, 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

Oreste Candi

Oreste Candi was an Italian luthier.Candi was born in Minerbio near Bologna. He was the older brother of Cesare Candi, and was the first of the two brothers to apprentice under Raffaele Fiorini . He later moved to work in Genoa.In 1886 he was already an employee of the Barberis brothers...

 (1865–1938) at the workshop of Raffaele Fiorini

Raffaele Fiorini

Raffaele Fiorini , was an influential Italian violin maker.Innovator. personality and pioneer of the great rebirth of contemporary Bolognese violinmaking, Fiorini was born at Musiano di Pian di Macina di Pianoro near Bologna.He spent his first youth in Bazzano where he learned the first elements of...

 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

Enrico Rocca

Enrico Rocca was an Italian violin maker of the 19th and the 20th Centuries and son of Giuseppe 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

Paolo de Barbieri

Paolo De Barbieri was an Italian violin maker. Trained in Cesare Candi's workshop, Paolo DeBarbieri is now considered one of the best violin makers of the school of Genova....

 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

Giuseppe Bernardo Lecchi

Giuseppe Bernardo Lecchi was an Italian violin maker.Originally from a Piedmontese village near Alessandria, Lecchi showed great talent for woodworking at a young age. In 1924, he took over De Barbieri’s place in Cesare Candi’s workshop...

 (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

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

, 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.

Quotes

" 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

External links

• Alberto Giordano&C. The Genoese line
• ::: Alberto Giordano&C. - Fine violins, violas and cellos in Genoa ::: at www.giordanoviolins.com
• La Liuteria Italiana / Italian Violin Making in the 1800s and 1900s - Umberto Azzolina
• I Maestri Del Novicento - Carlo Vettori
• La Liuteria Lombarda del '900 - Roberto Codazzi, Cinzia Manfredini 2002
• Dictionary of 20th Century Italian Violin Makers - Marlin Brinser 1978
• Liuteria Parmense

View a fine example of Cesare Candi - violin 1901 close-up:

Cesare Candi - violin 1901 top

Cesare Candi - violin 1901 back

Cesare Candi - violin 1901 scroll front

Cesare Candi - violin 1901 scroll back

Cesare Candi - violin 1901 scroll right

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