Cesare Candi

Candi, Cesare - (b Minerbio, near Bologna, 5 March 1869; d Genoa, 29 Sept 1947). Italian maker of violins, mandolins, guitars and other string instruments. In 1884, after his father's death, he went to work with his brother Oreste Candi (1865–1938) at the workshop of Raffaele Fiorini in Bologna. Around 1888 he again joined his brother, who now worked for the Fratelli Barberis, a mandolin and guitar making firm, in Genoa. Cesare set up on his own around 1892 and later began to make violins, probably having learned from Eugenio Praga (1847–1901) and Enrico Rocca (1847–1915), who were also working in Genoa.
Candi's style, which underwent slight but significant changes in the course of his long career, is easily recognizable. His work is clean, if at times a little ‘cold’. He used a very personal building technique which he later passed on to his many students. An unusual aspect of his violin making technique was his use of linings cut from one piece of wood (like a guitar) that passed over the blocks. The channelling is always very deep and marked (at times even exaggerated). The varnish is generally yellow gold or red-orange in colour, and of variable consistency. He used two different labels during his career, and a brand, c. candi genova, which is usually inside the instrument. He made many elaborately inlaid instruments (violins, guitars, violas d'amore, etc.) with great technical skill and taste; these have been rather more appreciated by collectors than players. He received prizes at the exhibitions in Milan (1906), Bologna (1907) and Cremona (1937). In occasion of Stradivari's celebrations in 1937 he restored the 'Il Cannone' of Paganini.
Candi left a permanent imprint on both professional and amateur 20th-century Genoese violin making. Cesare Candi's students include Paolo de Barbieri, Giuseppe, B. Lecchi and his grandson Corrado Gritti (Candi).
Paolo de Barbieri entered Candi’s workshop when he was about 30, having previously been a sailor and soldier. He learnt external mould construction from Candi, as well as the use of continuous linings, which he employed throughout his life. He made more than 360 violins, as well as violas, cellos and guitars. In his early period he used his master’s Strad model, followed later by a personal Strad model with narrow f-holes and round archings; but his main model was the 'Cannon’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, which since Praga had been a steady reference for all Genoese makers.
De Barbieri’s place in Candi’s workshop was taken in 1924 by a talented young woodworker called Giuseppe Bernardo Lecchi (1895–1967), originally from a southern Piedmontese village. Lecchi proved the ideal partner for Candi and made a considerable contribution to his last series of decorated instruments, taking charge of the delicate inlays. When in 1937 he won first prize for a quartet at the Stradivari bicentennial exhibition in Cremona, Lecchi was at his peak. His was a more ‘classical’ taste than that of all the other Genoese makers, and his way of making the Stradivari model was elegant and well balanced. Most of his violins don’t bear the sharp edges and consistent archings of modern Genoese instruments. Lecchi used Candi’s continuous lining technique only in his early period; soon after he began making the interiors in the traditional way, with the central linings mortised or simply set into the centre-blocks.

" Cesare Candi is the most important modern Genoese maker. He was awarded several distinguished prizes: 1st prize in 1892 / Exhibitions of Genoa and Bologna, as well as 1st Prize in Cremona, 1937. Candi's manufacture also includes (approx.) 100 guitars, 29 lutes and 100 mandolins." - Gennady Filimonov

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