Scroll and corners: their origins

Scroll and corners: their origins

Since XVI? century onwards violin has always been manufactured in the wake of the same style schedule: the body of the violin be very similar to the number "8" with the addition of corners, and a decorated neck resembling a carved scroll. The forerunners of violin, among them rebecks and viellas, were characterized by a completely different decorative syle, considered in general more Spartan and very different to the baroque one. In their development, both rebecks and viellas have experienced the creation of the "CC" to ease the use of the curl, followed by the introduction of the top arching and thereafter getting to an instrument very similar to the "viola da gamba".

Although in these kinds of instruments the decoration of the neck often consisted in a curl, much time had to pass before corners would protrude as main feature in the quartet instruments. What can be demonstrated in this article is that corners, like scroll and purfling, decorative elements having nothing or just very little to do with the sound effect of the instrument, were introduced following a very precise aeshetic-stylistic schedule. Thinking of a violin, one of the first words that comes into one's mind is: baroque. In fact baroque time was characterized by what was every time considered the thriumph and the redundancy of shapes. Even today, the expression "baroquism" is very often used to give a negative connotation to excessively rich and pompous shapes. In other words the baroque style is the fight against empty spaces, "horror vacui", the desire to create the illusion of spaces using the enormous creative potential of the curved line. Each art sector was involved in the phenomenon: architecture, painting, sculpture, cabinet-making, wood-carving shops, even objecst of every day life. The tendency to decorate everything, both a Romanic church or a common chair, has been clearly summerized by Prof. Francesco Morante (Professor of Art History ? Benevento) about baroque style in architecture:

"Even in architecture the main stylistic parameter was an excessive and redundant predominance of decorative characters, meaning by "decoration" a trimming which has been added to embellish.This embellishment was then something that had been sticked upon, overlapped, that did not come from the essence of things. This is the reason why in architecture a sort of "hiatus" between essence and appearance" came into being as well."

Therefore violin should be considered as a musical instrument in itsself, pre-existing the baroque phenomenon, i.d. a "mere" music instrument which the stylistic elements of the new era were sticked upon. In the course of time many violins were not rarely made without scrolls and corners: a famous example were the violins by Nicola Utili, dating back to the 20th. century, showing a sort of Liberty style. The need to decorate or embellish an object was deeply felt, although the same was in itsself accomplished.

The introduction of baroque style in the art of making stringed instruments would not be completely understood if we wouldn't shortly get back to the background of baroque itsself. In fact the new style copiously drew on the decorative schemes of both Romanic and Greek art, as it has always happened since Rome onwards, Renaissance included. It is interesting to take into account the paradox about the phenomenon of hellenism in the typical Imperial Roman architecture during Trajano and Adriano, been defined as "baroque" ( Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli- Roma. L'arte romana al centro del potere. ? Roma. La fine dell'arte antica ("Roman art at the centre of power. Rome. The end of ancient art"), characterized by the greatest expansion of the Roman Empire and the splendour of public buildings, upon which decorations assume an important aspect and spaces are developed beyond the limits of possibility, giving birth to unknown light contrasts. This was valid both for friezes and capitals on public buildings columns and on sarcophagi used for burials.

Corinthian capital showing perfect scrolls ? Roman Age 2nd cent. Photo by Marina Milella

In the painting sector, and more precisely as far as wall decorations on main builings concerned, since the 1st. Century A.C. a sort of "filling-up spaces policy" was followed, which became more and more sophisticated until it reached the stage of real scene perspectives amplifying and increasing the value of the internal spaces of the same buildings, as confirmed by the remnants of the Roman Villa at Oplontis (Torre Annunziata), a spendid example of Roman painting and architecture during the time of Pompei.

Roman paintings from Oplontis ? Torre Annunziata- Naples - 1st cent.

Other very important reference marks of the Roman decorative schemes used in later times were also given by the "Domus Aurea" in Rome: famous painters dating back to Renaissance time, called

"grotesque", used to penetrate the gardens of the Traiano's thermal baths and wander around the rooms of the "Domus Neroniana" looking for those specific pictures and decorations that so much had to influence their art style.

Roman paintings from the Domus Aurea ? Rome 1st cent.

Therefore it can be inferred that the need to fill-up empty spaces with works aimed at decorating buildings and objects, giving proof of their artistic talent, was felt more or less in each historical period. What it is important to say is that both Greek and Roman decorative elements drew, in turn, on the Greek world of Nature. Looking at the photograps above, it is easy to recognize that the so-called "vegetal pattern" has always been the favourite pattern by artists and commissioners. The association to plants represents the linking ring between natural and artificial space ( a clear example can be made with the common ornamental plants that can be seen in every modern home nowadays). There is then the specific need to make one's space the more natural possible with the help of gardens and ornamental plants set up in a "strategic" way. In Roman Times, but also in more recent times, the lack of windows or openings in general led to the realization of "a fresco paintings" or any other decorations that could provide a sense of space.

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