The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-05
THE GREAT VIoLIN-MAKER.

Whethef the violin model came from
France or Italy, it is indebted to Italy, and
to Italy alone, for its rise and progress. If
it was French seed, it early floated away
from its native land to take root and flourish
in italian soil. There were great Lutte schools
at Brescis as early as 1850, and viols were
fabricated in large quantities somewhat later
at Venice, Bologns, and AIantua But it was
in the workshop of Gaspare di Salo that the
first italian violin was probably made. Like
almost all the great violin makers, he lived
to an advanced age, and died, after fifty
good years of work, in the town of Brescia.
The rise of music in Italy, and the perfection
of the great violin schools, closely followed
the rise and perfection of Italian painting.
1t was at the beginning of the sixteenth GEN.
tury that all the elements of the art which
had existed apart from each other began to
come together the study of anatomy and
chiaroscuTo, from Floraece and Padua, rich
ness of color from Venice, reverence for ideal
beauty from Umbria. 1t was towards the
end of the seventeenth century that one great
maker gathered upin himself the perfecti sns of
all his predecessors, and bequeathed to modern
ears, in tsnal splendor, delights analogous to
those which the noblest painters have left
us in form and color Like the rapid perfee-
tion of Greek culture under Pericles, or the
sudden blossomiDg of Italian art under Pope
Julius ii, SO, at the close of one short GEN.
tury, broke into perfect bloom the flower of
the Cremopese school. Antonius Straduarius
stends crowned the monarch of his art, the
Phidias or the Raphael of the violin. He
was high and thin, and looked like one worn
with much thought and inceasant industry.
In summer he wore a white cotton night-cap,
and in winter a white one made of
some wooen material. He was never
seen without his apron of white
leather, snd every day was to him ex-
actly like every other day. His mind was
always riveted upon his one pursuit, and he
seemed neither to know nor to desire the
least change of occupation. His violins sold
for four golden hvres apiece, and were con-
sidered the best in Italy, and, as he never
spent anything, except upon the necessaries
of life and bis own trade, he saved good
deal Of money, and the simple minded Gre
monese used TO make jokes aboHt his thrift
ness, and not, perhaps, without little touch
of envy, until the favorite proverb applied to
a prosperous fellow-citizen used to be "As
rich as Straduarius ~ Good Words.
POKER PIoTUREs.-T curious produc-
hons known as poker-pictures or poker-draw-
ings have neither paint nor inlay, neither
pressing nor cutting. They are nothing but
panels of wood in which dark shadings have
been produced by the application of red hot
tools. Many school-rooms, many country
mansions, and some churches, are in posses
n
Study of Female Head" "a Tiger Killing
Deer" "The Temptation of Christ,
6 Cornelius Sending for st. Peter,
The Saviour Bearing the Cross, "
"The Good Samaritan, "The
Head of Rabbi, SOLVER -CcoE Ewell"-these
are among the subjects of such pictures
known to have been produced in this eocen-
trio department of art. Connoisseurs of poker
pictures talk about Smith, of Skipton; Cranch,
of Administer; Thompson, of Wits, and Coils,
of Ireland, as artists of some note. About
the beginning of the present century there
was an exhibition of poker pictures in Lon
don, comprising fifty-three specimens by O
Mrs. Nelson, and thirteen by Miss Nelson.
The pictures were, without any high-hown
words, described as having been ''done on
wood with hot pokers;" and they were to be
seen sat the farrier's adjoining tho Lyceum,
in the Strand" Oraneh is said to have first
tried his hand in this humble department
while standing before an oaken chimney.
piece; he took red hot poker ont of the fire,
and scorehed a rather bold and effective
design on the oaken panels. A good Smith
we are told, will fetch tolerabls price
among the poker-admirers, in imitation of col
lectors prices in other and higte or walks o.
art. The scorching is effected by any heated
bar of iron, but in the best specimens tool
of various shapes are used, to make some o.
the scoTched lines narrower and finer thar
others; the artists having, literally, man,
irons in the fire at once. The actua