Pietro Pallotta
Pietro Pallotta is the finest Umbrian maker of his time, who produced an impressive output of violins and violas of consistently high quality.
About the maker
Pietro Pallotta was born in Perugia in 1755, the son of a fishmonger who also owned a tavern and a shop selling wine during his life. Pietro lived in Perugia all his life, and died in 1830. It was also in Perugia that he met and married his wife, although the pair apparently bore no children. We have little information regarding his private life, and even less about his activity as a luthier in Perugia. From the labels of his instruments, we know that the luthier Giovanni Rossi was his pupil towards the end of his career. Pietro Pallotta is the leading maker of his generation in Umbria.
References
Leonhard Florian, The Makers of Central Italy. Cremona: Edizioni Novecento, 2011.
Consistent quirks
As can be seen in many of his instruments, Pallotta’s choice of wood is local maple, sometimes with an interestingly-figured wood cut close to the tree’s roots. His sound holes are always neatly executed and rather small in design, and the scrolls often bear the typical rounded-off eye.
