Wim Raymaekers

Outlines were taken from extant instruments of the violin family and from iconographic sources, mostly between 1500 and 1700. They can be used for reference, or simply for inspiration. For more in depth information you can read the following article: Wim RAYMAEKERS, How the f-hole arose. Sound hole shapes and bridge position on bowed instruments.

This is the outcome of a heated discussion on Facebook in April 2024: "The pochette, one of the most special stringed instruments, can be found in many museum collections-but is it displayed properly? The author states that the bridge position should be reconsidered."

This study reveals the origins of the various elements of bridges found on modern instruments of the violin family, and reconstructs the different stages of their evolution. The extensive appendices and many line drawings offer today’s researchers, makers and restorers the possibility of providing historically informed bridges that are less fantasized than those hitherto often encountered on restorations or reconstructions of old instruments.

This is a scholarly article, but at the same time a plea for an urgent rewrite of the early history of the violin, this time unhampered by prejudice and entrenched ideas. To me, this is symbolic of the world we are now fighting for: a world where truth is sought in freedom, especially when it is threatened by arguments of authority and ingrained norms.

While I was extensively studying the forgotten lutherie style represented in many Dutch paintings from the era between 1620 and 1640, the plan arose to make a reconstruction, not only on paper but also for real. The result is now part of the permanent exhibition in the "Museum Vleeshuis" in Antwerp to illustrate the kind of violins used by minstrels in the16th and 17th century cities of the Low Countries.

A new version of my pamphlet on the world of musical instrument research in crisis:  “Research supports the notion that using feedback and constructive criticism … is very influential” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism). Perhaps even organologists are not immune to its positive effect. Hence this attempt to identify a number of problems.

In een aantal uiteenlopende iconografische onderwerpen kunnen beschadigde snaarinstrumenten aan bod komen. Uit deze schilderijen valt veel te leren over de objecten en over de mate van realisme van de kunstwerken. Iedereen die bekend is met restauratie en conservering van muziekinstrumenten kan in één oogopslag zien of de kunstenaar wist hoe gebreken aan een instrument er werkelijk uitzien.

Damaged stringed instruments can appear in a number of different iconographic contexts. Much
can be learned from these paintings about the objects and the degree of realism of the works of art. Anyone familiar with the restoration and conservation of musical instruments can tell at a glance whether the artist knew what defects on an instrument really look like.

Tentoonstellingscatalogus. 14 oktober 2023 -13 januari 2024. Cordaneum, Rue de la Station 4, 6900 Marloie (Marche-en-Famenne). Met de opkomst van de elektrische gitaar als leidraad maken we een reis door de fascinerende wereld van de tokkelinstrumenten tussen 1920 en 1970.

Catalogue de l'exposition. 14 octobre 2023 -13 janvier 2024. Cordaneum, Rue de la Station 4, 6900 Marloie (Marche-en-Famenne). Avec l’avènement de la guitare électrique comme fil rouge, nous allons voyager à travers le monde fascinant des instruments à cordes pincées, de 1920 à 1970.

After studying, as an art historian and violin maker, over a thousand works of art from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries as well as extant instruments, I found proof for this hypothesis about the origin of the f-hole: cutting the C-hole shape in half and rotating both halves relative to each other. That is why f-holes have indents, and why the inner one is placed lower than the outer one. That is also the reason why these inner notches were not used initially as a reference to locate the bridge. It was purely the result of a visual adjustment.

17th century virtual reality: a gallery of lost archaic violins from Dutch painters'studios. Art historian and violin maker Wim Raymaekers describes a number of violins depicted in detail and from different viewpoints by Dutch painters in the Golden Age before 1650.

This article is a translation of a study originally published in Dutch:
Wim RAYMAEKERS, De vormkenmerken van de instrumenten der vioolfamilie in de 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst, in Musica antiqua. Actuele informatie over oude muziek, 6, 3, 1989, p.98-105. This text is still relevant and innovative, since it widens our knowledge of archaic violins in the same way the “rediscovery” of the Alemannic school and the Freiberger violins did.
Whatever the meaning, the hidden symbolic messages or the iconographic theme of representations from the Golden Age may be, the elements with which they are composed are often so realistic that they can be studied in detail. This certainly applies to the illustrations of the instruments of the violin family. In addition to the fact that they play a remarkable role in the iconography of that time , they offer, due to their large number and their quality as a document, the possibility to study the visual characteristics of the seventeenth century violin in the Netherlands. They allow us to follow their evolution starting as early as 1620, despite the fact that no extant organological material concerning this material has come to us from well past the middle of the century. This unclarified period between about 1620 and 1660/1670 appears to be a pivotal era, because it is precisely then that the transition from "archaic" to "modern" stylistic features can be observed in Dutch iconography.

The objective of this introduction is to provide a frame to attach the different aspects of a scholar's activity when carrying out organological research. This guideline can give a firm structure and a good basis to start. Nevertheless, a number of skills like a healthy open mind, good intuition, logical thinking and common sense are equally important. Definition and domain: What is organological research 2 ? It can be described as critical research into a certain aspect in the domain of musical instruments. The goal is to learn, and then communicate what has been found out about an instrument or a number of instruments and/or its makers. A researcher needs to be able to formulate the research issue and situate it in a larger context, organize and execute his research, and communicate his results. Writing a synthesis or at least write a report is part of the research. Different kinds of research: The Flemish government distinguishes 3 kinds of research in high schools of Art: a) Research on arts, not taking its roots in art practices. This is purely theoretical research in art history, or in this case in organology. b) Research embedded in arts. I this case the research converges with the artistic creative process itself. This can also be called "experimentation" or "research by practice". The result of this kind of research is a work of art, with just a brief report to enlighten the whole process. c) Research into arts with artistic results and an extensive written report. So the organological research could also be in the making of a new instrument, a reconstruction or a restoration of an instrument, and a corresponding report on the project. The larger context is important. A research project is only valuable if it's being well embedded in its environment. Knowledge of the historic and geographic situation, of the evolution and its causes, of the similarities or the differences with similar domains of investigation is crucial. As a consequence a wide range of skills and knowledge is favorable for good research:-general history, art history (