Giovanni Francesco Pressenda

Considered the father and perhaps finest maker of the modern Turin school, Pressenda was generally assumed to have been a student of Storioni. A more thorough comparison of their instruments, however, does not support that theory, and it is more likely that he was trained in Turin in the 1820s by French makers before opening his own shop. Consequently, the French influence is strong in Pressenda's ...Read More early work and his preference for Stradivari models is in keeping with the Parisian fashion of the period, though significant variation suggests a search for a definitive personal style. Starting in about 1830 his work begins to take on more original qualities, especially the rich red varnish and elongated f-holes. Some of these personal features of Pressenda's style became hallmarks of the Turin school throughout the next two centuries, including the prominent scribe line down the center of the scroll. His most celebrated pupil was Giuseppe Rocca , but the maker who followed and copied him most closely was Annibale Fagnola . Read Less