11. About the portrait of Caspar Duiffoprugcar (1562)

The image of the portrait of Caspar Duiffoprugcar (Tieffenbrucker) – a violin maker of Bavarian origin active in Lyon in the mid-sixteenth century – engraved by Pierre Wœiriot De Bouzey (1532-1589 ca.) has been shown in an infinite number of publications on violin making, but almost always without indicating its provenance.

Since I have to discuss this portrait in my new book on Stradivari (Gianpaolo GREGORI, Antonio Stradivari. I volti del mito – The faces of the myth, Il mio libro self publishing, 2025), I felt compelled to conduct a bibliographical and web search to try to compile a chronology of its earliest citations and a list of the places where the originals are preserved (Prologue, note 6).

The portrait appears to have appeared in the bibliography for the first time in 1810, cited by Choron and Fayolle (Alexandre-Etienne CHORON et François Joseph-Marie FAYOLLE, Dictionnaire historique des musiciens. Paris, 1810, t. I, p. 195) and was briefly described two years later on page 947 of the first volume of the composer's New historical-biographical lexicon (Neues historish-biographishes Lexicon der Tonkünstler, t, I, Leipzig, Kuhnel), which reported that it had been brought to the attention of Herr Maior von Wagner.

In 1814, J.B. Bonaventure Roquefort († 1834) described him again (Jean-Baptiste Bonaventure ROQUEFORT-FLAMERICOURT, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne. Paris, G. Michaud, tome XII, p, 476), asserting among other things that Fayolle had “had the figure of this artist re-engraved from this portrait”. It is likely that he was referring to the half-length portrait facing right in the Galerie des Violons et Luthiers Célébrès Morts & Vivants which is distinguished in their art, both by Writings and Musical Compositions, both by the construction and the beautiful manner of playing their instrument. Periodic work presented to Mr. Edouard Gustave Boode [...]. Paris, Frey, 1819, engraved by Lambert the Younger († 19th century) “from an engraving belonging to Mr. Roquefort” (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

It is possible that Roquefort, who had written among other things that he owned three instruments by the German luthier, had a copy of Wœiriot's original print, given that in his youth he had collected numerous ancient documents on French music, which he himself sold before dying to face financial difficulties.

Later, on pages 110-111 of the seventh volume of Le peintre-graveur français, ou Catalog raisonné des estampes gravées par les peintres et les dessinateurs de l'école française, Paris, Gabriel Warée, 1844, the print collector and author of the work Robert Dumesnil († 1864) described the portrait, without showing the image, as follows:

«284. Duiffoprugcar (Gaspard). Seen from three-quarters, half-length, and turned to the left, where he is looking. His long beard falls in two tassels on his chest. In his right hand he holds a compass, and in the other a lute surrounded by ten other musical instruments. He is enclosed in an oval whose background is ‘colored’. At the top is a crown, in which is a mark. At the bottom, on a tablet, one can read: Gaspar Duiffoprugcar / I was alive, in sylvis sum dura occisa securi. / Dum vixi, tacui, mortua dulce cano. / aeta ann. / XL – VIII / 15 PWDB 62. / Height: 191 mm. Width: 134 mm.»

In 1876, Vidal († 1891) published an ‘unfaithful’ reproduction of Wœiriot’s print with the character turned to the right and without instruments (fig. 2), drawn and engraved two years earlier by Frédéric-Désiré Hillemacher (Antoine VIDAL, Les Instruments à archet, t. I, Paris, J. Claye, 1876, Pl. XIX, p. 90).

Fig. 2

Later, Chouquet († 1886) also included Duiffoprugcar's portrait (Fig. 3) in the second edition of 1884 of the catalogue of the Musée du Conservatoire national de Musique. (Gustave CHOQUET, Catalogue descriptif et raisonné, ..., Nouvelle édition, ornée de figurés, Paris, Firmin-Didot). The published image, however, differs from the one described by Dumesnil twenty years earlier in that it has a white background and a three-line inscription at the bottom and does not include the sitter's age, the date 1562, or the cross of Lorraine. And Wœiriot's initials are indicated with the letters W P only.

Fig. 3

Nine years later, Coutagne († 1885) claimed to know two original versions of the print, but was ‘content’ with describing the one preserved at the Bibliothèque National de France, which he had reproduced in a reduced size by “héliogravure” (Fig. 4) and was the first to publish its image in the printed edition of his communication to the Academy of Sciences of Lyon of 21 March 1893 (Henry COUTAGNE, Gaspard Duiffoproucart et les luthiers lyonnais, Discours de réception à l’Académie des Sciences, Paris, Fichbacher, 1893), in which he cited almost all the previous bibliography of the print.

Fig. 4

Indeed, the 1938 inventory of prints of the Bibliothèque National de France (Jean ADHEMAR, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du seizième siècle / Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes. Tome second, Levert-Woeriot, Paris, Bibliothèque National, p. 166) described two portraits of Duiffoprugcar similar to those described by Dumesnil:

a) "Last state [sic?]: With inscription of 4 lignes, Ed. 5. b. Rés., fol, 46; Nb. 43; N2. (Duiffoprugcar)".

