Sep
24
Antique Venetian Glass. Vases
September 24, 2009 |
German salt-glazed stoneware jug c.1575.
Towards the end of the 15th century, the Venetian glassworkers began
to lose interest in pictorial decoration and sought ways to use it lesfs or
not at all, instead giving more attention to the material itself.
The greatest Venetian development was the re-discovery, c. 1500, of
decolorizing agents, resulting in the production of a colourless, trans-
parent glass metal, cristallo. To retain its clear property, cristallo’ had
to be blown fairly thin, and although brittle it was exceptionally pliable,
a joy to the gaffer who exploited this sometimes to the point of absurdity.
A distinctive style emerged, resulting in graceful airy shapes and exag-
gerated winged glasses with applied handles, writhing and snakejlike,
and sometimes in a clear strong blue colour contrasting well witn the
colourless body of the vessel. Finials and handles were often additionally
manipulated by pinching flat with a patterned tool, and rims ‘were
crenellated and wavy. Despite the interest in clear glass, one of the inno-
vations of the late 15th~early 16th century was ‘chalcedony’ glass, named
after the semi-precious stone which it resembles. A variety of objects
were made in ‘chalcedony’ - jugs, plates and ampullae with small spouts.
A significant development was the latticinio or lace glass technique.
This most decorative glass effect is achieved by embedding opaque (white
enamel threads in a clear matrix, produced by blowing clear glass into a
mould lined with canes of opaque white glass. The canes adhere \o the
colourless glass mass and the paraison is then manipulated to f0rm a
variety of patterns, the tour de force being the true criss-cross filigrjee net
(Netzglas). The whole is then covered with a layer of clear glass, and
the filigree pattern is truly embedded. When the white threads) were
arranged in spiral or interweaving patterns the method is known as
reticello (’net-working’). The threads were often so close together that
they completely covered the object: colours were not restricted to white,
red and blue also being used. Reticello was fashionable throughout the
16th century.
Alexandrian colour techniques were successfully revived in tne late
16th and 17th century. Schmelzglas, a process by which glass of several
colours are allowed to fuse and run into each other in a natural stone
design in imitation of various agates, is found in graceful forms of
Grecian-inspired urn or ewer shapes. It was revived during the 19th
century in several countries and particularly by the Italian, Salvi&ti.
Around the middle of the century enamelled decoration fell into] disuse
and was replaced by a freddo, a method of painting on glass without
having to reheat the object. Such painters worked particularly on the
underside of the bases of plates, glasses and goblets and their motifs
were taken from prints and wood engravings of the period.
The Venetian craftsmen also revived a technique of decorating glass
after it had been moulded, in which the design trees, branches and so
were traced around the edge of the object with a diamond or flint,
ss chosen for this type of treatment was usually transparent or deep
or blue. The cuts or incisions were extremely light and feathery, but
ite the gracefulness of this work it did not reach the standard of
ilar Dutch and Flemish work.
ne of the most practical inventions of the Italian gaffer is the folded
. The glassmaker needed a firm base for his vessel and by folding the
glass under to obtain a foot rim of double thickness, this was
achieved. This important innovation was quickly adopted elsewhere.
Ice or crackle glass was another Italian invention but was only short-
ed. It was produced either by brief quenching of the hot glass bulb in
wi ier, which caused numerous fissures on the surface (which could then
bt reheated and blown to requirement), or by rolling the glass bulb in
powdered glass fragments which adhere to the warm glass, and then
further blowing and reheating to obliterate sharp edges. This last
method was revived in 19th century France and named brocs a glaces.
Iri contrast with the fanciful shapes of plain brown facon de Venise, ice
gl iss is of more down-to-earth design - beakers, standing cups with
added decoration applied in the form of gilt lion masks and glass pearls.
All these processes are seen in glass produced in Netherland glass-
houses such as Antwerp and Liege, where Altarist and Venetian glass-
makers had settled. It is therefore frequently impossible to distinguish
between facon de Venise made on Italian or Flemish soil.
A branch of glassmaking that began in Venice during the 16th century
w s the manufacture of mirrors. It is not certain who first used glass in
place of metal for a mirror but it is thought that it may have begun in
G jrmany. It was left to the Venetians however to spread the art and to
use them in their homes. Early glass mirrors were quadrangular in shape
w th a frame made of glass held by metal connectors. Both the mirror
i the frame were often incised with floral or figurative motifs,
enice monopolized the Italian glassmaking industry throughout the
ury. Elsewhere in Italy much of the industry was devoted to producing
yday domestic wares rather than the luxury goods of Murano. In
province of Tuscany, particularly at Empoli, Pisa, Lucca and
ence, the well-known fiasche or bulb-shaped glass bottles held in
were made. There is evidence that the Tuscan glassmakers were
at empting to make table glasses in the 14th century, but even by the
It th century they had not achieved the quality of the Venetian product.
Some goblets with winged stems, bowls and cups have survived and are
ribed as alia veneziana. The glassmakers of Florence became re-
ned for their medicinal and pharmaceutical glass,
ith the opening of Eastern trade routes, Venice too commenced
production of milk-glass in imitation of the newly imported porcelain.
During the 18th century, the Miotti glasshouse in particular responded
to llhe latest fashion with drinking vessels and table-ware in milk-glass
(It nimo), decorated with exquisite enamelling in bright colours and in
black or sepia. By this time, however, Venice had lost her monopoly of
glassmaking industry and this was taken over by Bohemia and
Jland. Each was very different in its concept, but both produced glass
iccellent quality and design.
Several factors had contributed to this transition. The European jlass
industry had grown so successful that there was a decrease in jglass
imports from Venice. Spain and the Netherlands had developed into
maritime powers due to the discovery of new trade routes by way ol the
Cape of Good Hope, and Venice was losing her supremacy on the seas.
There was still a demand for mirrors and chandeliers, but a new invention
pushed aside the fragile Venetian cristallo - the invention of a sturdyjglass
metal capable of supporting decorative treatment by deep cutting and
engraving, gilding and enamelling by annealing. Bohemia and England
shared this success - one with a potash-lime glass composition, the other
with the sparkling lead crystal.