The Art of Glass on Murano Marino Barovier

Murano glass needs no illustration. It is too famous all over the world; and the number of people who love its splendor and its grace is truly impressive. Is there anyone who has never heard of its lightness, its transparency, its iridescence; and those colors and shapes, which appeared to a poet as the essence of Venetian beauty…

Stated more then forty years ago in the introduction to the exhibition on Murano glass held at the Museum of the Decorative Arts in Paris in 1956, these thoughts remain relevant to this day.

The magic and fascination that Murano glass elicits originates in a suggestive world where ancient skills combine with rhythms that possess the density of history, where knowing gestures are repeated by the glassmasters who lovingly give life to fragile and extraordinary creations. Completely indifferent to new technology, Murano glass is still shaped by hand using age-old handcrafting techniques. The basis of these techniques is the free blowing of molten glass. Transferred from the crucible to the pontil rod with the blower’s pipe, the molten glass is gathered at the extremity of this steel hollow tube to form an incandescent mass, which is then blown.

The resulting irregular bubble is shaped with the use of metallic tools of various dimensions, or by using specific molds. In some cases, the molten glass is gathered by a solid pipe and shaped without being blown to obtain various sculptural forms. During the phases of blowing and shaping, the incandescent mass on the blowing pipe is repeatedly reheated in the furnace to maintain the required fluidity. Upon completion, the object is detached from the pontil and transferred into the muffola (annealing oven) where it will undergo a progressive cooling process to minimize internal tensions in the glass, which would cause breakage in the finished object.

The history of Venetian glass has remote origins that some authors trace back to the Roman glass tradition developed in the town of Aquileia. Others connect the budding of this art to the presence of a glass industry linked to the Benedictine monasteries founded in areas throughout the Venetian lagoon sometime around the ninth century. The intense trade carried out by the Venetian Republic with the Orient and the world of Islam, where glass technique was quite advanced–especially after the eleventh century–was also influential to its development. In any case, at the end of the tenth century (982), the first written documents testify to the existence in Venice of maestri fioleri; glass workers who producedfiole or vials, thin-necked containers for liquids blown out of glass.

During the second half of the thirteenth century (1271) the fioleri had already formed a trade association regulated by the written lawCapitulare de fiolariis, later replaced by the Mariegola dei vetrai in 1441. In addition, the Serenissima Republic of Venice took a number of protectionist measures to safeguard its exclusivity of glass production. After 1291, by decree of the Maggior Consiglio (Venetian high government) to protect the city of Venice from fire hazards, all furnaces were transferred to the island of Murano where many glassmakers had already established themselves. In fact, the settlement of numerous furnaces along the canal of Santo Stefano on Murano caused its bank to be renamed fondamenta dei Verieri–today it is called dei Vetrai–which translates to of the glassmakers.

Murano’s glass industry grew steadily through the middle of the fifteenth century. During this time its production of blown glass was remarkable, and it established Murano as the leader in the international market. This was due not only to the incentives and protectionist laws decreed by the Serenissima, but also because of the extraordinary quality of the vessels, goblets, plates, and decanters produced on the island. These were generally blown out of thin colored glass and often embellished with painting and decoration in golden enamels or brilliant colors. In the second half of the fifteenth century Angelo Barovier, a member of one of the most renowned families of glassmakers, invented a terse clear glass with extreme transparency. It was called cristallo because of its similarity to rock crystal, and its use soon became one of the distinct characteristics of Venetian glass.

Production during the following century was particularly refined, and its harmonious classical forms adorned many European Renaissance palaces. This was a period of great success for Murano glass, as its glassmakers perfected many new techniques for the creation of unique glass textures such as filigrana. Despite the restrictions imposed by the Venetian Republic against the exportation of Murano glass techniques to other countries, the second half of the sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century witnessed a significant emigration of glassmakers abroad, where numerous glass workshops were founded. In several European countries new factories produced glassware commonly called façon de Venise, manufactured in the tradition of blown glass, but gradually evolving through the benefit of local influences.

