Violin plans for sale. 3 Pdf plans after paintings by Judith Leyster, Pieter Claesz and Dirck Van Baburen. 30 $ for 3 online detailed plans. Paypal to [email protected] and get the three PDFs in your mailbox!
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What did Early Violins really look like? Violin Making outside Cremona and Brescia, 1550-1650.
(Louvain, 2024)
(Louvain, 2024)
In the light of the archival and conographic data, as well as the study of the few reliable extant instruments one must conclude that the share of "archaic" violin making traditions preceding Cremonese lutherie, and later coexisting with it, must have been significant and widespread throughout Western Europe. This is a first attempt to give an overview of this relatively unknown but important episode in the history of violin making, concentrating on what the instruments looked like. The focus so far has always been on Brescia and, above all, on Cremona. The mythologizing that has accompanied that narrow approach has led to an inability to see the broader picture, in which both Italian classical violin making and "archaic" lutherie would be given their rightful places.
To be read carefully, critically and unbiasedly, preferably together with the "Repertorium iconographicum morphologiae violini" to allow this new groundbreaking knowledge to fully penetrate. That is, if you have the courage to give up your prejudices .
To be read carefully, critically and unbiasedly, preferably together with the "Repertorium iconographicum morphologiae violini" to allow this new groundbreaking knowledge to fully penetrate. That is, if you have the courage to give up your prejudices .
Repertorium iconographicum morphologiae violini. Iconographic repertoire of the morphology of the violin. 1550-1650.
(Louvain, 2024)
(Louvain, 2024)
This alphabetic repertoire is composed of details from visual sources - works of art - etcetera, containing information about the early history of the violin family, specifically its constructional and stylistic aspects. It is intended as a reference tool for anyone studying the early history of the violin family or any other related subject. You are free to use it. However, if you refer to this repertoire in a publication, be it printed or online, please mention the title and the author (Wim RAYMAEKERS, Repertorium iconographicum morphologiae violini. Iconographic repertoire of the morphology of the violin. 1550-1650), as well as the internet address (www….).
This overview is extensive, and some items contain information beyound the century between 1550 and 1650, but it doesn’t pretend to be complete. There are still many works of art hidden in private, maybe even in public collections that contain relevant information about the topic. Anyone who has information in that sense is invited to contact me through email: [email protected]. Compiling this repertory was a lengthy and laborious process, with the sole purpose of supporting and stimulating scholarly research. The intention was therefore not commercial in any way, and copyright claims will therefore be rejected. The use of images as intended here actually benefits the "owner" of this material, especially because they provide details that illuminate the works in question and may encourage viewing or consulting the complete work.
This overview is extensive, and some items contain information beyound the century between 1550 and 1650, but it doesn’t pretend to be complete. There are still many works of art hidden in private, maybe even in public collections that contain relevant information about the topic. Anyone who has information in that sense is invited to contact me through email: [email protected]. Compiling this repertory was a lengthy and laborious process, with the sole purpose of supporting and stimulating scholarly research. The intention was therefore not commercial in any way, and copyright claims will therefore be rejected. The use of images as intended here actually benefits the "owner" of this material, especially because they provide details that illuminate the works in question and may encourage viewing or consulting the complete work.
“True Violins” and “Artistic License”. Two Prejudices that hinder the Study of Early Violin Morphology.
(Louvain, 2022)
(Louvain, 2022)
This is a scholarly article, but at the same time a plea for an urgent rewrite of the early history of the violin, this time unhampered by prejudice and entrenched ideas. To me, this is symbolic of the world we are now fighting for: a world where truth is sought in freedom, especially when it is threatened by arguments of authority and ingrained norms.
It is high time to correct the misconceptions about violin making before 1650. The idea that this craft meant little or nothing outside of Brescia and Cremona must urgently be dispelled. The mistrust in the documentary value of art works is widespread among makers and scholars, who still believe extant instruments are more reliable sources when it comes to studying the early history of violin making. The second bias is rooted in the strong belief in Cremonese violin-making principles as the sole basis for determining whether an instrument is a decent violin or even whether it can be called a “violin”. The influence of Cremonese violin making before 1650 is overestimated. From representations in art and from archival texts it appears that in various centers in Europe, professional violin makers supplied the local markets with instruments, in a style and with techniques that were once common and are now gradually being rediscovered. The early history of violin making needs to be rewritten, and the new insights need to be popularized, answering a number of questions.
