Furniture & Decorative Arts

   

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September 2004
hardback
ISBN 13: 9780872901575
ISBN: 0872901572
340 pages
9 x 11 in.
279 x 229 mm.
281 color plates
47 halftones
US $ 89
UK £ 55

Beyond Venice
Glass in Venetian 1500-1750

Jutta-Annette Page et al

The popularity of Venetian glass in the 16th and 17th centuries was widely imitated elsewhere in Europe. Venetian glass masters frequently received lucrative offers from foreign courts. And while the Venetian government had long attempted to restrict the emigration of its glassworkers, zealously guarding their knowledge of sophisticated glassmaking techniques, it nevertheless understood its diplomatic and financial benefits. Thus, many Venetian glassmakers helped to establish factories in other countries, adapting their processes to the available raw materials and the prevailing tastes of local markets. Venetian-style vessels remained among the most coveted glasses in Europe until the 18th century.

This lavish publication begins with a brief history of the development of glassmaking in Venice and then presents a survey of glass made á la façon de Venise in five regions: Austria, Spain, France, the Low Countries, and England. There is also an essay on the social uses of Venetian-style glassware in the Netherlands during the 17th century.

Jutta-Annette Page is curator of glass and decorative arts at The Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, and former curator of european glass at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.