Although there is reason to identify in Bartolomeo Cristofori, a pupil of Nicolò Amati and later inventor of the modern piano, the founder of the Florentine school of the eighteenth century, Giovanni Battista Gabrielli (1716-1771) was the maker who most influenced its future developments.
As in much of central Italy, Gabrielli decided to adopt the concept of Jacobus Stainer as the basis for his models; this is easily recognizable in his F-holes, with the terminal part of the stems folded inwards and small rounded wings. The scroll also shows some Tyrolean influence: the peg box is curvilinear and the scroll ends at the top with a very narrow fluting at the final part of the eye. Gabrielli interpreted these characteristics with elegance and with a typically Italian taste, far from the exaggerations of some later luthiers. His varnish is usually of a nice amber yellow color.