In the seventeenth century, the advent of the Baroque style guided Venetian glass production towards an overabundance of decoration on lightweight soffiati (free-blown glass). The growing success of the finely cut, heavy Bohemian crystal cost Venetian glass its dominant position on the market. Consequently, at the turn of the century, a new fashion was imported–and not without difficulty—to Murano. It is here that Giuseppe Briati, during the first half of the eighteenth century, succeeded in producing acristallo, containing potash. While it was similar to Bohemian crystal, its particular characteristics gave it a brilliance that distinguished it, making it more suitable for the engraved decoration consonant with the Baroque taste. However, in keeping with local tradition, eighteenth-century Murano production continued with the use of singular, dominating color embellishments, which characterized, for example, its famous chandeliers.

The advent of foreign competition, the stubborn hostility demonstrated by the Venetian glassmakers towards technical innovations, and the lack of openness towards what was happening in Europe lay the groundwork for the serious crisis that hit the glass sector during those years. This crisis took a turn for the worse after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. A period of depression followed which saw the growing availability of foreign glass on the local Venetian market and the progressive decline and closing of many of the Murano glass workshops.

After the 1830s and 40s, sporadic attempts to revive Venetian glass were made by many personalities, including antiques dealer Sanquirico and glass experts Domenico Bussolin, Pietro Bigaglia, and Lorenzo Radi, who either personally or indirectly dedicated their efforts to reviving ancient techniques such as filigrana. It was the work of the abbot Vincenzo Zanetti that proved to be largely responsible for leading Murano glass towards a decisive renaissance. In 1861, Zanetti founded the Glass Museum of Murano for the sole purpose of opening a school of design and glass technique for craftsmen. The examples of glassware from the past that were offered as study models gave the new maestri the means to reclaim techniques Murano had once been famous for but which had almost been lost over time. Sharing Zanetti’s intentions was the lawyer, Antonio Salviati from Vicenza, who had already opened a large mosaic workshop in Venice in 1859. In 1866, he used English capital to found Salviati & C. for the production of light soffiati glass pieces. He was able to count on the best maestri of the island–among them Antonio and Giovanni Barovier, Antonio Seguso, Vincenzo Moretti, Andrea Rioda, and others. With great foresight, he required that all of them attend Zanetti’s design school. Thus, he was able to achieve a remarkable quality of production inspired by the best glass tradition of the previous centuries. Salviati & C. was so successful that in 1867 he received numerous awards at the Universal Exposition in Paris. Ten years later, Mr. Salviati, released from his obligations to Salviati & C., left the workshop and founded Salviati Dott. Antonio. He took the remarkably skilled Barovier brothers, Antonio and Giovanni, with him. They were joined later by Antonio’s sons, Giuseppe and Benvenuto.

In 1883, when Salviati decided to devote himself entirely to the selling of glass, the Baroviers acquired ownership of the company by promising to produce glass exclusively for Mr. Salviati. They changed the name of the company to Artisti Barovier after Salviati’s death in 1890.

Over the last decades of the nineteenth century, production in Murano was prolific, having achieved a newfound vigor by copying sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth-century models. Unfortunately, the limitation implicit in this practice led to a style dominated by a sterility that was incapable of renovating Murano glass. Once again, the island proved remarkably deaf to innovation, which in those years–especially in the field of decorative arts–was represented by the coming of Stile Liberty (as it was called in Italian) and Art Nouveau (the French equivalent).

At the turn of the century, the French works of Gallé, Daum, and Lalique, along with Tiffany glass from America, were inspired by this new movement and were gathering growing consensus. On Murano, these influences were acquired in a sporadic manner and only after they had lost their original vitality everywhere else. Slight changes could be perceived in 1895 at the Murano glass exhibition, which the island held at the same time as the first Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia (Biennale). Artisti Barovier received awards for several modern objects, among which was a goblet with a spiral stem.

By 1910, Venetian glasswork was showing more convincing evidence of innovation. This was due largely to contacts established with a number of artists, most of whom belonged to the dynamic, anti-academic atmosphere of Cà Pesaro. These artists, like Vittorio Zecchin and Teodoro Wolf Ferrari, collaborated with theArtisti Barovier and, belated though it was, began to open up a world of glass that manifested the influence of Art Nouveau. The pieces that exemplified this most were the brightly colored vessels and plates in vetro mosaico executed by the Artisti Barovier and the unusual glass pieces exhibited at the Biennale designed by the ceramic artist Hans Stoltemberg Lerche. The latter were created between 1912 and 1914 for Fratelli Toso, a glass workshop founded in 1854.

