![]() ![]() ![]() Venetian glassmakers defied the authorities’ threats of exile or sometimes even death, more out of necessity than rebelliousness. But it was a major step forward that raised Venice to the rank of Europe’s luxury glassmaking capital, a status it aimed to keep by intimidating anyone who might divulge the secret of cristallo. Its lead-free chemical structure had neither the strength nor the particular ring of real crystal. But, pure as it was, this was not the crystal we know. It takes its name from its Latin inscription-"Magister Aldrevandin me feci(t)" (Master Aldervandin made it) -and attests to Venetian glassmakers’ pioneering know-how in approaching the clarity of rock crystal.Īround 1450, Angelo Barovier (?-1496) invented cristallo, an alkali-lime glass with unmatched transparency and purity achieved by mixing ground quartz pebbles and marine plant ash. The city grew wealthy on trade in exotic goods and allowed many foreign craftsmen to settle there in return for their manufacturing secrets, as witness a remarkable early 14th-century colorless Aldrevandin beaker in the British Museum. Glassmaking in Venice, then, had nothing going for it-except its port, the largest in Europe at the time. They had to be continuously stoked with fuel, but Venice and Murano were nearly treeless. There was just one problem: the kilns, which consumed huge amounts of energy. The binder was made of plant ash imported from Syria and Egypt. Consequently, in the 14th-century glassmakers starting importing, at great expense, quartz pebbles from Ticino, which were then ground into a fine powder rich in silica: an indispensable ingredient for making glass paste. The lagoon had plenty of sand, of course, but its high iron content gave the glass a greenish hue unsuitable for this ambitious undertaking. Against all odds, glassmaking bloomed in Venice, the city least conducive to its development. So they set their sights on their glassmakers, whose promising work seemed the only means to equal rock crystal’s clarity, strength and luxurious finish. From the 13th century, princes who collected precious objects became unhappy with the unreliability of the supply of rock crystal in Europe. ![]()
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