From the 1670s onwards, the violin maker Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) successfully applied his inspired vision and enormous attention to detail to the artistic and commercial challenges of running an international high-art workshop from his base of operations in Cremona, Italy. The challenges of responding to the demands of the musical elite in Europe at the time would have been substantial, with all of the associated problems of transportation, communication, currency exchange, acquiring materials and sustaining a productive workshop at a high technical level.
But Stradivari was clearly capable of meeting these demands and his violins became the dominant force in string-instrument building in Europe from 1700 to his death in 1737. Somewhat lower production levels from the Stradivari workshop after 1727 left a gap in Cremona that was filled in the main by the Italian violin maker Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744). Nonetheless, in most years, both in terms of quantity and the quality of material and finished product, the output from the Stradivari workshop exceeded that of all the other instrument makers in Cremona combined.
Production from the Stradivari workshop began to accelerate toward a historical high point after 1700. Between 1709 and 1717 or so, the workshop mainly produced instruments based on Stradivari's most celebrated models. Exceptional levels of craftsmanship were combined with an extraordinary consistency of production. The year 1715, when the Lipinski model of Stradivari was built, is considered by many to be the height of classical stringed instrument making. Between 1714 and 1716, the workshop was producing an astonishing 16 instruments or more annually, using the finest materials available anywhere and designed along the boldest patterns ever conceived of for stringed instruments. The instruments represented a fusion of a bold idea with unprecedented focus on materials and finishes.
The origins of the Stradivari approach to production are not always readily apparent: that Stradivari would have encountered the earlier violin forms of the Amati and Rugeri families in Cremona is to be expected, and the influence of traditional Cremonese methods is in evidence even in his earliest works. That Stradivari may have encountered other instruments, and how they may have influenced future designs, is largely a matter of speculation.
Whether by direct influence or his own inventiveness, in the 1690s Stradivari experimented with improvements to the forms with which he began his career. In particular, he began experimenting with a longer form than that of contemporary makers in Cremona. This may have been informed by the larger instruments produced by instrument makers from the Brescian region of Italy, such as Giovanni Paolo Maggini (c.1580-c.1630), which were already considered antiques in Stradivari's day. Functionally, Stradivari's so-called Long Pattern instruments from this period recall some of the deeper sound produced by the Brescian models.
No historical record indicating Stradivari's awareness of older forms has come to light, so we can only guess at what may have directly influenced the development of his designs. Whatever the influences were, he discarded the Long Pattern model in 1699, but a decade later returned to forms of larger dimensions.
The larger violins that began to appear around 1709 are of similar length to the Long Pattern instruments but were generally broader throughout, creating an unprecedented amount of airspace within the violin. The arching on the fronts and backs of these violins produced some of the greatest violins ever created.
Stradivari was substantially ahead of his time with his creations. The large performance venues that are the norm today were unheard of in the 1700s, and the power and brilliance of his mature instruments explain the presence of the solo violin in a modern, 3,000-seat concert hall. One can only wonder what course music performance might have taken had his violins never been invented. In the decades and centuries after they were built, as concerts took place in increasingly large public venues, Stradivari's violins, like the Lipinski and its close cousins, the Hochstein and the Cremonese, helped make music available to a broader class of citizens beyond just the aristocracy.
Stradivari instruments have proven demonstrably superior to all attempts at replication: although it has been some 300 years since their creation, Stradivari instruments remain in use in modern concert halls as the choice of contemporary artists, to the benefit of audiences. For this reason, Stradivari instruments are unique among art objects and there is no craftsman more worthy of the unchallenged reputation that Antonio Stradivari enjoys.