sgarabotto

Like his contemporary Igino Sderci, Gaetano Sgarabotti trained as a wood carver before working with the Bisiach family in Milan. Born in Vicenza in 1878, he attended the Accademica Olimpica before joining Riccardo Antoniazzi and later Leandro Bisiach in Milan. He returned to his home town in 1905 and moved again in 1926 to Parma, where he taught at the Parma School of Violin Making from 1928 to 1932. He worked briefly in Vincenza again and in Brescia, but settled again in Parma where he died in 1959. He won many awards in Vicenza, Turin, Paris, Milan, Brussels and Rome, and exhibited a quartet in Cremona in 1937, which is maintained in the Museo di Violino there. He was created a ‘Cavaliere’ in 1918 in recognition of his achievements. His work is very varied, drawing on many classical models and on many minor Italian makers of the eighteenth century, while also developing a personal model.