Leandro Bisiach

Leandro Bisiach (1864 – 1 December 1945) was an Italian violin maker, who was born in Casale Monferrato and died in 1945 at Venegono Superiore near Varese.

Trained as a violinist, he made his first violin on his own and received praise for it. Thus he decided to become a violin maker and moved to Milan to work with the Antoniazzi family in 1886. With them he established a partnership of exceptional importance, putting to good use his artistic skills and business ability. After having moved his workshop to various premises, he retired to his villa in Venegono leaving his sons Andrea and Carlo Bisiach to continue the business in Milan.

Bisiach was a prominent figure in the commerce of antique violins. He trained a number of luthiers, including Gaetano Sgarabotto, Igino Sderci, Pietro Borghi, Ornati and Garimberti.

His workshop can be considered as the most important in Italy in that period. The following instrument makers worked at Bisiach's: Riccardo Antoniazzi, Romeo Antoniazzi, Gaetano Sgarabotto, Giuseppe Ornati, Ferdinando Garimberti, Igino Sderci, Rocchi Sesto, Cipriano Briani, Camillo Mandelli, Ferriccio Varagnolo, Camillo Colombo, Vincenzo Cavani, Pietro Paravicini, Albert Moglie, Andrea Bisiach, Carlo Bisiach, Pietro Borghi, Mirco Tarasconi, Leandro Jr. & Giacomo Bisiach, Iginio Siega and Carlo Ferrario.

With the death of the last of the great Cremonese masters towards the end of the 18th century, only the Cerutis remained in Cremona. It was the Antoniazzis who undertook the task of transferring the scant knowledge saved from oblivion from Cremona to Milan.

Leandro Bisiach did a great deal of research and found some old recipes, which he used to create antiqued varnishes for the numerous copies he made. He primarily used a varnish of a light red-orange color although it varied greatly from one instrument to another. To give an instrument an aged look he very often shaded off the varnish only at the base of the back plate. Bisiach used a large number of diverse models but principally those of Stradivari, Amatise and other models of Guarneri, Balestrieri, Guadagnini, Gagliano, Enrico and Giovanni Battista Ceruti or other violin makers from Veneto in the 18th century. He also utilized many others as chance would have it.

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