ID: 700000524 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700000524	Record Type: Movable Work
Images: 1

Guitar (guitar; unknown Italian; ca. 1800; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, U...; 69.29)

Note: Probably made in Naples, Italy. This highly decorated guitar is also an early example of a six-string, single-course guitar. The elaborate decoration features classical figures, musical instruments, and floral motifs made from ebony and fit into an ivory ground covering the back, sides, neck, and headstock of the guitar. A second guitar at the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments features the same decoration, only in reverse, indicating that the decoration was made at the same time by cutting through thin layers of stacked ebony and ivory. A portrait in the center of the upper back is believed to be of Giovanni Paisiello based on his 1791 portrait. Paisiello was a composer of opera and many of his works were transcribed for use on other instruments and his pieces were a favorite of guitarists. The fingerboard is covered with tortoiseshell over read paint with an ivory satyr inlaid where the neck meets the body. A carved wooden rosette may be a replacement and is surrounded by an ivory hexagon with ebony inlaid instruments and flowers matching the back. The decorative style is evocative of so-called Baroque guitars of the seventeenth century. The six-string, single-course guitar became popular in Naples at the end of the eighteenth century and then spread throughout the rest of Europe replacing the earlier five and six double-course guitars.

Titles:

Guitar (preferred,C,U,D,English-P,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

guitar [300042025] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name), Sound Devices (hierarchy name), sound devices (equipment), <sound devices by acoustical characteristics>, chordophones, lutelike chordophones, lutelike chordophones: plucked, <lutelike chordophones with long neck: plucked>)

Classifications:

music / musical instruments (preferred)

Creation Date: ca. 1800

Creator Display:

unknown Italian [preferred,VP]

musical instrument maker unknown Italian (Italian cultural designation) [500125250]

Locations:

Current: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, United States) [500125157] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 69.29

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1969

Address Note: Not on view

Other: Creation: Napoli [7004474] Napoli province (province), Campania (region (administrative division)), Italy (nation), Europe (continent), World (facet) (Geographic)

Display Materials: Spruce, ebony, ivory, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, brass

	spruce (wood) [300012726]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, plant material, <wood and wood by product>, wood (plant material), <wood by composition or origin>, softwood)

	ebony (wood) [300012055]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, plant material, <wood and wood by product>, wood (plant material), <wood by composition or origin>, hardwood)

	ivory (material) [300011857]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by composition>, combination inorganic/organic material, combination inorganic/organic animal material, <bone and bone components materials>, bone (material), <bone by form as material>, <tooth and tooth components as materials>, <tooth components as material>, dentin (material))

	tortoise shell [300011837]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by origin>, biological material, animal material, keratinous material)

Dimensions: Height: 36 in. (91.4 cm) Width: 10 5/8 in. (27 cm) Depth: 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm)

Cultures:

Italian (preferred)

General Subject:

utilitarian objects (preferred,isness)

musical

Provenance: Vladimir Bobri , New York

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: decorative and utilitarian works

Sources and Contributors:
Guitar	........ [VP]
	........ Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-) accessed 22 May 2012

Subject: ....... [VP]

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-)