The onset of World War I interrupted work in the furnaces and with it, this still occasional collaboration between artists and the glass workshop that had sprung from a curiosity on the part of the artists. Having made it through the war years, the Artisti Barovier, renamed Vetreria Artistica Barovier after 1919, proceeded with the experimentation it had conducted with Vittorio Zecchin and Teodoro Wolf Ferrari and presented several vessels made in the vetro mosaico technique. Despite the fine quality of the pieces, which were created by the young Ercole and Nicolò Barovier themselves, glass produced at theVetreria Artistica Barovier continued to reflect the previous Art Nouveau orientation even though in their most abstract decorations they did reflect an interest in expressionism.

True innovation in Murano glass came largely with the courageous modern reform of Vittorio Zecchin, Venini and Cappellin (G. Lorenzetti, 1932).

In 1921, the Milanese Paolo Venini and the Venetian Giacomo Cappellin founded a new furnace called V.S.M. Cappellin Venini & C. Its production, designed by the painter Vittorio Zecchin, encountered remarkable success from the very beginning and it was recognized as being truly avant-garde. In response to the request for sobriety and sophistication made by the two partners, Venini and Cappellin—their reference being the cultured society of the upper middle class–Zecchin created glass pieces which abandoned all superfluous decoration. These were inspired, at times, by the Renaissance paintings of Titian and Veronese and were generally distinguished by their truly rarefied quality. Extreme thinness and the delicate colors of the transparent material distinguished the pieces executed by the skilled maestri of the V.S.M. Cappellin Venini. These pieces earned the glowing appreciation of Lorenzetti in his history of Murano glass, where he particularly praised their very simple forms in the rhythm and in the harmonious flight of their line, created to exalt the most tenuous, almost evanescent coloring, lightness and lucid transparency, the two unique gifts of Murano glass (G. Lorenzetti, 1931). The glass workshop received considerable acclaim in many exhibitions, in particular the Biennale of Monza, founded in 1923, which soon became a reference point in the field of decorative arts. However, in 1925, after having represented Italian craft production together with Richard Ginori at the prestigious Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels de Paris, Giacomo Cappellin and Paolo Venini ended their partnership. Each went on to found his own company: Cappellin’s was called Maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C., Venini’s was Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. Vittorio Zecchin continued to serve as the art director of Maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C. until 1926, creating new lightweightsoffiati with classical proportions, which positioned the company as one of the best glass workshops of Murano in the ’20s–even though, due to economic misfortunes, the company was to last only a very short time. Soon after Vittorio Zecchin left the furnace, the young Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa took his place as artistic director and further developed the concepts left by his predecessor. The new production distinguished itself for its essential design, reflecting the formal simple lines Zecchin had initiated. Among the most significant works of Scarpa’s early years is, without a doubt, the spherical vessels with a conic base, originally presented in thin clear glass. These became the logo of Maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C.

Paolo Venini also chose to involve another artist from Murano in his newfound glass workshop; a sculptor named Napoleone Martinuzzi. Martinuzzi, at the time, was the director of the Murano Glass Museum and was to become the artistic director of Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. through 1932. This marked the first of a long series of productive collaborations that Venini, always open to innovation from the contemporary design and architectural worlds, would repeatedly conduct with artists and architects of his time. This openness would prove to be the distinctive characteristic of his workshop, to which he dedicated himself without interruption until his death in 1959. Paolo Venini contributed significantly to the vitality of twentieth-century glass. The debut of the new Venini glass workshop saw Napoleone Martinuzzi initially attempt to take on the heritage left by Vittorio Zecchin. At the beginning he remained faithful, though he soon developed a refined series of clear glass pieces in filigrana (1927) which captured the attention of Giò Ponti in the first issue of Domus. Here are the filigrane again, particularly appreciated for their technical and manual difficulty which require a more than perfect knowledge of glass (Domus 1928, January).

Towards the end of the ’20s, however, Martinuzzi began experimenting with new formulations of glass and created an opaque glass, pulegoso, which looked spongy and owed its peculiarity to the countless micro bubbles which remained trapped inside the glass. Born of the necessity to keep up with the aesthetics of the time, just as interior design was converting to the squared-off Novecento style, this new technique served Martinuzzi well and he used it to present objects endowed with a remarkable sculptural quality.

