Description
The renaissance in the glass field began in the middle of the 15th century in Venice with the invention of crystal by the artisan Angelo Barovier from Murano of crystal, an uncoloured and clear glass, based on the alchemic depuration of molten sodium ash (basin alum from the Near East), and on the decolouration with manganese dioxide, cited for the first time in a paper in Ragusa in 1453. The vitrifying agent consisted of powdered quartzose pebbles from the Ticino river. It was quite pure silica, with a low iron level.
Angelo Barovier also invented a milk glass suitable for blowing, a white glass, opacified with lead lime and tin, which looked like the first Chinese porcelains which arrived in Venice, cited in Murano papers in 1457. The invention of chalcedony is also attributed to him, which is similar to veined agate, a type of natural chalcedony which appears in a paper relating to Barovier in 1460. Antonio Averlino, called the Filarete, in his architectural treatment written between 1458 and 1464, cites his very good friend... Maestro Angelo from Murano, his crystal works, the coloured glass and a veined glass, clearly chalcedony. As early as 1457, also Nicolò Mocetto and the brothers Iacibo and Bono d'Angelo were producing crystal and milk glass in their furnace. Very soon the best furnace-workers in Murano mastered their formulas. Angelo's secrets were entrusted to his daughter Marietta, who ran a furnace: they were appropriated by the artisan Giorgio Ballarin, who became one of the most important producers on the island.
Glass of various colours were produced: blue, green, aquamarine, amethyst and red. Enamel decorations were reborn between 1460 and 1470 after a century of oblivion. The first famous enamelled glass are two painted crystal glasses, which are listed among dishware belonging to the Duke of Ferrara. Gold-leaf engraved decoration was soon connected to enamel decoration, which was annealed with the enamels. The oldest conserved renaissance enamelled glass is the famous chalice in the Civic Museum in Bologna, dated between 1460-70, decorated with the Adoration of the three Kings, the Escape to Egypt and two busts of Prophets. Sacred decorations are however quite rare while secular themes prevail, from celebrating love (Barovier cup in the Museo Vetrario in Murano), youth and other earthly values. Mythological figures also abound, scenes of chivalric life, puttoes, coats of arms and plant and geometric decorations.
The glass artisans quickly achieved a high level of dexterity in hot-working. The numerous types of glasses, chalices, cups, cups on feet, bowls, plates and bottles assumed lofty and elegant forms, suited to renaissance furnishings, most of which were inspired by metal or ceramic dishes. Among the hot-working decorations, the half moulding technique was frequently adopted to obtain relief ribbing. The attachment of threads and blobs and mould-blowing were common decorative practices. Gold-leaf, around the end of the 15th century, was also attached during the hot-working process.
From 1482 there are mentions in papers from Murano of rosettes or 'millefiori' rods, of differently coloured concentric layers and, probably, according to an accredited hypothesis, Marietta Barovier produced some particular types of them, using them to make non-blown objects, like knife handles, perhaps even necklaces, for which she obtained a patent in 1487. Blown glasses and phials are also conserved, with sections of millefiori rods incorporated in the wall.
Between 1520 and 1549, a new glassmaking style was developed in Murano, unconnected to metal objects, prompted by the technique itself of blowing: thin and transparent walls, rounded forms, spheroidal-node and baluster-node blown stems. These are the glass objects reproduced by the great painters of the time - not only the Venetian ones - in their paintings. 'Morises', delicate crests obtained by pinching thin attached threads, cited in papers from 1512, was another technique used among the decorations in use in the 16th century.
In the 16th century, new decorative techniques were invented. In 1527 Filippo Catani, who came from a family later called the Serenas, patented the retortoli filigree, characterised by spiral milk glass threads inside the wall, and around 1550 the retortoli filigree was produced, characterised by a network of milk glass threads inside the wall.
The essential forms of blown objects set off a decoration similar to lace, but around the end of the century the retortoli filigree was also adopted for complex mould-blown vases with relief figures of lions or griffins.
Incalmo, which allows the hot-fusing along the edge of the mouth of two different blown objects, dates back to the second half of the century. Ice glass appears for the first time in a document from Murano in 1570. In 1549, Vincenzo d'Angelo patented diamond point engraving applied to blown objects. Cold painting is often practised here, while enamelled painting became démodé. Cold painting, which is unsuitable for habitual use glass because it is easily perishable, is adopted in complex compositions, often taken from paintings by Raffaello, popularised by etchings by Marcatonio Raimondi. Enamel decorations are however in demand amongst German purchasers even in the second half of the 16th century, even applied to forms in fashion in Germany, like Stangenglas, a high cylindrical glass.
The new Venetian glass from the 15th century and even more so in the 16th century, enjoyed a rapid and vast success amongst the rich bourgeoisie, the nobility and sovereigns in Italy and all of Europe, who bought and commissioned precious blown objects, even with decorations including their coast of arms, from the glassworks in Murano.
Particularly in the 16th century, the Murano artisans, contravening the Republic of Venice laws, were stimulated by the requests of the foreign market to emigrate in foreign cities where they produced Venetian style glass with primary materials and Venetian techniques, training their colleagues in the 'façon de Venise', in the Venetian style.
Florence distinguished itself in Italy as a façon de Venise production centre, where the Murano artisans from 1569 worked in furnaces operating in Medici palaces and produced Venetian style glass and models designed by the artists in the Medici court. The most important façon de Venise glassworks in the North was founded in Antwerp in the Brabante until 1549, after various previous attempts. The Venetian artisans moved from Antwerp to other countries. In 1567 the Frenchman Jean Carré went to London from Antwerp where he produced façon de Venise glass and was replaced by the Venetian Jacopo Verzelini: after a long stay in Antwerp in 1571, he moved to London and assumed the management of a glassworks and in 1574 obtained a patent for the production of façon de Venise glass on the condition he could train the English artisans in this art. A façon de Venise glassworks was run by the Colinet family in Beauweltz near Mos Belgium. A glassworks was set up and run in the Ambras Castle in Tyrol in 1572 for 10 years thanks to Murano expatriate artisans with the permission of the Republic. They had been present in Vienna as early as the 15th century, like in France. In Spain the main façon de Venise production centres were Barcelona and Cadalso de los Vidrios near Toledo. The Venetian artisans also emigrated to Germany, Holland and Sweden. There is no proof of the Venetians reaching Bohemia, but the latest techniques and styles on which the Murano glass was indirectly based made their mark there.
It is often difficult to distinguish the glass produced in Venice for export and the façon de Venise glass. In some countries, the façon de Venise glassworks assumed purely local characteristics. This happened in particular in Spain, with hot-decorated and enamelled glass, in Holland and Belgium, with the predilection for particular forms, in England with diamond point engraved crystal from Verzelini, in Germany with enamel painted glass. This last example, in uncoloured or blue glass, were painted with scenes of daily life or inspired by fables. Of exceptional decorative richness are the high cylindrical Humpen and in particular the Reichsadlerhumpen with the eagle and other imperial symbols.
Set against the Venetian style, there was the 'forest glass', which went through a difficult period to then have great success particularly in German speaking countries. It stood out due to its greenish material, which was often disfigured by bubbles and its particular forms: the biconical bottle, the slender Stangenglas, the Krautstrunk decorated with abnormal pointy blobs, and the Scheuer, a low rounded glass with a cylindrical neck and a side handle. This production would have great success in the 17th and 18th centuries.