Matteo Goffriller
Venice 1659 - 1742
Considered to be the father of the Venetian school, Matteo Goffriller was born in the Alpine town of Bressanone close to Bolzano, where he may have been a student of Matthias Albani. After moving to Venice in 1685 to apprentice with Mathias Kaiser, he married Kaiser's daughter and by 1690 had inherited his teacher and father-in-law's business. Thereafter Goffriller enjoyed unrivaled dominance in the Venetian violin making trade, and had a marked influence on all of the prominent early 18th-century Venetian makers, including Domenico Montagnana, Santo Serafin, Carlo Tononi, Francesco Gobetti, and the younger Pietro Guarneri. The deep red varnish typical of Goffriller's work later became a salient attribute of the Venetian style. His cellos are his most favored works today, and are superior to all but those of Stradivari and Montagnana.
