Partly printed and partly handwritten (attributed to Omobono Stradivari) with the following text: 'Adì (ms: Primo Febraro i723:) / Si è accettato (ms: Antonio Nichil: V[icinan]za S[an]to Donato:) / nella Ven[erabile] Comp[agnia] del Suffragio, sotto l'altiss[imo] / Patrocinio della B[eata] V[ergine] M[aria] Assonta, formata / l'anno 1713., ed eretta nel 1717. nella Chiesa / di S[an]ta Elisabetta in Vicinanza S. Sepolcro della / ...'
The two crowned skeletons with scythe and hourglass represent Death. The central image probably depicts the altarpiece of the patronage of the Compagnia del Suffragio in the church of Santa Elisabetta and depicts the Madonna Assunta with underneath, in the flames, the purging souls to whom were directed the prayers of the members of the company.
16.2 x 21.9 cm
Cremona, Museo del Violino
MS 867
Perpetual bailment of Giuseppe Fiorini, 1930
Francesco Stradivari 1737; Paolo Stradivari in 1743; Ignazio Alessandro Cozio Count of Salabue 1775; Matilde Cozio Countess of Salabue 1840; Giuseppe Rolando Marquis Dalla Valle; Paola Dalla Valle widow; Giuseppe Fiorini 1920; Municipality of Cremona 1930
In 1930 the conservator of the Civico Museo of Cremona, Don Illemo Camelli, believed that Stradivari had chosen the pseudonym Nichil [Nothing] for humility; research carried out later ascertained that Antonio Nichil was a real existent person, living in Cremona in the suppressed parish of St. Donato.
