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Murano Glass Art
The island of Murano is one of the most
famous of Venice, where around 5000 people live, but which reaches a
population of 15.000 people a day in the high-season, when it is filled
with workers of the factories and of glass shops, and with tourists
looking for an ancient art.
The glassmaking techniques arrived to Venice
from the East, but the art reached here such a high level that the Major
Council (the ruling governing body of Venice) allowed Murano to have an autonomous form of
government
and even its own currency, which was called 'osella'.
During the Republic there were very strict
regulations both in the commerce of glass, and in the control of the glass masters:
the reproduction of precious and
semiprecious stones was absolutely perfect, and appreciated all over Europe.
The glass masters were considered an
élite
of Venetian society and they had many
privileges. One of these was that the
name of the glass master was written in the 'Golden Book',
and after his death,
his descendants could marry the descendants of the 'patrizi', the Venetian
noble class, and therefore become noble themselves.
The masters were obliged to live in Venice,
from which they could never leave. This way the Republic ensured
itself that the secrets of glassmaking techniques would not
be known elsewhere, and guaranteed itself the total monopoly of glass production.
If the masters were discovered while escaping, the
Major Council would immediately send someone out to kill him, and all of his family properties
where confiscated.
The techniques used in the glass making are
the same as one thousand years ago. The only difference is the way the ovens work,
as in the past they were banked up with wood, then with coal and nowadays
with
gas.
Glass is made of a mixture of silica sand,
sodium, potassium and lime, which must be cooked for at least 12 hours
at a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius before it can be modelled.
Once the glass is
ready, the master takes it out of the oven and works on it with expertise and
very quickly, as its
temperature goes down very fast, and it can be modelled only until it
reaches 750 degrees, after which it it has to be put back into the
oven and brought back to 1200 degrees before it is modelled again.
The glass object is then put for 24 hours in a cooling
oven that has the temperature of about 500-600 degrees, which allows the object to cool
off without a thermal shock, which would make it explode.
The different colours are obtained by
adding certain mineral oxides to the mixture, for example cobalt for
blue, copper for green, cobalt and silver for acquamarine, selenium for
red and magnesium
for amethyst.
Also, each master has his own secrets to
obtain particular and unique colours.
Nowadays there are very few glass masters,
as this profession is not taught in any school, but rather is
learnt only
in the factory from other masters, and the ideal age to start learning is from 14
to 15 years old.
It takes at least 15 years of work
experience to be considered a glass master.
There are two techniques in the glass making
: glass blowing (with which medallions, flowers, vases, cups and plates
are made) and the glass sculpture (for figures and sculptures).
In the
production of the more complex objects, both these techniques are used.
The glass objects that we here present come
from a private collection, and were produced in Murano in the 1950's.
If you are interested in these products shop
online in our
eBay store or contact us via
email or via telephone on +3904155630890 or via fax on
+39041770134
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