The shape of the violin is a beautiful synthesis of visual and acoustic art. Its form has evolved with its music throughout its five-century history: first curvaceous and full, then made more slender and toned by musical virtuosity. At its core though, the shape of the violin has always been governed by geometry — the morphological changes only slight tweaks to a few ratios.
In this series, I derive a generalised series of equations to describe the shape of a violin body, building on the work of luthier Kevin Kelly and his “Four Circles” system of violin construction. Further, I will apply my generalised model to historical violins and investigate trends in the works of Amati, Stradivari, and Guaneri.