Luthier Stradivari in his Workshop

Kravchenko had friends among the musicians of Stradivari State Quartet. When the program cover was needed for the concert of this group, the artist was fascinated by the idea of recreating the image of Stradivari himself making a violin in his workshop. In this engraving Kravchenko also intended to perpetuate Cremona, the city famous for the art of Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, who created the world-famous instruments there ... On the rear wall of Stradivari’s workshop Kravchenko placed a panorama of Cremona with towers, houses, narrow streets bordered by the shaded frame ... Is it a window or a painting? Now, when we found the original drawing of this composition, you can clearly see a large open window and a curtain flying in the wind. However, later, studying the life of Stradivari, Kravchenko learned that there were no windows in Stradivari’s workshop. Unwilling to give up the intention to depict the image of Cremona, the artist found an ingenious solution. He turned the window into a big picture of the urban landscape of Cremona. And to make sure the viewer perceives it as a picture on a wall, he depicted a violin’s shadow on the upper corner of the canvas. Giving up the image of a window, the artist was able to immerse the room of the entire workshop in the shadows. But he introduced the rays of light, coming from above through a round window underneath the roof, falling like a bright stream on the table with drawings and tools and on Stradivari leaning over his violin, thus pulling them out of the shadows...

//Kemenov V.S. “Alexey Kravchenko” Leningrad, 1986. p.122.//