Carlo Giuseppe Testore_義大利 Maker_作者導覽_提琴_提琴專家-音樂家樂器｜最貼心的提琴購物網

Made in - 產地：Italy - Milan

Year - 年份 : 1665-1716

Narrate - 敘述：

Some violins are born beautiful. Some acquire it with age. Others have a struggle on their hands right from the start. The Testore family of Milan are always associated with a rustic, even casual approach to the craft, but it is a mistake to bundle the work of the entire family together at the lowest level. It does not help matters that the most vivid phrases linger best in the memory.

Charles Beare famously described Pietro Testore as having ‘possibly the clumsiest pair of hands that ever made a violin’ in the Grove Dictionary of Music, and Hills referred to them as the ‘Milanese cheapjacks’. Certainly, the family probably found their customers in the dowdier streets of the market places as well as the salons, and often worked quickly and to a price. Even though, as many players and dealers will tell you, it’s the sound that counts rather than the appearance, poor Pietro’s forebears were quite capable of carving a very pretty fiddle. Although in his case it can be a relief that you don’t have to look at your fiddle when you’re playing it. And Testore instruments invariably work, and work well. Although none can combine the power and richness of sound like a Stradivari, they maintain their well-defined and well-deserved role at the heart of many an orchestra.

Carlo Giuseppe Testore (active from 1690 to 1716) was the first violinmaker of the family, and his work can sometimes be elegance incarnate. A pupil of Giovanni Grancino, their work can be very difficult to distinguish from each other. The early products of the Milan school have a charm and delicacy that is quite unique, with graceful outlines of distinctly Amatese influence, but a low and subtly shaped arch, which tends towards a slightly pinched breast. The soundholes are particularly well-developed in a Stradivarian style. They generally carry a glowing amber coloured varnish, which might lack the deep colouration of the Venetians, but is softly textured and bewitching in its own way. These tendencies are all found in Carlo Giuseppe’s work, and after 1708 he was established as the leading maker in Milan.

Carlo’s son, Carlo Antonio (b.1693, d. after 1760) was evidently unable to keep up quite to these standards, and signs of his struggle are seen from the start, using cheaper wood and hastier workmanship. The violin here is branded inside the back, as is often the case, with Carlo Antonio’s initials and an eagle inside a circle. This signifies the address of the shop, ‘Al segno dell’Aquila’ (at the sign of the eagle) which he took over on the death of his father in 1716. In appearance, the violin does rather struggle for sympathy, and it does not represent Carlo at his best, but a close look shows a considerable degree of craftsmanship disguised by the poverty of the materials. In these later generations of Testores, it became the habit to leave the back of the pegbox flat and unfluted and to substitute the purfling of the back and front with scratched lines, all to hasten the construction process. Carlo Antonio avoided these short cuts in this particular instrument, but his use of cheaper cuts of wood seem to indicate some difficulties with the economics of violin making. At around this time, the Grancino workshop began to produce more instruments, and it may have been this competition which made life difficult for Carlo Antonio. In this violin, Carlo has made the best use he can of locally grown maple rather than expensive imported varieties, and bottom-of-the-pile knotty spruce. The maple is known as ‘oppio’, and is peculiar to northern Italy, never appearing in instruments made elsewhere. It is hard, close grained and dark, often showing a narrow irregular figure. While it may have been considered inferior to the clear white Balkan maple, neither Amati nor Stradivari were above using it themselves. I’m not sure Strad would ever even have contemplated using Testore’s spruce, however. It is almost certainly reclaimed wood, converted from some other use, rather than being specially nominated tone wood. It is cut off the quarter, with disfiguring knots on both sides. It is a marvel that Testore managed to work it at all, let alone make it work as an instrument in the way it surely does.

Both plates are purfled with what appears to be poplar wood veneers, the outer strips imperfectly dyed black, and now faded to a pale grey. Poplar wood is quite soft, and cracks and buckles easily, so it unfortunately emphasises any inequalities in the slot cut to accommodate it. Cremonese makers used tougher, more elastic pearwood for the outer strips, which tends to even out any awkwardness in the channel, giving a more flowing result.
　

So poor materials make it hard for the maker. Carlo was more than equal to the challenge, and the open and graceful soundholes and the concentric spirals of the scroll show an experienced hand at work. The flaring front view of the scroll, and the slightly pointed corners of the plates are trademark touches. In arching and outline form, Carlo Antonio was at least consistent, and on that basis his instruments have developed their reliable reputation for tone. The work of his younger brother, Paolo Antonio (born 1700), and his son, the unfortunate Pietro (active from around 1750 to 1760), is less predictable in appearance, but often provides very rewarding surprises under the bow. Over nearly a century of working as violin makers, the history of the Testore family illustrates the decline of the artist-luthier, from an individual working to the most demanding levels, to the corrupted trade of the late 18th century, when even the great traditions of Cremona had collapsed in the face of the spread of mass-manufactured instruments across Europe from the workshops of southern Germany.
　

