"200 Billion Won Each"…The Secret Behind the World's Most Expensive Stradivari Instruments Revealed [Reading Science]

Italian National Research Council Team Identifies Stradivari's 'Master' Through Tree-Ring Analysis

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The instruments crafted by 17th-century Italian master Antonio Stradivari boast the finest sound quality in specific tonal ranges and sell for at least several million dollars each. An Italian research team analyzing Stradivari's masterpieces has attracted attention by uncovering evidence suggesting that he was a disciple of another renowned contemporary luthier.

According to the US daily The New York Times (NYT) on the 8th (local time), a team from the Italian National Research Council published a study last month in the international wood-related journal 'Dendrochronologia.' They discovered evidence that Stradivari, in his youth, was apprenticed to the famous luthier Nicola Amati, who was 40 years his senior.

Stradivari is regarded as the foremost master instrument maker of the 17th and 18th centuries, creating instruments with a tone no one else could imitate. About 600 of his works remain today, and one piece recently sold at auction for $20 million, the first in decades, confirming their supreme value. Naturally, questions have arisen about the source of Stradivari's exceptional skill. Some have speculated that he learned from Nicola Amati, a luthier active in the same region during the mid-17th century. Both lived in Cremona, Lombardy, Italy, around the same time. Additionally, a label found inside one of Stradivari's violins reads, "Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis Alumnus Nicolaij Amati, Faciebat Anno 1666," meaning "Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, pupil of Nicola Amati, made in 1666," which has been cited as supporting evidence. However, no definitive proof of a master-apprentice relationship has been confirmed until now.

The research team analyzed a small harp made by Stradivari in 1681, preserved in a museum in Naples, Italy. Using a digital camera, they photographed 157 growth rings on the spruce soundboard, the harp's raw material, measuring the ring spacing precisely. They then compared these growth ring images with those of other instruments. After photographing and comparing over 600 instruments' growth rings, the team succeeded in finding exactly one instrument whose ring pattern perfectly matched the harp's. It was a cello made by Nicola Amati in 1679, who is rumored to have been Stradivari's master. Mauro Bernabei, head of the research team, explained, "The growth ring patterns matched exactly, as if someone had split a trunk into two pieces."

The NYT reported, "This confirms that Stradivari made the harp using the same wood material as Amati's cello," and added, "The research team concluded that the two masters shared a workshop and that the senior Amati likely mentored the young Stradivari." However, the NYT also noted that the two men lived in the same region and might have coincidentally used the same wood for their instruments.