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Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamelled glass, or engraved glass. Production has been concentrated on the Venetian island of Murano since the 13th century. Today Murano is known for its art glass, but it has a long history of innovations in Glass production in addition to its artistic fame—and was Europe's major center for luxury glass from the High Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance. During the 15th century, Murano glassmakers created cristallo—which was almost transparent and considered the finest glass in the world. Murano glassmakers also developed a white-colored glass (milk glass called lattimo) that looked like porcelain. They later became Europe's finest makers of mirrors.
During the Early Middle Ages, Venice was originally controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire before eventually becoming an independent city state. It flourished as a trading center and seaport in the High Middle Ages. Its connections with the Middle East helped its glassmakers gain additional skills, as glassmaking was more advanced in areas such as Syria and Medieval Egypt. Although Venetian glassmaking in factories existed as far back as the eighth century, it became concentrated in Murano by law beginning in 1291, in part because glass factories often caught fire, and moving all of them to one island removed much of the possibility of a major fire disaster for the rest of the city. Another reason for moving the glassmakers to Murano was that Venetian glassmakers developed secret recipes and methods for making glass, and the concentration of Venice's glassmaking on the island of Murano enabled better control of those secrets.
Murano became Europe's luxury glassmaking center, peaking in popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries. Venice's dominance in trade along the Mediterranean created a wealthy merchant class that was a strong connoisseur of the arts. This helped establish demand for art glass and more innovations. The spread of glassmaking talent in Europe eventually diminished the importance of Venice and its Murano glassmakers. The occupation and dissolution of the Venetian state by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797 caused more hardship for Murano's glassmaking industry. Murano glassmaking began a revival in the 1920s. Today, Murano and Venice are tourist attractions, and Murano is home to numerous glass factories and a few individual artists' studios. Its Museo del Vetro (Glass Museum) in the Palazzo Giustinian contains displays on the history of glassmaking as well as glass samples ranging from Egyptian times through the present day.
It is thought that glass production in Venice began as early as 450, when glassmakers from Aquileia fled to the islands to escape barbarian invaders. The earliest archaeological evidence of a glass factory in the area comes from the Venetian lagoon island of Torcello and dates from the seventh or eighth century. The original Venetian glassmakers were joined by glassmakers from Byzantium and from the Middle East—which enriched their glassmaking knowledge. Glass was made in the Middle East long before it was made in Europe, though Ancient Roman glass made in Italy, Germany and elsewhere could be extremely sophisticated. Early products included beads, glass for , jewelry, small mirrors, and window glass.
Venetian glassmaking grew in importance to the city's economy. Around 1271 the local glassmakers' guild made rules to help preserve glassmaking secrets. It was forbidden to divulge trade secrets outside of Venice. If a glassworker left the city without permission, he would be ordered to return. If he failed to return, his family would be imprisoned. If he still did not return, an assassin would be sent to kill him. Additional rules specified ingredients used for making glass and the type of wood used as fuel for the furnaces.
Murano in the 1200s was a summer resort where the aristocrats of Venice built villas with orchards and gardens. It took about an hour to row a boat from Venice to Murano. Although the glassmakers could not leave the island, the nobles had no such constraints. Despite their travel restrictions, the glassmakers lived on a beautiful island, were under the direct rule of Venice's Council of Ten (the Venetian security agency committee), and had extra privileges. They did not work during the hot summer, during which furnace repair and maintenance was performed. During the 1300s, the annual summer vacation lasted five months. In the 1400s, the Venetian government shortened the summer vacation to three and a half months. Murano glassmakers sometimes complained they were not working enough. Glassmakers also enjoyed heightened social status. On December 22, 1376, it was announced that if a glassmaker's daughter married a nobleman, there was no forfeiture of social class, so their children were nobles.
The name arose because it looked like rock crystal or clear quartz, which had long been carved into various types of vessels and small hardstone carvings.Osborne, 398 Rock crystal was said to have magical qualities and in the Middle Ages was often used in Christian religious objects. Cristallo became very popular. This type of glass was fragile and difficult to cut, but it could be Enamelled glass and Glass engraving. Manganese dioxide, a de-coloring agent, was a key ingredient in the secret formula used to make cristallo. An easy modification to cristallo made in Murano was to produce a frosted or crackle version. The use of "crystal" as a marketing term for glass has continued into modern times, though for at least the last century it has normally meant lead crystal glass of the type developed by Ravenscroft. Cristallo could be made extremely thin, thus reducing the remaining hint of color, and the Venetians usually made clear pieces this way.
During the 16th century Murano glassmakers liberated themselves from the imitation of metalwork shapes, which had previously been their habit. Shapes became elongated and elegant, "then more elaborate and inclining to fantasy", for example in the hot-work pieces added to the sides of the stems of glasses. The glass was extremely thin, and therefore fragile, adding to the effect of luxury.
