nd Palestrina were
engaged in writing Church music, in which stringed instruments were
heard; in the seventeenth, lived Stradella, Lotti, Bononcini, Lully,
and Corelli. In the eighteenth century, the period when the art of
Violin-making was at its zenith, the list is indeed a glorious one. At
this point is the constellation of Veracini, Geminiani, Vivaldi,
Locatelli, Boccherini, Tartini, Viotti, Nardini, among the Italians;
while in France it is the epoch of Leclair and Gavinies, composers of
Violin music of the highest excellence. Surrounded by these men of
rare genius, who lived but to disseminate a taste for the king of
instruments, the makers of Violins must certainly have enjoyed
considerable patronage, and doubtless those of tried ability readily
obtained highly remunerative prices for their instruments, and were
encouraged in their march towards perfection both in design and
workmanship. Besides the many writers for the Violin, and executants,
there were numbers of ardent patrons of the Cremonese and Brescian
makers. Among these may be mentioned the Duke of Ferrara, Charles IX.,
Cardinal Ottoboni (with whom Corelli was in high favour), Cardinal
Orsini (afterwards Pope Benedict XIII.), Victor Amadeus Duke of Savoy,
the Duke of Modena, the Marquis Ariberti, Charles III. (afterwards
Charles VI., Emperor of Germany), and the Elector of Bavaria, all of
whom gave encouragement to the art by ordering complete sets of
stringed instruments for their chapels and for other purposes. By the
aid of such valuable patronage the makers were enabled to centre their
attention on their work, and received reward commensurate with the
amount of skill displayed. This had the effect of raising them above
the status of the ordinary workman, and permitted them as a body to
pass their lives amid comparative plenty. There are, without doubt,
instances of great results obtained under trying circumstances, but
the genius required to combine a successful battle with adversity with
high proficiency in art is indeed a rare phenomenon. Carlyle says of
such minds: "In a word, they willed one thing, to which all other
things were subordinate, and made subservient, and therefore they
accomplished it. The wedge will rend rocks, but its edge must be sharp
and single; if it be double, the wedge is bruised in pieces, and will
rend nothing." It may, therefore, be affirmed that the greatest
luminaries of the art world have shone most brightly under
circu