Guitar (Chitarra Battente)
luthier
Jacopo Mosca Cavelli
(active Perugia, 1720s)
Date1720-1729
Place MadePerugia, Umbria, Italy, Europe
MediumWood inlaid with bone
Dimensions92.1 cm (36 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsMusical Instruments
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberU16e30
eMuseum ID724405
EmbARK ObjectID11789
Previous Number1F16e21
TMS Source ID956
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis 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.
BibliographyNotesIsabella 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
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
MarksNotesInscribed (on headstock): C. MOSCA CAVELLI FE
Inscribed (on paper label inside the guitar): Mosca [illegible] Fecit 172[illegible]
Inscribed (on paper label inside the guitar): Mosca [illegible] Fecit 172[illegible]
ProvenanceNotesPerhaps belonged to a member of the Chigi or Pamphilj family, Rome.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Rome in 1895. (?)
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Rome in 1895. (?)
Object/Provenance
