DHV:
165
Tourin ID:
BRUS 31
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
I
Brescia
Zanetto di Montichiaro
Micheli
Date:
1540 C ?
Label Text:
Zanetto in Bressa [handwritten]; now lost, but photo survives
Body Shape:
Guitar
Current Location:
B
Brussels
No. of Strings:
6
Collection:
Musée des instruments de musique
Sound Holes:
F
Catalog Number:
1423
Head:
Scroll
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
Count Pietro Correr, Venice, -1886
Measurements:
Body Length:
63
String Length:
67
Rib Depth:
13
Upper Width:
26.4
Middle Width:
20.5
Bottom Width:
32.9
Information
Source:
Moens 1995, pp. 207-16; PT visits 6/77 & 9/78
Literature:
Moens 2002, pp. 108-12; Moens 1995, pp. 207-16; Dassenno 1990, pp. 49, 52; Coates 1985, pp. 31-34; Witten 1975, pp. 51-2; Mahillon 1900, 3:46
Photographs:
On museum’s website (F+S [color]); Moens 2002, p. 110 front, head side, label); Moens 1995, pp. 208 (front, label), 214 (head side); Dassenno 1990, p. 48 (front, head, soundhole)
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
Museum’s website: viole bâtarde; date “1560/1564 (incertaine)”. Moens 2002: label not by same hand as Vermillion 3376, and not 16th-C. writing; soundholes reshaped to give more archaic appearance; pegbox shape suspicious and 6th hole probably not original; nail in upper block not very old. Moens 1995: table plausibly recut from a cello (neck is large for body size; open wormholes reveal reshaping). Dendrochronology no help. Varnish not original: fills in open wormholes. C. Beare in NGDMI 3:890 says “an almost perfectly preserved six-string viol with its original label ‘Zanetto in Bressa’ is in the Musée Royal of the Brussels Conservatory...”; no cat. no. given, but surely reference is to this instrument. L. Witten in EM 10 (1982): 494, n. 5, says label now lost, though photo survives. Witten 1975: “workmanship, varnish, and f-holes ... identical” to Vermillion 3376. Dasseno 1990: back is 1-piece, slab cut (tagliato tangenzialmente); double purfling on table only; date 1547 (confusing this with PARIS 14 / E,.504?). Mahillon (wrongly) groups with nos. 1417-23 as labeled “Zanetto fece in Treviso”. Zanetto born c. 1489, praised as maker by Lanfranco in 1533, active until after 1560.