This copy has the handwritten inscription "Pierre Wœiriot" under the oval and the stamped number D 130963. The position of the Library stamp on the word Duiffoprugcar identifies it with the one copied and published by Coutagne, but it is not a "First State," as indicated in the catalogue, but rather the definitive version (Fig. 5). The current signature of the print is: “Département des Estampes et de la photographie, N2-Duiffoprugcar, D-130963“ and is among other things the same as the photograph from the Mirimond collection shown in Gallica (département Musique, VM PHOT MIRI-21 (567).

Fig. 5

b) «IIe état: Inscription de 3 lignes. Robert-Dumesnil, VII et XI, 284; Courboin, 11442». It has the handwritten inscription R. D. 284 under the oval which seems to coincide with some of the indications in the inventory, but the inscriptions on the print are not of 3 lines, but rather complete and are identical to the one described above. It could be the example described by Robert Dumesnil in 1844 (Fig. 6). The current signature is: Département des Estampes et de la photographie, KD-3(1)-FOL, M-29990.

Fig. 6

The Bibliothèque National also owns a third original copy of the second version, not included in the 1938 inventory. It was roughly cut into an oval, eliminating the important details of the apex (vegetal crown with the luthier's mark) and the base (age of the subject, date of printing, and the author's initials). It is marked no. 47 and is found glued into a volume bound in red morocco that belonged to Michel de Marolles († 1681), an abbot and well-known collector of old master prints. The current shelfmark is: Département des Estampes et de la photographie, RESERVE ED-5(B)-FOL (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

A fourth example of the "II Stato" is found in the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan and has the handwritten inscription “Gasparo Duiffoproucart / Liutaio” underneath (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8

A fifth example of the same print, but colored in watercolour and with the addition of a yellow frame around the oval (Fig. 9), is in the Vierter Thail Philippi Hainhoferi Lautenbucher: a manuscript assembled in Augsburg before 1604, preserved in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel (Cod. Guelf. 18. 8. Aug. fol. - Heinemann-Nr. 2214 – , see: http://diglib.hab.de/mss/18-8-aug-2f/start.htm. It has recently been reproduced in: Alessandra BARABASCHI, Stradivari. Die Geshichte einer Legende, Vienna, Böhlau Verlag, 2021, p. 51.

Fig. 9

A sixth original example is preserved at the British Museum in London (inv. 1934,0720.1) – cut at the edge of the oval and glued onto a sheet of paper stamped with the inscriptions: «SECOND STATE R.D. VII. 110. 284». It came to the British Museum in 1934 from C G Boerner, who had purchased it through the Colnaghi Art Gallery (Fig. 10). See: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1934-0720-1.

Fig. 10

Another example of the print is also preserved in the British Museum – no. 1862,0208.109, cut around the profile and glued to a sheet of paper stamped with the inscription: FIRST STATE (Fig. 11). It appears to be entirely similar to the print published by Choquet (Fig. 3); in fact, it shows the same white background and the absence of the inscriptions indicating the sitter's age in the plaque under the portrait, and in the curl there are no signs of the date 1862, the cross of Lorraine, or the author's initials, which are barely visible, are W P.

Fig. 11

Replicas of this same print appear to be: the one put up for sale some time ago on ebay.fr - https://www.ebay.fr/itm/293064141834 - (Fig. 12), and the one, defined as a “late print”, which appeared in the Drouot Gazette (https://www.gazette-drouot.com/en/lots/19821210-pierre-woeiriot-1532-1599-- ) (Fig. 13).

Figg. 12 and 13

At this point, it is clear that there are two versions of Wœiriot's engraving.

The image with the white background published by Choquet in 1888 (Fig. 3), of which there is an example at the British Museum (Fig. 10) marked "First State," and the one offered for sale online, which is considered a first version of the print (First State) and is signed with the initials ; it is fair to deduce that, to arrive at the “Second State”, the author should have subsequently engraved on the original plate the clouds at the top around the crown with the luthier's mark, the ruling of the background, the inscriptions on the plate at the bottom “aeta ann / XL-VIII”, the cross of Lorraine traced in the small curl above the cartouche with the date “15-62” which contains the engraver's initial letters, made to become (PWDB) , by adding the arch of the P to the first shaft of the W, that of the D to the third and the arches of the B to the fourth; but one must ask how the P could have been erased after the W. The doubt is legitimate and to resolve it it would be necessary to verify (perhaps with scientific tests on the supports and inks) whether the engraving first shown by Choquet and the others preserved are truly a sixteenth-century “First State” completed by the author or simplified posthumous editions of the original.

Finally, it is worth noting the existence of an oil painting on wood from the “French School of the 19th century” (45.5 x 28.5 cm) which reproduces in colour the portrait of Woeriot with the lower plate cut at the bottom as in the print considered to be from the “First State” but with the age of the sitter which was inserted in the “Second State” print (Fig. 14). https://www.musicantic.eu/peinture-iconographie/portrait-de-gasparo-duiffopruggar_5244_fr_D.html .

Fig. 14

Gianpaolo Gregori, November 23, 2025