Interconnections between form and matter in twentieth-century Murano glass

Abstract

The digitisation and cataloguing of the Seguso Vetri d’Arte archive –together with other archives of glass factories preserved in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice– has led to the analysis not only of the documents themselves, but also of the relationships between them. What emerges is the particular design process that gives shape to glass. We refer to the process for which the material is responsible, rather than to the intervention of a designer. The role of the designer –in constant cooperation with the glassmaker– remains nonetheless influential, but there are particular constraints to take into account. The research analyses the process that leads to the creation of an artefact through drawings and, consequently, some features of the production of hand-blown glass artefacts in some of the most famous glass factories in Murano during the 20th century, giving rise to considerations that are related both to artistic and scientific theories emerged in the same years.