It is high time to correct the misconceptions about violin making before 1650. The idea that this craft meant little or nothing outside of Brescia and Cremona must urgently be dispelled. The mistrust in the documentary value of art works is widespread among makers and scholars, who still believe extant instruments are more reliable sources when it comes to studying the early history of violin making. The second bias is rooted in the strong belief in Cremonese violin-making principles as the sole basis for determining whether an instrument is a decent violin or even whether it can be called a “violin”. The influence of Cremonese violin making before 1650 is overestimated. From representations in art and from archival texts it appears that in various centers in Europe, professional violin makers supplied the local markets with instruments, in a style and with techniques that were once common and are now gradually being rediscovered. The early history of violin making needs to be rewritten, and the new insights need to be popularized, answering a number of questions.
As one goes back in time, the number of extant bowed instruments decreases gradually, and this is particularly true for loose parts such as bridges, pegs and tailpieces. The current article traces the development of bridges of instruments of the violin family, based on a study of extant instruments and around 800 iconographic sources. This study reveals the origins of the various elements of bridges found on modern instruments of the violin family, and reconstructs the different stages of their evolution. Many elements of the modern violin bridge were already present, sometimes hidden, in bowed-instrument bridges of the 16th century. The extensive appendices and many line drawings offer today’s researchers, makers and restorers the possibility of providing historically informed bridges that are less fantasized than those hitherto often encountered on restorations or reconstructions of old instruments.
Accessible to subscribers of Early Music only.
Accessible to subscribers of Early Music only.
My comments on how to display dancing master violins in museums have been published in the June 2024 issue of The Strad! Actually, this is the outcome of a heated discussion on Facebook a few months ago: "The pochette, one of the most special stringed instruments, can be found in many museum collections-but is it displayed properly? Wim Raymaekers states that the bridge position should be reconsidered."
Accessible to subscribers of The Strad only.
Accessible to subscribers of The Strad only.
How the f-hole arose. Sound hole shapes and bridge position on bowed instruments between 1500 and 1800.
The Galpin Society Journal, 2018
The Galpin Society Journal, 2018
After studying, as an art historian and violin maker, over a thousand works of art from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries as well as extant instruments, I found proof for this hypothesis about the origin of the f-hole: cutting the C-hole shape in half and rotating both halves relative to each other. That is why f-holes have indents, and why the inner one is placed lower than the outer one. That is also the reason why these inner notches were not used initially as a reference to locate the bridge. It was purely the result of a visual adjustment.
Accessible to subscribers to The Galpin Society Journal only.
Accessible to subscribers to The Galpin Society Journal only.
This article is a translation of a study originally published in Dutch:
Wim RAYMAEKERS, De vormkenmerken van de instrumenten der vioolfamilie in de 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst, in Musica antiqua. Actuele informatie over oude muziek, 6, 3, 1989, p.98-105. This text is still relevant an innovative, since it widens our knowledge of archaic violins in the same way the “rediscovery” of the Alemannic school and the Freiberger violins did.
Whatever the meaning, the hidden symbolic messages or the iconographic theme of representations from the Golden Age may be, the elements with which they are composed are often so realistic that they can be studied in detail. This certainly applies to the illustrations of the instruments of the violin family. In addition to the fact that they play a remarkable role in the iconography of that time , they offer, due to their large number and their quality as a document, the possibility to study the visual characteristics of the seventeenth century violin in the Netherlands. They allow us to follow their evolution starting as early as 1620, despite the fact that no extant organological material concerning this material has come to us from well past the middle of the century. This unclarified period between about 1620 and 1660/1670 appears to be a pivotal era, because it is precisely then that the transition from "archaic" to "modern" stylistic features can be observed in Dutch iconography.
Freely accessible through www.academia.edu
Wim RAYMAEKERS, De vormkenmerken van de instrumenten der vioolfamilie in de 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst, in Musica antiqua. Actuele informatie over oude muziek, 6, 3, 1989, p.98-105. This text is still relevant an innovative, since it widens our knowledge of archaic violins in the same way the “rediscovery” of the Alemannic school and the Freiberger violins did.
Whatever the meaning, the hidden symbolic messages or the iconographic theme of representations from the Golden Age may be, the elements with which they are composed are often so realistic that they can be studied in detail. This certainly applies to the illustrations of the instruments of the violin family. In addition to the fact that they play a remarkable role in the iconography of that time , they offer, due to their large number and their quality as a document, the possibility to study the visual characteristics of the seventeenth century violin in the Netherlands. They allow us to follow their evolution starting as early as 1620, despite the fact that no extant organological material concerning this material has come to us from well past the middle of the century. This unclarified period between about 1620 and 1660/1670 appears to be a pivotal era, because it is precisely then that the transition from "archaic" to "modern" stylistic features can be observed in Dutch iconography.
