Guitar

The guitar was particularly popular in Italy during the seventeenth century. The Matteo Sellas instrument pictured here is representative for that time. It is quite small and has five courses or five pairs of strings. Matteo Sellas was of German origin and established himself in Venice, one of the major centres of guitar-building. The Sellas family ran various workshops until about 1750.

The profusion of decorative elements indicates that the instrument was used in aristocratic circles. The sound-board bears flower motifs applied in black paste. Around the rose are other flowers, incorporated within an interlacement of ebony, ivory and rosewood. The rose itself probably comes from a harpsichord: it depicts a person at a harpsichord, surrounded by the initials ‘HH’, the emblem of the harpsichord maker Henri Hemsch. The finger-board is decorated with two small ivory plates depicting fables of the Greek poet Aesop: The Wolf and the Stork and The Fox and the Stork. A small ivory plate on the peg-box bears the signature of Matteo Sellas. The ribs of the back and side walls are in snakewood and are separated by ivory edging.