Viola d'Amore
This very unusual instrument was assembled around 1900 by the musical instrument dealer Leopoldo Franciolini in Florence. The body is from a German bowed zither with its neck removed. Attached instead is an older lion-head viola d'amore scroll and neck. The instrument has six bowed strings and six sympathetic strings. The soundpost and bass-bar are reversed from normal violin positions (necessistated by original zither set up). The body was likely made by Ferdinand Sprenger (1846-1914) in Nuremberg.
The viola d'amore is a bowed stringed instrument which gained great popularity in the eighteenth century. This example was made at a time when interest for older music was growing and collectors were interested in owning old instruments. Franciolini was famous for his creations, alterations, and outright fabrications of "old" instruments.
The viola d'amore is a bowed stringed instrument which gained great popularity in the eighteenth century. This example was made at a time when interest for older music was growing and collectors were interested in owning old instruments. Franciolini was famous for his creations, alterations, and outright fabrications of "old" instruments.
Artwork Details
- Title: Viola d'Amore
- Date: ca. 1900
- Culture: German
- Medium: Wood
- Dimensions: Total Length: 690 mm
Body Length: 317 mm
Vibrating Length of Strings: 334 mm
Width upper bouts: 198 mm
Width middle bouts: 114 mm
Width lower bouts: 268 mm
Rib height: ca. 38 mm - Classification: Chordophone-Lute-bowed-unfretted
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, by exchange, 1976
- Object Number: 1976.8.39
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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