Violin without sides | The Bassano family of Venice and London | Possibly 17th century
Violin without sides | The Bassano family of Venice and London | Possibly 17th century
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The violin as we would recognise it today developed in Italy in the mid-16th century. Makers were still experimenting with different shapes and structures until the end of the century. These two instruments have a different outline to the modern violin and they also have no ribs, the sides which normally separate the front from the back. Here, the front and back join at their edges like a clamshell.
Unlike the open bodied mute violin, this instrument has a soundboard and back, but it has no ribs. The sound produced is not equal to that of a normal violin, but is still more than adequate for any use it was likely to have been put. An almost identical instrument clearly by the same maker is in the collection of Dean Castle, Kilmarnock, suggesting they both may have been part of a set. The body shape is reminiscent of some early English viols, and the ink decoration on the soundboard and back is very similar in design and naivety to English virginals of the late sixteenth to mid seventeenth century. In each corner is a moth, which suggests that the instrument could be the work of a member of the Bassano family leading instrument makers to the Tudor court. One of the first instruments acquired for the Collection: bought by Professor John Donaldson for the University Music Classroom in 1856.
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