Born in 1698, Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri was trained under the guidance of his father in a period during which the fate of his workshop was uncertain, and above all severely tested by the overwhelming competition of Antonio Stradivari, who in the 1710s and 20s was in full bloom of its most productive and qualitatively unsurpassed era. If his brother, Pietro II, decided to move to Venice in 1717, Bartolomeo Giuseppe remained in Cremona, but it is possible that he had to devote himself to other activities between about 1720 and 1730. Only then, with the progressive withdrawing of his father, did he start an independent production, which marked a difference from that of the previous generations first of all through the "sign" under which it was placed: no longer the Santa Teresa to whom the family had always been devoted, but the IHS monogram, hence the nickname "del Gesù".
The instruments of the 1730s, while still in line with the Cremonese tradition, soon showed strong elements of originality, for example through in the long C-bouts, just as the model of the F-holes was also elongated, two features that hint to earlier violin makers from Brescia. The heads in these years remained consistent with the family tradition, and indeed they were regularly carved by the father of del Gesù, Giuseppe son of Andrea. Over the years, the style of del Gesù became more and more free and personal, and also less willing to respect the standards of finish and symmetry typical of the Amati tradition. His heads made after the death of his father in 1740 often have extreme traits: sometimes very slender and in other cases massive and heavy, suggesting the intervention of different hands.
Guarneri del Gesù's fortune was very limited until the beginning of the 19th century, when Niccolò Paganini chose his famous "Cannone" from 1743. From that moment on, the work of the luthier enjoyed increasing popularity among musicians, and also among many of the later makers who adopted his models. Del Gesù's production almost exclusively included violins, no violas, and one cello made in collaboration with his father.