米蘭學派的發展，始於喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾(Giovanni Grancino,1637-1709)，其獨特的製琴風格，為往後米蘭製琴發展的立下了一個指標，並將傑出工藝傳承給學徒卡洛．朱塞佩．泰斯托瑞(Carlo Guiseppe Testore, c1665-1716)。
傳說喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾是尼可羅．阿瑪蒂（Nicolo Amato, 1596-1684）學生，但在材料的選用、漆色、漆質及結構設計上，卻與阿瑪蒂琴大相逕庭。也許如此，使得米蘭學派製琴獨樹一格，從1680年代至1820年代，持續風行在北義大利米蘭。

所有重大轉變在於 1708 年，喬凡尼的兒子喬凡尼‧巴提斯塔‧葛蘭奇諾（Giovanni Battista Grancino, 1673-c1730) 在一次爭執中，誤殺了安東尼奧‧馬利安‧拉凡賽（Antonio Maria Lavazza, 1683-1708)，雖然兒子未被判處死刑，不過隔年老喬凡尼過世後, 喬凡尼‧巴提斯塔財產充公、取消營業執照，其工作室改由學徒卡洛．朱塞佩．泰斯托瑞(Carlo Guiseppe Testore, c1665-1716)接管，喬凡尼‧巴提斯塔只能私下偷偷做琴。
隨後泰斯托瑞家族(Testore)成了米蘭重要製琴家族之一。當時泰斯托瑞家族大量地製作提琴，其作品受珍視的程度不如今日，當年更被嘲弄為“便宜的小販”，從1690年活躍於米蘭直到18世紀末，老鷹圖像是他們作品的獨特標誌。

卡洛．朱塞佩．泰斯托瑞接管工作室沒幾年就去世了，工作室落在年幼的兒子卡洛．安東尼奧．泰斯托瑞（Carlo Antonio Testore,1693-c1765) 、保羅．安東尼奧．泰斯托瑞（Paulo Antonio Testore, c1700-1767)身上，直到卡洛．安東尼奧的兒子喬凡尼．泰斯托瑞（Giovanni Testore, fc 1760-1770)，這個家族一直在米蘭製琴。

而後，蘭朵夫家族(Landolfi)延續泰斯托瑞家族技藝，卡洛．費迪納多．蘭朵夫(Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi , c1710-1784)) 繼承卡洛．朱塞佩．泰斯托瑞手藝，其作品風格不同於米蘭製琴特色，反倒和皮德蒙學派(Piedmont School)的喬凡尼‧巴蒂斯塔‧瓜達尼尼(G.B.Guadagnini, c1711-1786)有些類似。

同時，蘭朵夫的學生彼得羅．朱賽佩．梅塔岡薩(Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza, c1730- 1803)正領導另一代表性米蘭製琴與收藏家族。梅塔岡薩家族(Mantegazza) 活躍於1760年到1824年，彼得羅．朱賽佩死後，其製琴工藝則由他的兩個兒子弗朗切斯科．梅塔岡薩(Francesco Mantegazza, 1762-1824)以及卡洛．梅塔岡薩(Carlo Mantegazza, 1772- 1814)繼承。

米蘭派的特徵在於翻邊上較深，背板木頭常選用無花紋的木頭，她的中提琴大、提琴聞名於世，顏色上普遍以深紅及金黃色為主，背板的鑲線常以刻標記線方式完成，基本上屬於較便宜的樂器，但在音樂史上，米蘭中提琴及大提琴占有相當重要的地位。

整個家族中技巧最為高超的製琴家，為Carlo Giuseppe Testore，他是喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾(Giovanni Grancino,1637-1709)的學生，而他的作品常常被誤認為他老師喬凡尼之作。兩者最大的差別在於，卡洛的提琴在轉角處弧度較大，音孔較無特殊之處；在渦卷的部分，比起喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾完美的圓弧，卡洛作品則有些許斜面的突出，這也是之後泰斯托瑞家族製琴的主要特色之一。
卡洛作品的漆色如同他的老師喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾，從深濃的橘棕色(orange-brown)到淺黃色都有，而他的作品在音質上也與喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾提琴極為相似。
　

卡洛．安東尼奧．泰斯托瑞Carlo Antonio Testore是卡洛．朱塞佩．泰斯托瑞（Carlo Guiseppe Testore,c1665-1716）的大兒子，製琴風格完全承襲自父親，他使用較為易碎淺色的漆來製作，使得作品稍欠缺了一些魅力。如同在喬凡尼．格蘭奇諾(Giovanni Grancino,1637-1709)以及其父親作品中常見的，卡洛．安東尼奧．泰斯托瑞有時作品中不鑲上邊飾，而是在背板上刻畫雙線。另一個特殊之處則是在琴頭背面的部分，不像一般凹槽般，卡洛．安東尼奧用平的背面來取代，這似乎也透露了當時快速製琴的情況。他的製琴晚期則在兒子喬凡尼．泰斯托瑞(Giovanni Testore,1724-1765)協助下工作。

資料來源: http://www.arttime.com.tw/ArtNews/news_group_cont1.aspx?AGDID=354

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