Born in Vicenza in 1878, Gaetano Sgarabotto trained in visual and decorative arts in his city, while at the same time he also studied the cello. He began making instruments at a young age, having already completed and exhibited his works at eighteen years of age; around 1897 he began to visit Milan frequently; there he came into contact with various collectors and dealers. He then moved in the city with his newly formed family in 1901, collaborating more continuously with the renowned atelier of Leandro Bisiach, but always cultivating his own clientele. In 1907 he began preparations for his return to Vicenza, building there a luxurious villa and opening a workshop in the city, where he officially moved in 1911; after the First World War Sgarabotto was established as a very well-known luthier who had gathered increasing acclaim in the various competitions of those years. In 1926, following his dear friend, the famous cellist Gino Francesconi, he decided to move to Parma, initially accompanied by his son Pietro and later by the whole family. In 1928 preparations began for the opening of the Parma violin making school within the city Conservatory, and its courses were inaugurated the following year; among his pupils, we remember Sesto Rocchi and Raffaele Vaccari. In 1936, perhaps disappointed for the closing of the school, Gaetano retired to Trissino, on the hills north of Vicenza, and remained there during the war, with frequent visits to his son Pietro, who had instead remained in Parma. After the war he spent a few years in Brescia, always together with his inseparable friend Francesconi, and then spent the last years of his life in Parma with his family.
A leading figure of the twentieth-century renaissance of violin making, Sgarabotto began his career as a repairman, brilliant copyist and forger of classical instruments, an activity to which he also dedicated himself for the rest of his life; as a copyist he had an extremely varied and imaginative production, managing to impress his unmistakable personality in a variety of Milanese, Neapolitan and Mantuan models, among others. He also had a very significative production of new instruments, inspired by the classics of the Amati and Antonio Stradivari interpreted in a very recognizable style that combined Lombard and Emilian influences.
