The show dedicated to the Italian violin collector runs until 23 November at Turin’s Palazzo Madama
An exhibition dedicated to the famed instrument collector Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue has opened at the Palazzo Madama in Turin, Italy. ‘Il conte Cozio e il mito di Stradivari’ (Count Cozio and the myth of Stradivari) will run until 23 November.
Curated by Giovanni Accornero and Duane Rosengard, the exhibition marks the 270th anniversary of Cozio’s birth in 1755. The count is regarded as one of the most important collectors of stringed instruments in history. He owned ten violins by Antonio Stradivari and examined many more during his lifetime. Giovanni Battista Guadagnini made more than 50 instruments for Cozio, whose correspondence, notes and memoirs have proven a treasure trove for violin scholars over the years. The count investigated the provenance of the instruments he owned, made notes on their form and construction, compared violin making schools and made observations on the makers’ techniques.
The exhibition includes 20 stringed instruments, including 12 owned by Count Cozio. As well as six violins and two violas by Guadagnini, it features the ‘Ames’ Stradivari of 1734; the 1718 Stradivari owned by the 19th-century violinist G.B. Viotti; a 1736 Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ violin owned by Gaetano Pugnani; the 1733 ‘Cozio, Tarisio’ violin by Carlo Bergonzi, said to be the count’s favourite instrument; and a 1668 violin by Nicolò Amati that he inherited from his father.
There are also violins by the Celoniato brothers and Gioffredo Cappa, a viola by Giacomo Rivolta, and mandolins and guitars by Guadagnini’s sons. An interactive 3D installation ‘La forma del suono’ (The Shape of Sound) gives visitors an in-depth look at Guadagnini’s 1774 ‘Salabue, Berta’ violin. There are also documents from the ‘Cozio Carteggio’, the archive of notes and letters left by the count that provide fascinating insights into the instruments he examined. In addition, the exhibition includes the famous portrait of Viotti by the French portraitist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, marking its first public display. The painting recently resurfaced on the antiques market, having previously been considered lost in the early 20th century.
As most of the instruments have been sourced from private collections and institutions, they are rarely available for public view. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Associazione Il Salabue.
Il conte Cozio e il mito di Stradivari, 2025 - Palazzo Madama, Torino. Photos: Studio Gonella
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