The production of the artistic glasses has always represented for Venice an important economic truth.

The History

In roman age, in the Aquileia neighbor there was famous and an important center of vetraria production, and a part of the historiography catches a glimpse a strong tie with the veneziana, famous production sin from the low Middle Ages. The most ancient relative document to the veneziana vetraria is a manuscript of the 982: draft of a donation action where, between the witnesses, a such "Domenicus appears fiolarius", that is Domenico vetraio ("fiola "is the bottle). That has allowed to celebrate officially, in 1982, the thousand years of the veneziana vetraria. According to document with other vetraio cited laughed them to 1083, while it is from 1279 that has numerous documents that they attest as the exercise of this art was concentrated to Walls along the River of the Vetrai, where still today find the more ancient furnaces.

Until the half of XIV the Venice century it was the only European vetrario center in a position to supplying produced refines to you: glasies, bottles, goblets, cups and lamps. From 1450, thanks also to the intuitions of Barovier Angel, vetraio of one of the families more ancient than Wall, a true and own technological revolution was come true that will carry to one exceptional development along the two centuries succeeded to you. The Barovier succeeded to create a glass of high purity, incolore and smooth, similar to the cliff crystal, the point that was called "crystal". It is attributed to ingenious vetraio also the invention of "lattimo", a glass opaque white man similar to the Chinese chinas, a production that for centuries nobody will know to imitate. Also the "calcedony", a vitrea paste imitating a variety of the natural calcedony, has been in all probability invented from Barovier Angel which, beyond to being master, scientific preparation had one in order to have attended lessons of the philosopher-scientist Paul de Bower.
The glass of Walls knew the highest splendor in XVI the century. The vetrai, thanks to the quattrocentesche experiences, perfected the vitrei materials and elaborated technical handbook a lot refined for foggiare and to decorate the products blows to you. The shapes made more light essential things and: the products more appreciate from all rich the Europeans to you in order to adorn the tables were blow to you thin and purest, immortalati also in the paintings of the greatest painters of the time, like Tiziano and Veronese.
It is the age in which they were developed also true and own activities of industrial espionage between the families that controlled the several vetrerie and that the "prescription pads" of father in son were handed on with great segretezza. George Ballarin, a young person Dalmatian, was protagonist of a famous episode. Entered to service of the sons of Barovier Angel, pretending itself delayed, he could assist without to arouse suspiciones to the preparation of prescriptions of the large one vetraio and, after to have transcribed them, he learned the art and he started an activity in just, until becoming one of the richer entrepreneurs of the island.

The Republic instituted of the acknowledgments, true and own licences ante litteram, for the vetrai that important innovation introduced some and demanded of protects. Therefore Serene Filippo obtained in 1527 privileges for the invention of the "filigree to retortoli" that, with to the "filigree to reticello", is the more important invention of the vetraria in this period.
With the first technique a reason to bands is obtained in the thin crystal wall parallels of threads variously interlaces to you to spiral, of lattimo or colorful glass; with the second one one is obtained delicate net of lattimo or glass colored to the inside of the crystal wall. Upon maturity of I privilege, the glasses to filigree came ordinarily produced from all the vetrerie.
An other I privilege was assigned in 1507 to the siblings Andrea and Domenico d' Angelo for one technical refined for the production of mirrors. In 1549, Vincenzo d' Angelo son of Andrea, obtained an ulterior one privileges decennial for the graffita decoration to tip of diamond for mirrors and blows to you. That created on crystals a lace effect most light that still valued more the thinness of the glass. Graffito filigree and to diamond tip is technical presents still in the repertorio of the muranesi productions.

The authority supervised also against the export of the technology. In particular, after the invention of the crystal the measures were made stricter and it was reached to establish that only those who had flood muranese citizenship could work the glass like masters and apprentices. It was succeeded in to write up, in 1605, the "Book of containing Gold" the names of those who belonged to the "Magnificent Community of Wall". From then it is spoken about muranese vetraria nobility.
In spite of the efforts in order to prevent the emigration to the foreign country of the vetrai, vary apprentices and masters moved themselves in all the European countries, implanting furnaces in order to produce glasses. He appeared also to Florence, in 1612, the first handbook of vetraria technology: "the vetraria Art" of Antonio Black, an expert clergyman of alchemy to the service of the Doctors. The handbook was translate in English, German, French and Spanish and contributed in decisive way to the spread of the vetraria of Venice: without the contribution of the veneziana technology the English piombici glasses and those you pruned to us boemi they would not have caught up the purity of the crystal, neither would have caught up an adapted level of working.

The competition of the new countries began to put in crisis the muranese production, that serious forfeiture in coincidence with the end of independence of the Republic entered in one. The first signs of resumption arrived in the first decades of XIX the century. The carried out one happened to leave from 1861, year of the institution of the Vetrario Museum and of the annexed School of design for vetrai to work of the common one of They wall and Abbot Vincenzo Zanetti, vetraria history student. In those years nacque also, to work of Antonio Salviati, a laboratory of mosaics that decorated important buildings in Europe and all over the world. The vetrario technician Vincenzo Moretti in 1871 succeeded to reproduce, after nearly two millenia of oblivion, the "roman murrine", entrances from then in the repertorio of Walls. In the complex the vetraria of XIX the century has caught up one level of insuperato technical perfection, that it is to the base of the contemporary technology.

In XX century i vetrai they knew to accompany with succeeding several the artistic movements, from the Liberty to the style the 1900's, until the developments of the contemporary design, with the birth of the sculptures in massive glass and the plastic glasses impreziositi from evocative colorations to the inside of the walls of large thickness. Beside a sophisticated and careful handicraft to the requirements of the market, it has been gone asserting in the last few decades a generation of artists who take advantage of the ductility and the transparency of the glass in order to realize true and own works of art.

The working

Rose Barovier Mentasti, studious of the E glass descendant of one of the families of vetrai more ancient, have synthetized effectively in several written the working and the techniques of the muranese vetraria.
The veneziano glass is sodico, as in the ancient Mediterranean tradition. It means that to the silice, that it is a sand destined to become glass by means of fusion, the hard one joins in order to concur the fusion with smaller temperatures. The potassa, alternative to hard, the typical one of the Nordic countries, generates suitable a shining glass to the grinding and the recording (like the English piombico glass), but not to the complex hot workings, typically veneziane.

The miscelazione of the raw materials happens the evening, to the end of the preparation and working hours of material the hard all the night: to the two raw materials fundamental ones, join stabilizing (for es. soccer carbonate), decolorating or coloring, and eventually opacifying. The furnace to I reverberate fuses the raw materials to the temperature of approximately 1.400° and the vetrai to the morning they will find the material fused ready for the modellazione. The glass paste remains ductile until the temperature of 500°.

The work group is constituted from the "public square", coordinated from the composed master and from serving and garzoni, than padroneggiano the several techniques of the hot working. The work can eventually be rifinita to cold in moleria, where expert molatori proceed to the smoothing or other rifiniture. The figurative recording is executed in independent laboratories, where decorators operate highly specialize to you. If the previewed decoration is the enamel, the object passes in a specific laboratory in which they come executed the painting and the re-cooking of the enamel.