Bernardo Calcagno

Violin maker
(c. 1680 – 1756)

Bernardo Calcagno, or Bernardus Calcanius, as his Latinized labels read, is perhaps the finest Genoese maker of the 18th century. Though his work is unmistakably Italian, he may have trained with the German maker Andreas Statler, given that they shared a house and probably a workshop around 1730.

Stylistically his ...Read More work is similar to that of both Statler and another contemporary, Jacopo Filippo Cordano. Calcagno became Genoa's pre-eminent maker after the deaths of Statler and Cordano in 1732. In general his output is less refined than the work of his Cremonese contemporaries and less bold than Venetian instruments of the same period. Its varying quality can partly be attributed to trade routes and the resulting caliber of available materials: wood arriving from the Balkans would reach Italy's Ligurian coast only after being heavily picked over by Venetian makers.

Several well-regarded Genoese makers succeeded Calcagno, and although we have no documented evidence of any pupils, it seems likely that he was assisted by his neighbor, Angelo Molia, in later years. Read Less

Price History

- The auction record for this maker is $156,500 in Feb 1998, for a cello.
- 45 auction price results.

View all auction prices for Bernardo Calcagno

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