Cremonaliutaria

Andrea Amati Opera Omnia The Court of France - Cremona and Andrea Amati
O
ne of the most precious instruments in our collection is Charles IX, made by Andrea Amati in 1566 for the King of France. It is one of only four surviving instruments of the group of 38 (composed of 12 small violins, 12 violins, 6 violas and 8 cellos) ordered by the King. But why did the King of France need so many instruments? And why did he order them from the Cremonese Amati? Lets begin by making clear that the King, Charles IX, has little or nothing to do with this story! In 1560, after a scant seventeen months on the throne, Francis II, the firstborn son of Caterina de Medici, died. Charles, her second son, was then only ten years old. The mother, after three years of combating the hostility of the Guisa and of the majority of the French nobility, managed to have him crowned King. So Charles IX ascended to the throne in 1563, when he was only thirteen (at the time, this was the minimum age established in France to become King) and he appointed his mother Superintendent of the State. As a matter of fact, Charles never reigned, in the sense that he never made the important decisions, and rina de Medici has been discredited (or at least scaled down) by modern historiography. In the past she was held responsible for the massacre of the Huguenots during the night of St. Barthelme (24th august, 1572), when 20 to 30,000 Protestants throughout the country met their deaths. Today, even though there is still controversy over the role she played, we tend to mitigate her misdeeds, partly because those events really caused a crisis to her reconciliation and cohabitation policy. In any case, Caterina has long been regarded as an example of feminine double-dealing and remorseless Italian Machiavellianism. She was accused of using poisons and commissioning murders. In point of fact, however, Caterina, who was no saint, had only one goal throughout the entire period in which she reigned in France (roughly 30 years): to establish peace in the country and with the nearby countries in order to strengthen the monarchy and ensure the succession of the dynasty. She was convinced that the Catholics and the Protestants could live together in the same nation, and that, after all, there was some truth in all religions, and that these posed no impediment to Marsilio Ficino, Pico and others, in revising the doctrines of Pythagoras, Plato and the neo-platonics, view earthly music as an illustration of the Harmony of the universe. According to them, music possesses magical and therapeutical virtues since it activates the benign influences of the planets and heals the body by reviving the soul. Music, according to Ficino in the De Vita, exerts an amazing force in soothing, moving and influencing the soul and body. The musical instrument is a powerful intermediary between the terrestrial, heavenly and supra-heavenly world, principally the lute and secondly the violin, which is a powerful catalyst of higher forces and can have a magical effect on our spirit. One could say that a well made instrument and suitable music become, to a certain extent, powerful talismans. We should not be astonished by the values of the symbols, which were very popular in renaissance culture. Isnt it true that in the renaissance paintings a lutes broken string represented a rupture of the heavenly harmony, generally (but not always) related to the death of Jesus? This is evidenced by Andrea Alciati (14921550), author of a treatise, Emblemaand it is true that no famine or slaughter ever halted her amusements. But she had a precise political design: to use entertainment and pleasure as bait for the nobility, compelling them to become courtiers, so that Catholics would meet Protestants on neutral ground, in order to have them experience love affairs and adventures. At the time, Catholic and Protestant critics alike depicted Caterinas court as the reign of lasciviousness, a den of all imaginable vices. As a matter of fact, given the morals of those times, life at court could seem a continuous scandal. We all know that feminine seduction can be one of the most powerful weapons. Caterina did not hesitate to resort to it. She surrounded herself with a numerous (roughly eighty) flock of nice-looking young damsels, whom history has dubbed the flying squad. Their principal task was to disseminate good manners, to instruct the overly aggressive French noblemen in gallant games, to help courtesy and the pleasure of polite intercourse prevail. In confidence, they became privy to information and secrets, which they dutifully reported to the Queen. Their main danger was the prominence of their belly. Those who became pregnant were invited to depart from the Court, very often to respectable situations, in order to lead at least a well-to-do life. The game of seduction required almost constant feasts and balls. Hence the importance of music, the musicians and their musical instruments. Together with the above-mentioned philosophical reasons, the value of the music and the feasts was enhanced by the political motivations that we alluded to above. This is the reason why the court of France needed such a large number of instruments. But we have a second question: why Amati and Cremona? Because, one might answer, this was the best that the European market then offered. This may well be true. But the historian is not satisfied and he asks other questions: why all this excellence in Cremona? And how did Caterina come to know of it? Answering all these other questions as well would tax our endurance. Let it suffice to mention, as far as Cremona is concerned, the extraordinary cultural and artistic development there in the mid 1500s. Historians are well aware of it. How learned the various social classes were, with respect to the citizens of Milan, Pavia, Padua or Brescia, it is not possible to know for certain today, as Giorgio Politi says in his History of Cremona. And he adds: We can find some clues, and these elements strongly support the hypothesis that the Cremonese aristocracy of those times was quite cultivated, with a remarkable preference for two disciplines: vocal and instrumental music and painting. Moreover, the class of the administrators, or as we would call them today, the politicians, was also cultivated. The Podest were cultivated, as were the members of the City Council, who were able to follow and appreciate the official speeches in literary Latin. In this refined and learned scenario flourished a school of highly skilled wood carvers (we have sublime evidences in the early 400) and clever violin-making craftsmen. Andrea Amati did not invent the violin. The term invention should be used with great caution in writing about history. It is more likely that a series of minor or major transformations accumulated over time, until one or more craftsmen (we will never know just who) fashioned the instrument, more or less as we know it today. Laborious transformations involving the rebeck and the viella which finally led to the violin. Cremona became one of the privileged places of its production. Finally, as an answer to the question about the relationship between Caterina and Cremona, we should first of all remember that Caterina de Medici was quite familiar with Florentine culture and policy. The State of Milan, of which Cremona was a part until the times of the Spanish conquest, was a leading ally of Florence under the Medici. In fact, on many occasions its great protector. In one of his letters, Lorenzo the Magnificent even said he ruled Florence on behalf of the Duke of Milan! The relationships between Cremona and Florence, therefore, mediated by Milan, had always been quite remarkable. Besides, a basic characteristic of French policy in the previous seventy years had been an abiding interest in the State of Milan. The abandonment of direct control over Milanese territory in favour of the Spanish didnt had not eliminated the plots, conspiracies and espionage, just as it hadnt put an end to the connections and exchanges. In both Milan and Cremona there have always been strong pro-French forces. I will conclude with a provocative proposal: if what I have asserted so far is true, why not change the name of Andrea Amatis splendid Charles IX to Caterina de Medici? Gian Carlo Corada Mayor of Cremona

