Arguably the most productive and well-known luthier of this important family, which marks the tenuous transition between the Cremonese tradition (through their connection with the Cerutis) and the modern Milanese school of the twentieth century.
Riccardo, born in Cremona in 1853, was trained under the guidance of his father Gaetano, together with whom he moved to Milan in 1870, although he later went to work for other luthiers in various cities, including Nice. When, in 1886, the Antoniazzi family made the acquaintance of Leandro Bisiach, they played a fundamental role in his training, even if the higher social background and the business intuition of Bisiach meant that their relationship turned soon into being hired as his employee. Riccardo thus became the main worker of Bisiach's workshop until 1904, the year in which their collaboration, already quite deteriorated, broke up. In the following years Antoniazzi found employment at the Monzino firm, and in both these roles he had a great influence on several apprentices working together with him in the two Milanese workshops. Riccardo used several different models derived from the classical Cremona school, which he interpreted in a very personal way, with rather hollowed arches towards the edge and equally deeply carved heads, generally with rounded eyes and chamfers, and a pear-shaped back of the peg-box. He died in Milan in 1912.
