Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737) . picture. It remained to prove in some way that the above con-jecture was well founded. A copper-plate engraving ofMonteverdi is given by Cafifi in his work; * but it re-presents the great musician as a middle-aged man, andalthough there is some resemblance between the engravingand the painting, it is not strong enough to form a satis-factory proof of identity of subject. Fortunately there is another print, published in 1644,the year after Monteverdis death, in a volume t now veryrare, of which I heard through Signor F. Sacchi. This * Storia d
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737) . picture. It remained to prove in some way that the above con-jecture was well founded. A copper-plate engraving ofMonteverdi is given by Cafifi in his work; * but it re-presents the great musician as a middle-aged man, andalthough there is some resemblance between the engravingand the painting, it is not strong enough to form a satis-factory proof of identity of subject. Fortunately there is another print, published in 1644,the year after Monteverdis death, in a volume t now veryrare, of which I heard through Signor F. Sacchi. This * Storia della Musica Sacra nella gia Capella Ducale di SanMarco in Venezia dal 1318 al 1797. t Fiori Poetici raccolti da G. B. Marinoni, e stampato inVenezia nel 1644. SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF STRADIVARI 299 irint bears much more closely upon the portrait. There is10 copy of Marinonis rare volume in the Library of theBritish Museum ; but the engraving of Monteverdi hasteen fairly well reproduced as the frontispiece of a)amphlet which is obtainable * (fig. 68).. Fig. 68.—Monteverdi. A comparison of this reproduction with the portrait—dlowance being made for some twenty or five-and-twenty/ears difference of age—affords reasonably satisfactory * Claudio Monteverdi a Cremona da Giorgio Sommi Ricordi e C. Milano.) 300 SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF STRADIVARI proof that the portrait does represent Claudio MonteverdiAll the details of the picture being borne in mind, th(likeness is too striking to be accidental. It should btmentioned that the dress of Monteverdi in the prints hprobably that of his office as Maestro di Capella oSt. Marks, Venice. The painting thus discussed is therefore of quite exceplional interest, as in it we have a portrait hithertcunknown of the great Monteverdi as a young man ; ancthe story of its fortunes, while forming a romantic talepoints more than one important moral. It must, however, be accepted that there exists ncauthentic portrait of Antonio Stradivari. Fo
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