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Information about Venetian Glass

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Glassmaker in Murano
Venetian glass is a type of glass object made in Venice, Italy, primarily on the island of Murano. It is world-renowned for being colorful, elaborate, and skilfully made.

Many of the important characteristics of these objects had been developed by the 13th century. Toward the end of that century, the center of the Venetian glass industry moved to Murano.

Byzantine craftsmen played a role in the development of Venetian glass, an art form for which the city is well-known. When Constantinople was sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, some fleeing artisans came to Venice. This happened again when the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, supplying Venice with still more glassworkers. By the 16th century, Venetian artisans had gained even greater control over the color and transparency of their glass, and had mastered a variety of decorative techniques.

Despite efforts to keep Venetian glassmaking techniques within Venice, they became known elsewhere, and Venetian-style glassware was produced in other Italian cities and other countries of Europe.

History of Murano Glassmaking

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Venetian glass in the shop window.


Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction to the city’s mostly wood buildings, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291. Murano glass is still interwoven with Venetian glass.

Murano's glassmakers were soon the island’s most prominent citizens. By the 14th century, glass makers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice’s most affluent families. Of course there was a catch: Glassmakers weren't allowed to leave the Republic. However, many craftsmen took this risk and set up glass furnaces in surrounding cities and as far afield as England and the Netherlands.

Murano’s glassmakers held a monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries, developing or refining many technologies including crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. Today, the artisans of Murano are still employing these century-old techniques, crafting everything from contemporary art glass and glass jewelry to murano glass chandeliers and wine stoppers.

Today, Murano is home to the Museo Vetrario or Glass Museum in the Palazzo Giustinian, which holds displays on the history of glassmaking as well as glass samples ranging from Egyptian times through the present day.

The Art of Glassmaking

The process of making Murano glass is rather complex. Most Murano glass art is made using the lampworking technique. The glass is made from silica which becomes liquid at high temperatures. As the glass passes from a liquid to a solid state, there is an interval when the glass is soft before it hardens completely. This is when the glass-master can shape the material.

Orange Murano Beads

Materials

The other raw materials, called flux or melting agents, soften at lower temperatures. The more sodium oxide present in the glass, the slower it solidifies. This is important for hand-working because it allows the glassmaker more time to shape the material. The various raw materials that an artisan might add to a glass mixture are sodium (to make the glass surface opaque), nitrate and arsenic (to eliminate bubbles) and coloring or opacifying substances.

Colors, techniques and materials

Colors, techniques and materials vary depending upon the look a glassmaker is trying to achieve. Aquamarine is created through the use of copper and cobalt compounds whereas ruby red uses a gold solution as a coloring agent. The millefiori technique begins with the layering of sliced canes of glass and conterie or tiny glass beads are formed by cutting thin glass canes into sections when cold then rounded when hot. Filigree, incalmo, enamel painted, engraving, gold engraving, lattimo, ribbed glass and submersion are just a few of the other techniques a glassmaker can employ.

Tools

It is essential that Murano artisans use tools in the making of their glass. Some of these tools include borselle (tongs or pliers used to hand-form the red-hot glass), canna da soffio (blowing pipe), pontello (an iron rod to which the craftsman attaches the object after blowing in order to add final touches), scagno (the glass-master's work bench) and tagianti (large glass-cutting clippers).

See also

External links

See also

Glass is a noncrystalline material that can maintain indefinitely, if left undisturbed, its overall form and amorphous microstructure at a temperature below its glass transition temperature.
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Country Italy
Region Veneto
Province Venice (VE)
Mayor Massimo Cacciari (since April 18 2005)

Area km
Population
 - Total (as of January 1 2004)
 - Density /km
Time zone
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Anthem
Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)


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Murano is usually described as an island in the Venetian Lagoon, although like Venice itself it is actually an archipelago of islands linked by bridges. It lies about a mile north of Venice and is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking.
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages, and after its conquests in Asia the Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to
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Murano is usually described as an island in the Venetian Lagoon, although like Venice itself it is actually an archipelago of islands linked by bridges. It lies about a mile north of Venice and is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking.
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Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis, or Πόλις, Polis
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Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was originally designed to conquer Jerusalem through an invasion of Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of the West invaded and conquered the Greek Orthodox city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.
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1204 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1204
MCCIV
Ab urbe condita 1957
Armenian calendar 653
ԹՎ ՈԾԳ
Bah' calendar -640 – -639
Buddhist calendar 1748
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Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Caliphate (1299 to 1922) (Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish:
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14th century - 15th century - 16th century
1420s  1430s  1440s  - 1450s -  1460s  1470s  1480s
1450 1451 1452 - 1453 - 1454 1455 1456

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 through 1600.

See also: 16th century in literature

Events

1500s

  • 1500s: Mississippian culture disappears.

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Most Serene Republic of Venice (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, Venetian: Republica de Venesia
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1291 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1291
MCCXCI
Ab urbe condita 2044
Armenian calendar 740
ԹՎ ՉԽ
Bah' calendar -553 – -552
Buddhist calendar 1835
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Glass is a noncrystalline material that can maintain indefinitely, if left undisturbed, its overall form and amorphous microstructure at a temperature below its glass transition temperature.
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Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware.

The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). A.
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The term Glass art is a broad reference to the use of glass as an artistic medium. Specific approaches include stained glass, working glass in a torch flame (lampworking), glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass fusing, and, most notably, glass blowing.
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Lampworking is glassworking using a torch to melt and shape the glass. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps.
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silicon dioxide, also known as silica or silox (from the Latin "silex"), is the oxide of silicon, chemical formula SiO2, and has been known for its hardness since the 16th century.
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Liquid is one of the four principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material.

Characteristics

A liquid's shape is determined by, not confined to, the container it fills.
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Solid state may refer to:

In science:
  • Solid-state chemistry
  • Solid-state physics
  • Solid-state laser
  • Solid matter
In electronics:

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flux, both with rigorous mathematical frameworks.
  • In the study of transport phenomena (heat transfer, mass transfer and fluid dynamics), flux is defined as the amount that flows through a unit area per unit time, the volumetric flow rate.

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Sodium oxide is a chemical compound with the formula Na2O. It is used in ceramics and glasses. Treatment with water affords sodium hydroxide.
Na2O + H2O → 2 NaOH


The alkali metal oxides M2
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Sodium (IPA: /ˈsəʊdiəm/) is a chemical element which has the symbol Na (Latin: natrium), atomic number 11, atomic mass 22.9898 g/mol, common oxidation number +1.
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Trinitrate redirects here. See also glyceryl trinitrate.


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3, 5
(mildly acidic oxide)
Electronegativity 2.18 (scale Pauling)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 947.0 kJmol−1
2nd: 1798 kJmol−1
3rd: 2735 kJmol−1
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Filigree (formerly written filigrann or filigrane; also known as telkari (the name given in Anatolia, meaning "wire work" and cift-isi (pronounced chift-ishi
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enamel paint is a paint that supposedly dries to an especially hard, usually glossy, finish. In reality, most commercially-available enamel paints are significantly softer than either vitreous enamel or stoved synthetic resins.
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Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold or steel are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing
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Murano beads are intricate glass beads influenced by Venetian glass artists

Complexities of glass and the making of beads

There are many different methods a Murano glass-master can employ in the creation of beads depending upon the desired result.
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