About the maker
Domenico Corbucci hailed from Città di Castello in Umbria, a region that shares similarities with the Marche attitude towards violinmaking, particularly with the makers of Ascoli Piceno.
The history
Domenico Corbucci lived in Città di Castello in the northwestern part of Umbria along the Upper Tiber Valley. Here Domenico was born in 1829, and died in 1890. He was a member of an educated middle-class family. His father was a lawyer, and together with his sons, he shared the ideals of the Italian Risorgimento. Together with his brothers, Domenico enrolled in the first Italian War of Independence.
Regarding violin making, like most of the makers in this region, he was self-taught and probably approached violinmaking through musical studies as a violinist. During his life, he participated in local exhibitions, such as the Agricultural, Artistic and Industrial Exhibition of Città di Castello, where he presented a double bass, six violins, and a viola. However, he was mainly a violinmaker by profession, with his death certificate describing him as a maker of musical instruments.
References
Leonhard Florian, The Makers of Central Italy. Cremona: Edizioni Novecento, 2011.
Consistent quirks
One of the primary and typical features of this maker is his diagonally flowing oval scroll volutes that are relaxed in appearance. In general, precision was not at the forefront of Corbucci’s thinking, but he managed to keep a certain flow in his work, which has such direction that his style is quite recognisable. More details about his making can be found in The Makers of Central Italy by Florian Leonhard.
