Chitarrone, Italian (Padua), ebony and ivory inlaid decoration, Wendelin Tieffenbrucker, 1592.

'Body of nineteen shaded ribs. Belly of two pieces of pine, carved with a fine rose with an arabesque interlace pattern. The bridge appears to have been moved about 2.5 cm upwards. revealing a patch of criss-cross hatching on the belly where the bridge was previously placed. The neck has been broken and is probably not wholly the original neck. It is veneered with ebony and has stringing lines of ivory and marquetry panels with grotesque patterns apparently of mid-seventeenth century date or slightly later. The panels on the back of the neck and on the long head are the contre-parties of those on the front on each case. The main pegbox has eleven pegs, for single treble course, the rest double. The upper pegbox is for eight single strings' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), pp. 35-36.

Given by Mrs Sigismund Goetze in memory of her husband

This instrument was presented to the Museum in 1940 by Constance Goetze in memory of her late husband, the painter Sigismund Goetze (Nominal File MA.1/G982). Sigismund Christian Hubert Goetze (1866-1939) was British painter, best known for the mural scheme he executed at the Foreign Office 1912-1921, on the subject of the British Empire. He had earlier given a sixteenth-century form or bench (W.78-1924) to the Museum.

Attribution note: 'This is a good lute which was converted to a chitarrone in the eightheenth century or later. The marquetry on the fingerboard appears to be identical to that on a lute by Hans Frei in the County Museum, Warwick. Both instruments have been presumably been re-necked."
Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 36

Wendelin Tieffenbrucker belonged to a family of Bavarian luthiers, who had settled in Padua by about 1570. This example was probably a lute, subsequently converted into a chitarrone, a long-necked version with extra unstopped strings in the bass. This instrument once belonged to the painter, Sigismund Goetze (1866-1939), who may have acquired it as a potential artist's prop.

W.6-1940