In a short time (1930), Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. produced a wide range of pulegosidesigned by Martinuzzi. These can be recognized by their soft shapes in imitation of antique amphoras and vessels, accompanied by unique cactus, all in pulegoso glass, with large ones done in shades of dark green. Many of these pieces were presented in Monza in 1930 at the 4th Triennale where the question of opaque glass was widely debated. It raised bitter dissent from the critics who, in the name of Murano’s tradition, upheld that glass, in order to remain glass, had to respect the criteria of lightness and transparency. If one must consider absolute the criterion that art must necessarily adhere to the intimate substance of its chosen material, that is, that the arts must always respect and make evident the essential and characteristic qualities of their material, then most of the glass pieces displayed at the Triennale di Monza should be repudiated. Clearly, Carlo Alberto Felice reservedly comments on the pages of Dedalo (1930, fasc. V), the possibilities and resources of this fascinating material appear infinite… and if imitations of other materials which have been made and continue to be made with glass are not to be encouraged, they may be considered interesting experiments… as long as they do not change the nature of glass and do not betray its essential characteristics….

On the pages of Domus, though not without some discomfort, Carlo Alberto Felice did not hide his opinion that Venini’s new pieces will always remain worthy of respect. When they are discovered in ten years or two centuries time, it will be said, ‘these are the pulegoso that the Venini glass workshop made around the 1930s.’ (Carlo Alberto Felice, 1931).

At the close of the ’20s, Scarpa, just like Martinuzzi, tended towards the use of opaque glass. In the latest works from Cappellin the material has been transformed. So it appears in the precious and milk-white glass pieces which… have once again exalted the superior virtues of our glassmakers. (Domus, 1928, December) and again, Lattimi, exquisite gold and silver glass by Cappellin… glass with vivid polished compact colorings (Domus 1930, July) were repeatedly praised on the pages of the trade reviews and at the exposition in Monza. They received wider acclaim by the critics because of Felice’s view that these works, though not akin to the classical way of understanding glass… don’t want to be or look like anything but glass, which reveals its other hidden properties. (C.A. Felice, 1930). And according to the Venetian Ugo Nebbia M.V.M. Cappellin & C…. reveals its own intentions, perhaps even more refined, but more traditionally akin to our own art glass (U. Nebbia).

Carlo Scarpa’s collaboration produced many collections distinguished by the refined nature of the design and the superior quality of the glass. He chose his techniques from the many that had fallen into disuse, which he reinterpreted in a strictly personal manner; for example, he enriched the thin lattimi by applying gold or silver leaf. The debate on opaque glass proved to be fruitful. Though it brought out a certain uneasiness on the part of critics who found themselves viewing works apparently free of the Murano glass tradition, at the same time it hinted at the greater potential of the material and suggested new directions for experimentation. In the following years, this would lead to truly extraordinary innovative creations.

In general, the Cappellin production designed by Carlo Scarpa was truly remarkable, characterized by vivid colors made possible by glassmakers working in the furnace. Sensitive to the demands of fashion, Maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C. also created a series of sculpturally unique animals. Unfortunately, in spite of their extraordinary success, economic mismanagement forced Cappellin to close down his company in 1932.

Among the other glass workshops present in Monza in 1930, the Vetreria Artistica Barovier & C. also presented a series of pieces whose originality drew considerable interest. But it was not just for their unusual forms, like many of the pieces exhibited in Monza. Theprimavera glass pieces by Ercole Barovier proved to be fascinating for their unique glass texture, in particular, for the originality of the execution which consists in having brought to this art the craquelé used in porcelain. The primavera pieces acquire greater beauty through this process and their slightly pearly reflections seem to capture the light with a very fine fishnet, the submarine light of some fantastic jellyfish (La casa bella 1930, May). Despite the repeated success of these pieces, which were also recognized at the 1930 Biennale of Venice, the primavera glass could only be used to make a limited number of objects. This was due to the fact that this type of glass had been created by accident and the process could never be repeated. When the Biennale Internazionale d’arte di Venezia finally opened to decorative arts in 1932, a new pavilion was dedicated to this art form, giving it adequate exhibition space. Now the city of Venice was given another opportunity to view the latest production and the most advanced experimentation of artists working in the furnaces on Murano. Decorative arts, including glass, have not been exhibited at the Biennale Internazionale d’arte di Venezia since 1972.

