Object details
Object number
U16e30
Creator(s)
Jacopo Mosca Cavelli
(active Perugia, 1720s)
Title
Guitar (Chitarra Battente)
Date
1720-1729
Medium
Wood inlaid with bone
Dimensions
92.1 cm (36 1/4 in.)
Additional Dimensions
Body length: 45.1 cm
Upper bout: 20.5 cm
Waist: 17.6 cm
Lower bout: 24.6 cm
Body depth: 14 cm (maximum)
String length: 59.3 cm
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed (on headstock): C. MOSCA CAVELLI FE
Inscribed (on paper label inside the guitar): Mosca [illegible] Fecit 172[illegible]
Provenance
Perhaps belonged to a member of the Chigi or Pamphilj family, Rome.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Rome in 1895. (?)
Commentary
This guitar, known as a chitarra battente or “strumming guitar,” is elaborately decorated with inlay of mother-of-pearl, bone, and tortoise shell backed with gold leaf to highlight the translucency of this material. The maker, or luthier, signed his name, C. Mosca Cavelli, across the headstock. With the assistance of medical professionals, conservators discovered his signature and all but the last number of the year he created this guitar (172x) on a label inside using an endoscope in 2016.
Bibliography
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Guide to the Collection (Boston, 1987), p. 39. (as Italian, 17th century)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Guide to the Collection (Boston, 1997), p. 61. (as a "chitarra battente"; as Roman or Paduan, 17th century or early 18th century)
Cristelle Baskins et al. The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Sarasota: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 2009), p. 77. (as by Jacopo Mosca Cavelli, 1720s)
Alan di Perna. "Jacopo Mosca Cavelli's 14-String 1725 Chittara Battente." Guitar Aficionado (13 May 2015), accessed 2015. http://www.guitaraficionado.com/jacopo-mosca-cavellis-14-string-1725-chittara-battente.html
Gallery
Raphael Room
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.