Vittorio Bellarosa was born in Naples, Italy February 24, 1907, the son of Ricardo Bellarosa, himself a prominent violin maker. V. Bellarosa grew up surrounded with the tools of violin making and the instruments themselves, which no doubt helped his prolific career. Before returning to Naples in the 1920s, Bellarosa had already studied in Rotello, Rome, and even Mittenwald.
By 1930, it was apparent there existed a market for older violins rather than new. It was about this time we see the first Gagliano copies. Bellarosa copied the Gagliani well and freqeuntly, for the style and character of the later members of the Gagliani family ideally suited his own manner of working. The long pegboxes and small volutes on the scrolls, the outline, which seems to bulge outward at the upper and lower bouts, and the traditional seedlac varnish of Naples further enhance his violins and reaffirmed his stylistic affinity to the past.
Bellarosa began making his instruments under his own trademark in the 1940s. He died in 1979 at the age of 72 and with his death the great age of modern Neopolitan violin making ended.
Vittorio Bellarosa was born in Naples, Italy February 24, 1907, the son of Ricardo Bellarosa, himself a prominent violin maker. V. Bellarosa grew up surrounded with the tools of violin making and the instruments themselves, which no doubt helped his prolific career. Before returning to Naples in the 1920s, Bellarosa had already studied in Rotello, Rome, and even Mittenwald.
By 1930, it was apparent there existed a market for older violins rather than...
Bellarosa,Vittorio