A. Amati, violino Carlo IX, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (photo Pearson Bruce) certainly not in 1566, when he was just sixteen, at the time when the instruments were ordered from Amati. He died at twenty-four, undone by syphilis and tuberculosis. Only in his last years did he try to be a bit more independent, but his decisions were frequently disastrous. Caterina de Medici is the protagonist of our story. She was the one who decided to order the instruments to Andrea Amati. But there remains a question: Why? Caterina ruled the State in a time of great difficulty. France was ravaged by the religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots, and each faction had powerful support from abroad. Rigorously Catholic Spain and Protestant England and Holland, got involved periodically, trying to capitalize on French weakness. Moreover, the French nobility, in addition to being divided, arrogant and quarrelsome and disdainful of any central authority, could barely tolerate these Italians as leaders of their country. Caterina was a smart woman, well educated and very good at listening and mediating. The black legend of Cateobeying the laws of a secular sovereign. In order to achieve these goals she commissioned murders, broke alliances and betrayed people. Not entirely out of line with the behaviour of her co-protagonists, after all. Unfortunately, she achieved only partial success. The religious wars continued, although the crowns prestige and authority survived... In all this, Caterina was very Florentine, and a neo-platonic thinker, as several books in her library testify. She was educated in Florence: among her tutors were renowned humanists like Marsilio Ficino and Pico Della Mirandola. The pivotal principles of that philosophy were religious tolerance, the elevated role of the sovereign and what interests us most; a great consideration for music. Italian neo-platonism presented several nuances, but very often it was mingled with and influenced by hermeticism (from Ermete Trimegisto, mysterious author of several widely read books in those times and spokesman of an extremely ancient and supposedly Egyptian wisdom) and by magical and mystical temptations. ta, which helps us to understand the iconological messages in many works of art. Search for peace, elevated role of the sovereign and the role of music: this explains the central role that Caterina de Medici attributed to life at court and to her famous parties. Long before the time of the Sun King and the splendour of Versailles, she understood that the removal of the noblemen from their fiefdoms, combined with the splendour and magnificence, the exquisite pleasure of life at court, could work in favour of the crown. From January 1564 to May 1566 Caterina travelled, visiting the castles and cities of France, and dazzling everyone with the magnificence and the fascination of the court. In the following years she expanded the Louvre, built the Tuileries and enriched the court by building royal residence with splendid gardens throughout France, surrounding herself with painters and sculptors, architects, poets, astronomers and philosophers. And always and everywhere, banquets! She was accused of absolute cynicism,

A. Amati, violoncello Carlo IX, Julius Berger, Hohenschwangau, Germania