Born in Barbaresco in 1807, Giuseppe Antonio Rocca began working for his fellow countryman Giovanni Francesco Pressenda when the two met in Turin in 1834. His apprenticeship with the older luthier was rather short, and by 1838 Rocca had already become independent from his master. It was also during this period that Rocca met the Piedmontese collector Luigi Tarisio (Teruggi), who was destined to acquire many of the finest instruments already owned by Count Cozio di Salabue.
Thanks to this acquaintance, Rocca was able to study in depth some great instruments of the Cremonese tradition, in particular the 1716 “Messiah” by Antonio Stradivari and the 1742 violin by Guarneri del Gesù, which later became known as the “Alard”. These two instruments remained the basis for the models he used most frequently in the years to come. At the same time, Rocca also distanced himself from the methods he had learned from Pressenda and, thanks to his careful observation of these violins, began to reproduce the internal construction techniques of the Cremonese classics as well. This influence brought Rocca's style closer in some ways to that which would become fashionable in France in the following decades, although the Piedmontese never produced Cremonese “copies” but always remained true to his own original taste. His careful study of the “Messiah” and the “Alard” violin is evident not only in his models but also in the shape and position of the sound holes, for example, which were greatly influenced by the originals. From this point onwards, Rocca developed a personal style that can be found in many details, such as the very wide and external fluting of the plates and the delicate treatment of the scroll, left with rather sharp edges, both characteristics that clearly distinguish him from the style initially inherited from Pressenda. Rocca spent the last period of his life in Genoa, leaving a lasting influence not only on his son Enrico, but also on the violin making of that city and of his native Piedmont in general.
