The finished ‘il Portoghese’ copy. The figures on the original appear more rounded and less defined than the others of the ‘Charles IX’ set
Making a copy of one of Andrea Amati’s decorated instruments had been one of my life’s ambitions for many years. In October 2007 I had attended the exhibition ‘Andrea Amati: Les Violons du Roi’ at Cremona’s Museo Civico, which brought together a number of instruments that the 16th-century luthier had made for the court of Charles IX of France. I was deeply impressed by that exhibition, bought the catalogue and decided to learn more about the instruments.