Napoleone Martinuzzi also participated in the opening of this new exhibition of Murano glass with brightly colored paste vitree as well as soberly elegant incamiciati pieces. After leaving Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. in 1932, Napoleone Martinuzzi founded the Zecchin-Martinuzzi glass workshop with Francesco Zecchin.

At the same 1932 Biennale, Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. production was highly praised for the re-born linear simplicity of those delicate blown pieces, turquoise and black, green and gold, and especially that most clear and aristocratic white and silver (U. Nebbia, 1932). These designs were created by the pencil of the Milanese architect Tommaso Buzzi, who was the art director of Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. until 1933. He also designed another series of vessels in pastel-colored opaque glass obtained by the overlay of several layers of color sumptuously decorated with applications of gold leaf finished in pasta vitrea.

The following year Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. was able to boast the presence of Carlo Scarpa, who remained the acting artistic director through 1947. His debut at Venini in 1934, was marked by the creation of the delicate filigrane series, a personal reinterpretation of the ancient Murano glass techniques. This was done by experimenting with technique after technique. In addition, in the same year, Scarpa produced the glass series sommersi a bollicine, whose suggestive chromatic tones were enhanced by the inclusion of gold leaf. Enriched by experience gained at maestri Vetrai Muranesi Cappellin & C., Scarpa, assisted by the dedication of Paolo Venini himself (who, in some cases, personally intervened in designing) created a truly remarkable variety of pieces. These were enthusiastically received by critics and provoked a wide variety of descriptions by commentators.

G. Dell’Oro speaks of Murano glass drowned inside raw crystal which forms a sort of colored ring, like a transparent incrustation of stalactites (G. Dell’Oro, 1935). On the pages ofDomus the sommersi were described as vessels and bowls made with Murano glass then submerged in a clear cristallo that constitutes a sort of transparent shell around the colored center, like a nutshell (Domus 1934, September).

The sommersi, which were developed into other models in 1936, were followed by the vast series of corrosi, which were decorated with bugne or fasce applicate and known for the thickness of their glass. Over the following decade, Scarpa’s productive experiments resulted in a wide range of glass pieces, such as the thin multicolored rods, tessuti, the oriental-like shaped cinesi, the splendid a murrine bowls with battuto surfaces, and the transparent vessels decorated a fili, a fasce, ora pennellate. These were shown at many exhibitions of decorative arts and established Carlo Scarpa and Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. as the true leaders of Murano glasswork of that period.

Alongside Carlo Scarpa’s inventions in the ’30s, Ercole Barovier, artistic director of Vetreria Artistica Barovier, distinguished himself for using very thick glass, to which he gave new expression. He accomplished this with the use of the technique colorazione a caldo senza fusione, which he himself had created. From 1934 to 1935, he enriched his glass pieces with single colors achieved through this new technique and from this, theCrepuscolo, the Laguna Gemmata, the Marina Gemmata, and the Autunno Gemmato collections were born. All are known for their unique shades of color. At the 1936 Biennale, the Ercole Barovier glass workshop, renamed in that year Ferro Toso Barovier, presented several of its heavy glass pieces entitled Autunno Gemmato which, considering concept, technique and material, seem to be right on the mark and in line with current trends (G. Dell’Oro, 1936).

After the great success obtained by the Vetreria Artistica Barovier in the early ’30s, other glass workshops such as S.A.I.A.R. Ferro Toso and Seguso Vetri d’Arte were able to establish themselves with a wide variety of pieces. The ’40s witnessed a progressive decline in the activity of the smaller companies, which were driven to hardship by the onslaught of the war. This was not the case with the glass workshops run by Paolo Venini or Ercole Barovier, which continued to produce and present new works at the exhibitions. The comments by Domus regarding the participation of Barovier Toso & C., formerly Ferro Toso Barovier, at the seventh Triennale of Milan in 1940 appear to be significant. Barovier Presented with the generous mastery of his talent and his great passion… [He shows] works of vibrant, new, free and shocking inspiration… it is in fact twenty years that these be-deviled Muranese are renewing themselves and creating a profitable future for Italian art glass with a liveliness, a tirelessness and an abundance which has no equal (Domus, 1940, May).

