Zampieri

ARPA A TRI ORDINI

Italy, early 17th century

Reconstruction after the painting „David che suona l’arpa“ of 1619 by the italian painter, architect and harpmaker Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino, 1581-1641

“In 1981 I discovered a painting at the Palace of Versailles showing King David playing a beautiful baroque harp. The large painting has been made by the roman artist and architect Domenico Zampieri (called Domenichino) in 1619.
I started to study this instrument and did compare it with early harps I have seen already or have already made at my studio. Very fascinated by this harp, I noticed, that the painting shows brillantly tiny details and fascinating realistic measurements which did prove this harp must have been exsting. In fact Zampieri mentioned in a letter to a friend that he did create a new harp. At several drawings and other paintings Zampieri did repeat this model – so this harp must have been his own creation which he also used for his paintings. I decided to make a totally detailled recreation of this harp – while I noticed delightly that since 360 years never ever before anybody has made a recreation of this harp. I also started a study about this harp and its recreation. This study “Aspects of the reconstruction of three-row harps based on Domenichinos ‘David che suona l’arpa’ ” can be found at the book “Historical Harps – Theoretical and practical aspects of historical harps“, published in 1991 by the reknown Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis.” (Rainer M. Thurau)