Land of Odds

 Murano Art Glass Traditions

The year was 1291.  After 1,000 years of Venetian glassmaking -- glassmaking traditions linked to the rich Islamic and Byzantine Mediterranean-East -- a government decree transferred all factory production off the mainland to avoid fire hazards.  

Murano, a channeled island, was a logical choice.  Many of the Venetian glassmakers had already migrated there.  

The bourgeois class of Murano glassmakers, entrepreneurs and masters gradually formed an exclusive caste of original families that carefullly guarded the secrets of the trade and built dynasties through the centuries.   Murano glass became a treasured collectible throughout Europe.  Gradually, these Murano glassmakers migrated to other parts of Europe, setting up glass-making centers in other countries.

In the 15th century, Murano glass blossomed with the invention of colorless Murano "crystal" by master artist Angelo Barovier, who succeeded in eliminating the soda ash that had caused impurities.  Other types of glass were invented.  Shapes became more sophisticated.   It was the 16th century that was known as the Golden Age of Venetian glassmaking.  Simplicity of form and ornament were the goals.  Shapes were essential and curvilinear.  New techniques, such as netted and twisted filigree, ice glass with a translucent crackly effect, and the incalmo came into use.

During the 17th century, more complex, baroque-styled glassware with highly colored, enameled floral and animal decoations came into favor.  New glass techniques included aventurine -- a vitreous paste, chalcedony opaque glass --named after a variety of zone agate, as well as diamond point engraving for mirrors, gold decorations and cold paiting on glass, and the production of small beads, and millefiori-decorated beads.   The 18th century saw great competition from Bohemia, France and England.  During this time, new techniques included enamel-painted milk glass, Bohemian-style crystalware, decorated mirrors, table centerpieces in the form of Italian gardens.  The fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797 brought almost a total closure to Murano glass factories.

By the end of the 19th century, new factories were set up in Murano.  Venetian glass-making techniques were revived, and reinterpreted in multi-colored blown glass and mosaics.   The 20th century has seen several creative cycles, including Art Nouveau/Art Deco; Renaissance revival; bright opaque and sculptural styles; multi-layered colored glass techniques.  

Murano glass is much sought-after.  Most desirable are the sculptural glass pieces.  Today, there are about 50 companies and 2,000 artisans making Murano glass.   Currently, among the less traveled, there remains a misconception that Murano is a composite regional source for art glass, rather than the site of many unique companies, each with its own specialty.  Murano glassware is completely handmade.  It is pricey, but a terrific investment in wonderful craft and art!

Visiting The Factories

A brief listing of nine of the more prestigious Murano factories:

ALT:  This is Murano's leading glass paper-weight factory.  To collections:  everday and numbered.  Their numbered contemporary designer series includes creations by such artists as Maragoni, Biasi, D'Orazio, Del Pezzo, Sergio Asti.

Archimede Seguso:  Seguso is an 86-year old master glass artist who descended from glass artists, and is considered to be one of the remaining great masters.  He founded his own firm 50 years ago.  His sculptural forms exhibit unusual and innovative techniques.

Alfredo Barbini:  Barbini is an 84-year old master glass artist, and also considered one of the remaining great masters.  His style is very avant-garde, from minimalist shapes to bold forms.  

Barovier & Toso Company: Its glass-making families go back 700 years.  It blends age-old styles with contemporary graphics, designs and technologies.

La Fenice:  Founded by glassblower Gianfranco Albertini and his brother Paolo in 1976.  Known for 1700s Venetian style reproduction stemware and tabletop lines using traditional techniques.

Carlo Moretti Company:  Begun in 1958 by Carlo Moretti and Giovanni Moretti -- descendants of a distinguished family of glass technicians and industrialists.  Sleek, Scandinavian sensibilities.

Seguso Viro:  Founded in 1993 by Giampaolo Seguso, a son of master glass artist Archimede Seguso.  Their goal is to produce affordable glass ware in traditional styles.

Studio Rosin:  Founded in 1992 to perpetuate the styles of glass sculptor Loredano Rosin, this is headed by his brother Dino Rosin.  Massive glass sculptures and dense color counterpoints.

Venini:  Renowned for upscale, avant-garde art glass.  Founded in 1921 by a lawyer Paolo Venini.  Beautiful shapes, clean and pure lines, vivid color solids and patterns.

Glassworking Process

As glass passes from the liquid to the solid state, there is an interval when the glass is malleable -- pastoso (paste-like), before it hardens completely -- and the glassmaster can shape the objects.

The glass is made essentially out of silica, the vetrificante glassmaking agent that becomes liquid at high temperatures (1400^o C).  The other raw materials, melting at lower temperatures, are called fondenti (flux or melting agents).  The greater the quantity of sodium oxide in the glass, the slower it solidifies -- important for handworking.  Sodium tends to make the glass surface opaque; limestone or calcium carbonate contains this.  Other raw materials added to a glass mixture are nitrate and arsenic to eliminate bubbles and improve homogeneity.  Small quantities of coloring or opacifying substances are added for colored or opaline glass.

Tools and Accessories

Borselle:  Tongs or pliers in different sizes and shapes used to hand-form the red-hot glass.

Canna da Soffio:  Blowing pipe used to collect the molten glass and subsequently blow it.

Piazza:  The team of glassmakers directed by the glassmaster.

Pontello:  An iron rod to which the glass object is attached after it has been blown in order to add the final touches.

Scagno:  The glassmaster's work bench with armrests that help move and rotate the blowpipe.

Tagianti:  Large glass-cutting scissors/clippers.

Colors, Techniques, Materials

Aquamarine:  blue-green glass created by copper and cobalt compounds

Cristallo Veneziano:  Venetian crystal glass, a clear colorless glass first developed in the mid-15th century by the Venetian glassmaker Angelo Barovier.  It is particularly suited to free-blowing techniques.  Manganese acts as a decolorizer.

Conterie or Glass Beads:  Tiny beads made by cutting thin, perforated glass canes into sections when cold, and rounded off when hot.

Filigree:  A hot-working decorative technique using crystal rods containing vitreous lattimo (milk glass) or colored threads in smooth or spiral shapes.  Filgree types:  reticello or netted filigree with a delicate thread net inside; retortoli or twisted filigree with threads twisted into a spiral shape; and half-filigree of parallel rods with a straight internal thread worked on a diagonal slant.

Incalmo:  a manual technique that welds together two open-sided blown glass objects, usually of different colors.

Enamel Painting:  Painting on walls of vases with enamel-colored substances (a paste of powdered glass and a fatty substance).  Enamel is melted into the wall by reattaching item to the pipe and firing it a second time.

Engraving:  Types include diamond point engraving (introduced in the 16th century); engraving with a small wheel of abrasive stone or metal (a 17th century German/Bohemian technique).

Gold Engraving:  gold leaf is applied with glue and engraved with a pointed tool.  A variation involves embedding gold leaf between two layers of glass.

Lattimo or Milk Glass:  Opaque white glass, similar in look to porcelain

Millefiori:  Glass canes with layers of different sliced canes of glass.

Ribbed Glass:  Thin ribbing from blowing a glass object in an open mold; can be twisted while hot for rigardin retorto or twisted ribbing.

Ruby Red:  Produced by using a gold solution as a coloring agent

Submersion:  A decorating technique that produces superimposed layers of colored glass in a blown or solid glass objecct with a subtle coloring effect.  Glass is submerged, while still attached to the pipe, into pots of different colored glass.

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