International studio (82.1925)

inceRDACionAL

MODERN VENETIAN CLEAR GLASS Courtesy oj Adeline de Voo

glass making may have origi-
nated, certainly the Romans
were skilled in it and their skill
somehow descended to the Ve-
netians. The Greeks, the Rom-
ans and the Phoenicians were
all expert glass makers; and the
Arabs and the Byzantines con-
tributed their bits toward the
Venetian inheritance. The art
of enameling they probably
learned from the Syrians. It is
believed that glass was made in
Italy as early as the fifth cen-
tury but there is no actual
record of it until the year 1090.
The mosaics in many Italian
churches erected before this date
would certainly prove that glass
was made long before the eleventh century, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century

Marco Polo gave his fellow citizens excellent all were gone, save one. In the middle of the six-
advice in building up their trade in the oriental teenth century the glass maker's art had reached
countries he had visited. As early as the thir- its pinnacle. The shops of the workers stretched
teenth century laws had been passed prohibiting for a mile along the island and in them were dis-
the export of sand or any other of the raw mate- played cups and beakers, tankards, cauldrons,
rials used in glass-making from Venice. By the ewers, candlesticks, horns, beads and necklaces,
middle of the fifteenth century the Council of Ten In Howels' "Familiar Letters" he tells of a visit
had grown so proud of its glass workers that it to Murano in 1621 and asserts that the glass
took entire and direct charge of the island of blowers were kept on the island because the "qual-
Murano and passed laws to discourage any ambi- itie and clearness of the circumambient air which
tious worker who might be tempted to sell his hangs ore the place favoreth the manufacture."
skill to greater advantage in foreign lands. Few In another of his letters he remarks that a skilled
braved the rigors of the law, but if one did, he glass worker becomes automatically a gentleman
was at first ordered to return; if he refused, his and "not without reason, it being a rare kind of
relatives were all put in jail; and since this might knowledge and chymistry to transmute the dull
please rather than displease him, it was followed bodies of dust and sand to such a diaphanous,
by an order of execution. It detracts a little from pellucid, dainty beauty as we see cristall glasse is,
this much-quoted example of Venetian harshness which hath this property above gold and silver
toward the workers of Murano to read that only and any other metal, to endure no poison."
two such executions are recorded. Howels was not alone in this belief that a drinking

Originally the glass workers had their furnaces glass made in Venice would break when a poison-
in Venice itself, but in 1291 they were ordered by ous liquid was poured into it. Doubtless Venetian
law to the island of Murano. This was done glass was banished from the table of the Borgias.
ostensibly to remove the danger of fire from The workmen of Murano were organized into
Venice, but it is not impossible that the Council guilds, called arti, each group with its elected
wanted to keep the glass makers under close officer, a guastoldo, assisted by three superin-
guard and that was much more easily done if they tendents. It was the guastoldo who selected the
were segregated. It is also said that they were proof piece by which an apprentice might hope to
sent there because the seashore along the island become a master workman. Boys were appren-
contains quartz or silica used in the manufacture ticed in childhood and for several years did
of glass, but of course the sand could easily have nothing but hold the tools for their superiors,
been brought to Venice. It has always been Later they were given light tasks and gradually
unlawful to export this sand or use it for any initiated into the mysteries of the craft. One of
purpose other than the making of glass. their duties was to assist in the making of those

At the beginning of the seventeenth century glass threads used for decoration. The workman
there were three hundred glass factories in Murano, held a lump of molten glass on an iron rod and the

NOVEMBER I925

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