The fiddle
Obrovac, 1977
wood, leather, wool, horsehair
cutting, trimming, engraving, carving, hatching
length of the instrument = 74,8 cm
width of the neck = 44,1 cm
body width = 31 cm
length from the first peg to the bottom of the instrument = 60,5 cm
length of the strings from the first peg = 53 cm
length of the bow = 61,5 cm
Et 27582ab
The Collection of Musical Instruments
A two-stringed fiddle is made of bright wood. The body is pear-shaped, the neck is long and bent to resemble the head of chamois. Animal skin is drawn taught over the body and reinforced with wooden nails with flat heads. Five smaller holes are drilled on the skin and they make out a diamond. The pegs on the upper part of the neck are wooden and round. On one end of the peg there are quadrangular extensions which look like feathers. The strings are made of two bundles of white horsehair, and drawn taught all the way from the peg, over the bridge, to the conical extension on the bottom of the fiddle where they are tied to colorful streaked thick solid rope (red-white-blue) which is also tied to the fiddle.
A large cross is carved in the middle of the fiddle on the backside. The cross has opposite facing hooks in a zig-zag circle. On the one side of the cross "R.S.I.Z.K. FROM S.I.Z. OBROVAC" is carved, and on the other "OBROVAC DECEMBER 1977". Sets of concentric circles are carved around it.
A six-pointed rosette is carved on the part of the body which grows wider toward the neck. The rosette is inside a circle, and lines of triangles are carved on the inside of the circle. The animal head (chamois) has eyes and eyelashes, square shaped ears, and a wavy mane; elements of a dog jumping, slanted dashes, squares and Xs are carved on the richly ornamented neck.
