Hand blown Murano glass swordfish. Predominantly clear and yellow glass swordfish leaping from waves. Attribution on base.

Size: 13 1/2 x 6 x 5 1/2 in.

#5 #5451 . 

Venetian glass is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. It is made with a soda-lime “metal” and is typically elaborately decorated, with various “hot” glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamel, or engraving. Murano was Europe’s major center for luxury glass from the High Middle Ages through the Italian Renaissance. During the Early Middle Ages, Venice was originally controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire before eventually becoming an independent city state. Its location along the sea coast gave it connections with the Middle East, where glassmaking was more advanced in areas such as Syria and Egypt. Although Venetian glassmaking existed as far back as the 8th Century, it became concentrated in Murano by law beginning in 1291 for a very specific reason:  since glass factories often caught fire, this removed the possibility of a major disaster for the city. Venetian glassmakers developed secret recipes and methods for making glass, and the concentration of Venice’s glassmaking on the island of Murano enabled better control of those secrets. Venice’s dominance in trade along the Mediterranean created a wealthy merchant class with a passion for the arts. The spread of glassmaking throughout Northern Europe, as well as the occupation and dissolution of the Venetian state by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797, caused the downfall of Murano’s monopoly. Murano glassmaking began a revival in the 1920s, and today the island (along with Venice) is a major tourist attraction, full of glass factories, museums, and individual artists’ studios.