In 1612 the Florentine priest Antonio Neri published L’Arte Vetraria ( The Art of Glass), which revealed all the secrets of Venetian glass production to the outside world, and by the later 16th century the efforts of the Venetian Republic to hold on to its virtual monopoly in the production of luxury glass, mainly by keeping skilled workers in the republic, were beginning to fail. Other countries, often led by their monarchs, were keen to have their own fine glass industries, and tempted skilled workers away. This led to a diffusion of the Venetian style to many centres around Europe. The glass made in this movement is called façon de Venise (French for "Venetian style"); the quality is typically rather lower than the Venetian originals, partly from difficulties sourcing the right materials, and the place of manufacture is often hard to discern. Engraved glass was a part of this diffusion, and initially was especially developed in Germany.Battie & Cottle, 68, 71–77
Eventually, the dominance of cristallo came to an end. In 1673, English glass merchant George Ravenscroft created a clear glass he called crystalline—but it was not stable. Three years later, he improved this glass by adding lead oxide, and lead glass (a.k.a. crystal) was created. Ravenscroft, who had lived for many years in Venice, made lead crystal that was less breakable than cristallo. In 1674, glassmaker Louis le Vasseur d'Ossimont (1629–1689) made crystal that was similar to Ravenscroft's. In 1678, Johan Friedrich Kunkel von Lowenstein produced a cristallo-like glass in Potsdam. The Bohemian and -style glass was later modified by the addition of lime and chalk. This new glass is attributed to Bohemian glassmaker Michael Müller in 1683. It had a tendency to Glass disease at first, but the problem had been solved by 1714. The Bohemian glass was not suitable to the Murano-style artwork on the glass. However, this harder glass was produced as a thicker glass suitable for glass engraving and grinding. The Bohemian and English glass eventually became more popular than cristallo made in Murano. By the 1700s, Murano glass was traded mostly with Italian states and the Turkish empire. Small quantities were traded with England, Flanders, the Netherlands and Spain.
Napoleon conquered Venice during May 1797, and the Venetian Republic came to an end. The fall of the Venetian Republic caused hard times for glassmaking in Murano, and some of the Murano methods became lost. Controlled by France and Austria, Venetian glassmaking became unprofitable because of tariffs and taxes—and glassmakers that survived were reduced to making mostly beads. Napoleon closed the Venetian glass factories in 1807, although simple glassware and beadmaking continued. In the 1830s, outsiders tried to revive the industry. However, it was not until Venice became part of Italy in 1866 that Murano glassmaking could experience a revival. Around that time, local leaders such as the mayor of Murano Antonio Colleoni and Abbot Vincenzo Zanetti (founder of the Murano Glass Museum), along with Murano manufacturers such as Fratelli Toso, began reinventing the earlier Murano techniques for making glass.; Antonio Salviati, a Venetian lawyer who gave up his profession in 1859 in order to devote his time to glassmaking, also had an important role in the revival of glassmaking in Murano.
The mixing and melting of the batch of ingredients was a two-stage process. First, nearly equal amounts of silica and flux were continuously stirred in a special furnace. The furnace was called a calchera furnace, and the mix was called fritta. In the second stage, the fritta was mixed with selected recycled waste glass (cullet) and melted in another furnace. Depending on the type and color of glass, other additives were used. Lead and tin were added for white opaque glass ( latimo). Cobalt was used for blue glass. Copper and iron were used for green and for various shades of green, blue, and yellow. Manganese was used to remove colors. Although natural gas is the furnace fuel of choice for glassmaking today, the fuel mandated in Murano during the 13th century was alder and willow wood. During this second stage, the surface of the molten glass was skimmed to remove undesirable chemicals that affected the appearance of the glass. Additional techniques were used as glassmaking evolved. To improve clarity, molten glass was put in water and then re-melted. Another technique was to purify the flux by boiling and filtering.
Overall, the industry has been shrinking as demand has waned. Imitation works (recognizable by experts but not by the typical tourist) from Asia and Eastern Europe take an estimated 40 to 45 percent of the market for Murano glass, and public tastes have changed while the designs in Murano have largely stayed the same. To fight the imitation problem, a group of companies and concerned individuals created a trademark in 1994 that certifies that the product was made on Murano. By 2012, about 50 companies were using the Artistic Glass Murano® trademark of origin.
Glassmaking is a difficult and uncomfortable profession, as glassmakers must work with a product heated to extremely high temperatures. Unlike 500 years ago, children of glassmakers do not enjoy any special privileges, extra wealth, or marriage into nobility. Today, it is difficult to recruit young glassmakers. Foreign imitations, and difficulty attracting young workers, caused the number of professional glassmakers in Murano to decrease from about 6,000 in 1990 to fewer than 1,000 by 2012.
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