Goblet of Marthe Mançion de la Pommeraye, 1578.

Engraved glass, 16 cm. Castle of Écouen,

Musée national de la Renaissance.

 

 

Glass

 

The ancients were acquainted with glass and handled it with a skill unsurpassed either by the marvellous artists of Murano or by the industry of recent past, which was able to make strides in this branch thanks to discoveries made in chemistry which brought about a fresh element of success. Hence, one can gather from the simple glass amphora, unadorned except its charming form and style with its elegant proportions and iridescent coating, evanescent as the coloured scales of a butterfly’s wing. If not that, they resembled a thousand fiori cups, double layered vases like the Portland, or glasses in enamelled reliefs. A collector will find a valuable auxiliary in antique glass to give variety and effect to his cabinets.

Antique glassware is also the means of procuring certain little relics of great interest. There are the glass pastes nearly all moulded on the most celebrated antique intaglios or engraved stones, copies of which were in high demand at the time. Some of these paste copies are now the only mementos of the long lost originals. We bring up cameos and intaglios because everyone possesses some of these charming objects, which the earth has saved from destruction while arraying them in a brilliant iridescence. But a visit to the Louvre will show the degree of luxury glass workers put into their art. An imitation agate, in the big picture, is extremely remarkable; an example of this may be seen in a central case in the museum. Not only is the principal bas-relief, with its numerous figures, a masterpiece of composition and workmanship, but the several parts enclosed in the frame evince a technique no less advanced. There are busts naturally stained by nature with vine leaves and brilliant draperies, more life-like in their appearance than the finest antique cameos.

Shall we refer to the famous Portland Vase, with its white figures on a blue background? The piece just mentioned fully rivals it in perfection and we possess fragments of the same class conceived in the highest style of the art. However, what has not been seen elsewhere are certain applications of coloured pastes on glass, as in the cup found at Nîmes and presented to the Louvre by Auguste Pelot, and more especially in the marvellous cup on which birds perched on delicate branches encircle the glass like a wreath.

Let us not forget to mention the glass of the Lower Empire, mostly found in the Catacombs of Rome, which, on a leaf of gold engraved and soldered between two glass disks, show either the portraits of the Byzantine emperors or the beloved emblems of the early Christians. These glasses, described and figured by Buona Orelli, very rare in collections, have served as the model for some Italian productions we will discuss.

However, centuries must be passed before we meet with this art again, attaining its utmost splendour in Venice. One of the most remarkable facts connected with this school is that the ancient works of the masters are precisely the most perfect and marvellous. Where were these masters trained? How could they have, from scratch, created an art so perfect in all its varied manifestations? Many insist that their inspiration comes from Byzantium, but we must not forget that Byzantium was but the corpse of the old Roman civilisation galvanised into momentary life. So, while it might recall the echoes of the past, it could not create.

It seems much more reasonable to look for the source of Venetian art in the East, where commercial Italy contrived to draw so much inspiration. We are all familiar with the daring and successful enterprises of the Venetian navigators and to what extent their discoveries and acquisitions furthered Western civilisation. Let us, therefore, observe Venice at the time when Paolo Godi of Pergola was instructing Antonio Barovier. Devoted to the study of chemistry, Godi had discovered secrets for colouring glass and enamels, which were ultimately perfected by his pupil. He is accredited with the marvellous pieces in white or coloured glass, to which he applied ornaments and enamelled subjects in the once vigorous and natural characteristic of the early Italian schools. Certain allegorical subjects would seem to have been invented by Andrea Mantegna, who trained his son, Marino, and his son-in-law, Ballarino. That generation of masters, destined to immortalise the workshops of Murano, are already widely known from the vast trade of small glassware around the world since the 13th century, as well as through the glass painters and mosaic artists who had decorated the cathedrals of northern Italy.