本資料庫收藏： Violin (1734)
Sanctus Seraphin was of noble birth and settled in Venice around 1723. According to documents, when he was young he was a painter, allowing his fingers to be quite agile, which was an advantage that allowed him to become one of the most important luthiers of the Venice school. His earliest label on an instrument is found in 1725. After 1740 the quality of his instruments began to decline. In 1744, a luthier guild with supreme power requested that Seraphin resign. After that he stopped making violins, but continued signing his name on instruments until 1758. He married Domenica Montagnana’s daughter, and Seraphin’s nephew Giorgio Seraphin (c. 1726-1775) was his pupil.
Seraphin means “the supreme angel,” and his instruments are like his name, they have an exquisite appearance and emit an inner elegance. The Cremona school was very influential for him in his early period as a luthier, and later he made instruments that were between those of Amati and Stainer. His ealiest label is found in 1725, labeled “pupil of Amai.” After 1730 Seraphin began developing his own style, carving out is own unique Venetian instruments. The instruments he made during this period are the most popular. Serphin did not make very many violins at all, but the quality of the ones he did make is extremely high. He did not make very many cellos, either. However, they are unpopular due to their relatively small size, and rarely seen on the stage. He labeled the instruments the same way as Carlo Tononi, branding the words on the instrument.
Although his violins and cellos lack the pure and powerful presence of sound that Domenica Montagnana’s instruments had, they are still flawless. Around 1740, he began exagerating some of the features of the instruments, causing them to gradually lose much of their originality, and thus eventually becoming less sophisticated. Seraphin stopped making violins around 1744, but continued signing his name on them until 1758.
The gorgeous purfling on Seraphin’s instruments are nearly at the very edge of the instruments, very thin at the corners, and specially decorated them outlining the lines. The varnish is also quite beautiful and relatively thick. He paid special attention to the scrolls. The top of the peg boxes have a semi-circular shape, which is a distinguishing characteristic for his instruments. This sort of semi-circular shape occassionally appears in the instruments that Domenica Montagnana, Giorgio Seraphin, and Anselmo Bellosio made. The way in which the f-holes of his instruments are cut at the top in a way that makes them parallel is also the same as the method that Montagnana used on his instruments. Seraphin’s instruments come in a variety of sizes. The bouts of the instruments are like those of the Amati school, the radians are quite small.
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