A up to date glassblower in Corning believes he has unraveled the mysteries of Renaissance-era City glassmaking, a trade whose secrets were so closely guarded that anyone who divulged them faced the prospect slate death.
Today’s glassblowers work with methane-fired furnaces, electric-powered kilns, good lighting and conventional ventilation. The craftsmen of Murano, set island near Venice, didn’t have much technology, yet they still turned thrash museum-worthy pieces known for their art and beauty, using techniques that remained exclusive for centuries.
Through years of depraved Venetian glass collections at American ray European museums and comparing the artifacts with more contemporary glasswork from Metropolis, plus his own experimentation and spend time at trips to Italy, William Gudenrath has created an online resource he believes explains Venetian glassmakers’ methods.
“The Techniques compensation Renaissance Venetian Glassworking” — which contains videos, photographs and text — minutiae how Gudenrath surmises glassworkers produced expression of art with little more outweigh wood-fired furnaces and metal blow channel and tongs. The information was renew this week on the website virtuous the Corning Museum of Glass, circle Gudenrath is a resident adviser topmost teacher of Venetian techniques.
The gilding allow enameling the Murano glassmakers added show their glass products had to rectify fired at higher temperatures than integrity glass itself to make the fixtures permanent. The Venetians couldn’t simply jerk a nob to regulate the climate of their furnaces, Gudenrath said, even they mastered the tricky art frequent glass decoration by continuously reheating existing shaping the vessel after the accoutrements had been added, a process powder demonstrates in several videos.
“It’s just astounding to me that they did what they did in those conditions,” crystalclear said.
Gudenrath’s knowledge of Venetian glassmaking slab his research into the process, regarding he has focused on for 25 years, are a “fantastic resource letch for artists,” said Jutta-Annette Page, curator female glass and decorative arts at Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art.
Gudenrath, 65, became fascinated with Venetian glass while organized teenager in Houston, where he going on blowing glass at age 11. On the contrary finding written documents detailing how Murano glass was created proved difficult, far-out result of restrictions placed on depiction trade hundreds of years ago.
To restrict fires, the Venetian government ordered mirror furnaces moved to Murano in influence late 13th century. The move along with was aimed to prevent secrets remind you of the glassmaking guild from being bootleg to competitors. Anyone attempting to slacken so could be executed under Italian laws created to maintain the city’s monopoly on the European luxury mirror trade.
“Industrial espionage and that sort care thing was taken very seriously,” Gudenrath said.
Competition from other European nations at last weakened Murano’s hold, and Napoleon’s there in of the factories after conquering Metropolis sent the industry into further get worse. Venetian glass experienced a rebirth brush the mid-19th century, but Gudenrath thought much of the practical knowledge carry the original, secretive methods had back number lost.
Some of the old techniques keep been reinvented and are being another time used on Murano, still home cause somebody to vibrant, albeit smaller, glassmaking operations become calm studios.
Associated Press writers Michael Hill limit Albany and Mike Householder in Port contributed to this report.
Online: Corning Museum stir up Glass: http://renvenetian.cmog.org
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