Glass Between Venice and Florence: Coded Form, Material, and Making in Object and Drawing

Glass has fascinated humanity since its invention due to its unique properties. Fluid when hot and solid when cooled, it can be opaque or transparent, polychrome or colorless, solid or hollow according to the artist’s preference. The development of Venetian cristallo in the 15th century was especially significant, as it expanded the artistic possibilities for glassmakers who explored them in a vast array of moulded, sculpted and blown works. Consequently, in the early modern period, glass was valued for its “madeness” (Gemachtsein) on various levels, including the secret expertise in its fusion and the skill required to create the art objects. They are therefore intimately connected to their makers, revealing traces of the creative process that fascinated contemporaries who traveled to Murano to observe workshop activities, exchange knowledge with professionals and aficionados, and seek out glass novelties to display their wit at the next lavish banquet, such as those held in Florence. 

Thus, glass became a valuable collectible and a canvas for creativity – not only as a tangible object but also as an imagined one. Numerous artists explored its affordances by creating drawings, including Bernardo Buontalenti, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Giovanni Maggi. This project focuses on their works and compares them with the scarcely researched Venetian Libro del Principe Luigi d’Este. It examines the role of these drawings not just as representations but as tools for material/object observation and insight. Rather than reconstructing lost glass objects or recounting commercial history, I focus on the epistemological value of the represented and representing paper objects. Key questions include their production and use, their reflection of political and intellectual dimensions, and their relationship to the glass objects. Additionally, I investigate the drawings’ role in the dissemination of technical knowledge between Venice and Florence.