Description: Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer. Mini boxes for tiny treasures.
Measurement:  2in h
Interior: Violin and #400 (Vivaldi wrote 400 concertos)
Manufacturer: Harmony Ball
Material: Crushed Marble, with look and feel of antique ivory

Antonio Vivaldi, influential Italian composer and violinist, was born in 1678 in Venice. His father, a barber turned professional violinist, was his first music teacher. At age fifteen, Vivaldi began study for the priesthood and was ordained ten years later. Within a few years, he withdrew from active priesthood due to ill health, likely asthma. In 1703, Vivaldi began to teach violin at an orphanage for girls. Under his tutelage, the orphans gained esteem throughout Europe. It is for the orphans that Vivaldi wrote many of his concertos, cantatas, and sacred music. In 1717, Vivaldi was offered a new position as Maestro di Cappella of the court of Prince Philipp, the governor of Mantua. Here he presented several operas, before his move to Rome, where he played for pope Benedict XIII. It is also in this period that he wrote his most famous work, The Four Seasons, considered a revolution in musical conception. At the height of his career, Vivaldi received commissions from nobles and royalty throughout Europe. Toward the end of his life, his compositions were considered outmoded. He sold off many of his manuscripts at paltry prices and migrated to Vienna. Here he died in 1741 in relative obscurity. His repertoire, consisting of over 500 concertos, 46 operas, 73 sonatas, and chamber and sacred music, wasn’t rediscovered until the first half of the 20th century.