Freely accessible through www.academia.edu
The Edgy Transition from Medieval to Renaissance Fiddle.
Summary of an online lecture given in January 2021 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
Summary of an online lecture given in January 2021 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis
During the last decade of the 15th century suddenly many new shapes occurred, corners, curves, f-holes and other new elements such as the scroll. In one generation between c.1490 and 1520, the transition from medieval fiddle to embryonal violin and viol was complete. This development right on the transition from the Middle-Ages to the Renaissance offers the opportunity to highlight a number of aspects of the late medieval and early renaissance fiddle, and the origin of the violin.
De Nederlandse kunstschilder en zijn viool, 1610-1650. Instrumenten uit de ateliers van de gouden eeuw gereconstrueerd.
Wim Raymaekers, 2025
Wim Raymaekers, 2025
Het feit dat Hollandse schilders permanent objecten in hun ateliers bewaarden is een grote troef bij het onderzoek naar de vroegste vioolvormen. Deze instrumenten werden herhaaldelijk afgebeeld met een hoge mate van realisme en detail, en vaak vanuit verschillende hoeken. Dit stelt ons nu in staat om instrumenten te bestuderen die anders volledig in de tijd verloren zouden gegaan zijn.
Les peintres hollandais et leurs violons, 1610-1650. Instruments du quatuor des ateliers du Siècle d'or reconstitués.
Wim Raymaekers, 2025. Traduit du Néerlandais
Wim Raymaekers, 2025. Traduit du Néerlandais
Le fait que les peintres néerlandais avaient en permanence des objets dans leurs ateliers, leur servant de modèles pour leurs sujets allégoriques ou religieux, est un atout majeur pour l'étude de ces premiers violons. Ces instruments ont été représentés à maintes reprises avec un grand réalisme et une grande précision, souvent de différents points de vue. Cela nous permet aujourd'hui d'étudier, voire de reconstituer, des instruments qui auraient autrement été irrémédiablement perdus.
The Art of Deduction. Violins in Art. Lost Archaic Violins live on in Seventeenth Century Dutch Paintings.
The Strad, 2012
The Strad, 2012
17th century virtual reality: a gallery of lost archaic violins from Dutch painters'studios. Art historian and violin maker Wim Raymaekers describes a number of violins depicted in detail and from different viewpoints by Dutch painters in the Golden Age before 1650.
Freely accessible through www.academia.edu
Freely accessible through www.academia.edu
While I was extensively studying the forgotten lutherie style represented in many Dutch paintings from the era between 1620 and 1640, the plan arose to make a reconstruction, not only on paper but also for real. It was of course impossible to make an exact copy or anything like it, simply because not one example of this type remains. For the time being I simply conceived a violin that contained a number of stylistic and technical features of this "new archaic" type of instrument. I didn't choose the most frequent hallmarks, but the most characteristic ones. The result is now part of the permanent exhibition in the "Museum Vleeshuis" in Antwerp to illustrate the kind of violins used by minstrels in the16th and 17th century cities of the Low Countries.
Real or Fake? Damaged String Instruments in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Paintings.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Damaged stringed instruments can appear in a number of different iconographic contexts. They may be profane, mythological, biblical, or otherwise religious. Much can be learned from these paintings about the objects and the degree of realism of the works of art. Anyone familiar with the restoration and conservation of musical instruments can tell at a glance whether the artist knew what defects on an instrument really look like.
Echt of Fake? Beschadigde snaarinstrumenten op zestiende- en zeventiende-eeuwse schilderijen.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
In een aantal uiteenlopende iconografische onderwerpen kunnen beschadigde snaarinstrumenten aan bod komen. Ze kunnen profaan, mythologisch, bijbels of anderszins religieus zijn. Uit deze schilderijen valt veel te leren over de objecten en over de mate van realisme van de kunstwerken. Iedereen die bekend is met restauratie en conservering van muziekinstrumenten kan in één oogopslag zien of de kunstenaar wist hoe gebreken aan een instrument er werkelijk uitzien.
Snooty organologists! An investigation into the socio-cultural, material, economic, intellectual and financial self-deception of musical instrument research.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
“Research supports the notion that using feedback and constructive criticism … is very influential” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism). Perhaps even organologists are not immune to its positive effect. Hence this attempt to identify a number of problems.
All violin sound holes great and small (1500-1750). Geigen f- und andere Modelle nach Originalen alter Meister (Maler, Zeichner, Geigenbauer…).
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Wim Raymaekers, 2024.
Outlines taken from extant instruments of the violin family and from iconographic sources, mostly between 1500 and 1700. They can be used for reference, or simply for inspiration.