During the postwar period, and for the entire duration of the ’50s, glasswork on Murano went through another truly significant period. New energy channeled through the work of many designers actively collaborating in the furnaces led to the creation of objects characterized by greater expressive freedom. It was largely thanks to the contribution of vital figures such as Flavio Poli, Dino Martens, and Fulvio Bianconi that a fundamental renovation occurred. Poli preferred shapes with an–out–of proportion linear quality, which could be seen as vaguely Nordic and which led to the elegant sommersi, such as the Valva pieces produced in 1954 by Seguso Vetri d’Arte. These pieces were extremely successful and they were awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro in 1954. In the early ’50s Dino Martens, reinterpreting the traditional techniques of Murano in an original manner, created for the Aureliano Toso workshop glass pieces with variegated colorful textures obtained from specific rods of zanfirico with which he made his Zanfirici, Eldorado, and Oriente pieces. Each piece from Aureliano Toso, it was declared on the pages of Produzione d’Arte in the 1952 issue dedicated to the Mostra del vetro Muranese, portrays in a rhapsodic tale the most unbelievable colors from the world of nature. A fresh look is among the principles for the inspiration which moves Dino Martens to rediscover the color of Murano glass. (Produzione d’arte, 1952, 13-14).

The extroverted artist Fulvio Bianconi collaborated assiduously with Venini in the early postwar years, creating numerous collections with a decidedly painterly concept. He created the famous vessels, the vividly colored pezzati, a fasce verticali, a macchie, scozzesi, and the noted series of figurines with some of the characters taken from thecommedia dell’arte. With Bianconi, Paolo Venini himself took to designing new glass works for which he used sophisticated murrine and rods of zanfirico, which, as Domus magazine recalls,were widely appreciated even at the foreign exhibitions Venini participated in (Stockholm, London, Helsinki) (Domus, 1955, April). Venini & C. met considerable success at the 1954 Triennale in Milan. The young architect Massimo Vignelli, who had been working for the company for several years, designed the 4000 series lamps, which were awarded the Compasso d’Oro.

In addition to the many designers who actively worked on Murano in the ’50s, one must not forget the role played by two gifted glassmakers–owners of their own furnaces–who constantly dedicated their time to experimentation and to the development of glass techniques that explored the material’s potential. If Alfredo Barbini, ideal student of Napoleone Martinuzzi, showed a marked preference for massiccio glass, Archimede Seguso was a major innovator of the filigrana technique. His merletto vessels became the characteristic sign of his work during the ’60s. Ercole Barovier, a tireless creator of new collections for his furnace, also presented new pieces during the late ’50s and ’60s, which stood for their variety of compositions in multicolored glass tessere.

The richness of color which had been characteristic of glass production during the ’50s progressively gave way–during the ’60s and ’70s–to a sober singleness of color. Hence, the choice of transparent glass: it was more compatible with the tendencies of modern design, which sought a greater essentiality of form.

One of the glass workshops that best represented this new orientation was, without a doubt, Vetreria Vistosi. Vistosi established itself with monochromatic pieces, which only rarely were decorated with murrine. Most of the Murano glass workshops encountered some difficulty in dealing with this minimalism, which necessarily meant abandoning traditional glass techniques and the manual skill that went with them.

Of all the glass workshops, Venini & C., where Ludovico Diaz de Santillana became director after the death of his father-in-law Paolo Venini (1959), remained faithful to the polychromatic, or multicolored, tradition of Murano.

The new artistic director did not alter the course set by its founder and maintained the openness it was known for by continuing to call in new collaborators. In the ’60s, many new designers came to Venini & C. Tobia Scarpa gave his own personal reading of the ancient technique of murrine in a contemporary key. Massimo Vignelli renewed his collaboration with the company by designing pieces of refined formal strictness. And then there was the American Thomas Stearns, who may claim fatherhood of pieces executed with the incalmotechnique. These latter pieces, together with the vetro e argento series by Massimo Vignelli, appeared in an article in Domus in 1963, which once again pointed out, …besides the beauty of the forms… the continuity of the spirit of invention and experimentation, and the continuity of excellence which repeatedly characterize Venini’s work