Europe giving birth to various European bowed instruments. During the Renaissance, the rebec came in different sizes and pitches: soprano, tenor, and bass. The smaller versions of the instrument were known in Italy as ribecchino and in France as rubechette. Over the centuries that followed, Europe continued to have two distinct types of bowed instruments: one, relatively square-shaped, held in the arms, known with the Italian term lira da braccio (meaning 'viol for the arm') family; the other, with sloping shoulders and held between the knees, known with the Italian term lira da gamba (or viola da gamba, meaning 'viol for the leg') group. During the Renaissance the gambas were important and elegant instruments. The very successful family of fretted viols appeared in Europe only few years before the violin. They eventually lost ground to the louder (and originally viewed as less aristocratic) lira da braccio family of the modern violin. Emergence The first clear record of a violin-like instrument comes from paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari. In his Madonna of the Orange Tree, painted in 1530, a cherub is seen playing a bowed instrument which clearly has the hallmarks of violins. A few years later, on a fresco in the cupola of the church of Madonna dei Miracoli in Saronno, angels play three instruments of the violin family, corresponding to violin, viola and cello. The instruments depicted by Ferrari have bulging front and back plates, strings that feed into peg-boxes with side pegs, and f-holes. They do not have frets. The only real difference between those instruments and the modern violin is that Ferrari's have three strings and a rather more extravagant curved shape. It is not clear exactly who made the first violins, but there is good evidence that they originate from northern Italy, near (and at the time within the political orbit of) Milan. Not only are Ferrari's paintings in that area but also towns like Brescia and Cremona then had a great reputation for the craftsmanship of stringed instruments. The earliest documentary evidence for a violin is in the records of the treasury of Savoy, which paid for "trompettes et vyollons de Verceil", that is to say, "trumpets and violins from Vercelli", the town where Ferrari painted his Madonna of the Orange Tree. The first extant written use of the Italian term violino occurs in 1538, when "violini Milanesi" (Milanese violinists) were brought to Nice when negotiating