Creator Rodríguez Tapia, Juan

Medium Artwork: Sculpture

City Avila | Region Castilla-León | Old kingdom Castile

LOCATION
Polychromed wood sculpture of an angel with 4-course guitar. Originally made for the altar of the Cathedral in Avila but now in the Museo catedralicio, vitrina 10, no 141.

DESCRIPTION
Similar shape to 6-course vihuelas. Characteristics include a single rosette 2/3 toward neck, a bridge close to the bottom of the instrument. Information about this sculpture was communicated by luthier Carlos González [e-mail 11/1/2002]. He describes it as “a wood carving by Juan Rodríguez, circa 1525, representing a splendid four-course guitar with a vaulted back.” In a subsequent email of 29/08/2002 he adds: “I had the occasion to study it in detail in 1990… and is most interesting. It has a back like the five-course vihuela or guitar by Belchior Dias, but not fluted. Unfortunately the pegbox is missing, a piece that is customarily fragile in sculptures, but even so in this case because the wood is worm eaten.“

Bordas, Cristina et al. La Guitarra Española - The Spanish Guitar. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario, 1991.

Gétreau, Florence. “L’iconographie de la vihuela”. Aux origines de la guitare: la vihuela de mano. Ed. Joël Dugot. Paris: Musée de la Musique, 2004. 41-49.

Romanillos, José Luis and Marian Harris Winspear. The Vihuela de mano and the Spanish Guitar: A Dictionary of the Makers of Plucked and Bowed Musical Instruments of Spain (1200-2002). Guijosa (Guadalajara): Sanguino Press, 2002.

Bellow, Alexander. The Illustrated History of the Guitar. New York: Franco Colombo, 1970.

Bordas, Cristina et al. La Guitarra Española - The Spanish Guitar. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario, 1991.

Gétreau, Florence. “L’iconographie de la vihuela”. Aux origines de la guitare: la vihuela de mano. Ed. Joël Dugot. Paris: Musée de la Musique, 2004. 41-49.

Romanillos, José Luis and Marian Harris Winspear. The Vihuela de mano and the Spanish Guitar: A Dictionary of the Makers of Plucked and Bowed Musical Instruments of Spain (1200-2002). Guijosa (Guadalajara): Sanguino Press, 2002.