Instruments
Violin with Grotesques
A commission from Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for their annual fund-raising auction, themed "Florentine Splendor."
The Orchestra supplied the violin and I donated my time in ornamenting it. The auction's theme was "Florentine Splendor", so I chose to decorate the instrument with Italianate motifs. The back features a composition of grotesques — that characteristically Renaissance vocabulary of masks, foliage, and fantastical creatures — rendered in the spirit of the great Florentine decorative tradition.
Details
The back: a grotesque composition with Green Man, monkey, and parrots, in the Italianate Renaissance tradition.
Detail of the lower bout, showing the parrots and tailpiece ornament.