Glass animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection
Le Stanze del vetro is situated on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and it organize every year a new exposition of contemporary and historical artists, who have dedicated work or a part of their career to the use of glass.
As a part of the Stanze del Vetro, the Fondazione Cini and the Pentagram Stiftung are promoting a gradual archive of Venetian glass.
This year the exhibition is dedicated to the Pierre Rosenberg collection composed of Murano glass animals. Even if I live in Murano, every glass exposition is for me a great pleasure and surprise and an opportunity to study glass better.
Pierre Rosenberg
Pierre Rosenberg is an art historian, former president-director of the Louvre and member of many important Academie, the list is quite impressive! He is a member of Academie Francaise, foreigner member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Accademia del Disegno (Florence), Accademia Pietro Vanucci (Pérouse), Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Venice), Ateneo Veneto (Venice) and Accademia Clementina. His works of art historian focus on drawing and French and Italian painting of the xvii th and xviii th centuries as well as the history of collecting, but he is also a passionate collector and glass collector.
Pierre Rosenberg has donated his art collection, now in the museum house: 650 paintings, 3,500 drawings, a library of 45,000 volumes and 2,000 pieces of Murano glass. They are destined for “his” Musée du Grand Siècle, dedicated to the French seventeenth century, which will open in 2025.
How was the collection of glass created?
Since he was a child, Pierre Rosenberg has been creating collection of stamps and many other things. When he retired from the Louvre in 2001 he came to Venice and spent times in the city to write as Art Historian and decided to dedicate this collection to the animals in Murano glass.
The creativity of the glass masters is still extremely strong, the Venetian Glass Master (famous or non) made, and still make the animals for their pleasure.
Pierre Rosenberg bought them in Venice, Murano island and sometimes in the auction in Paris. He didn’t have the idea of making something classified.
Who did these animals of glass?
Some of these glass animals were created by the famous glass masters, some are unexpensive, but they all celebrated the glory of Murano’s masters.
In Murano glass work the manual skill is important, but also the invention is even more important, for Pierre Rosenberg is important insisting in using the word ‘artist’ talking about these Glass Masters.
This glass collection show some of the most famous technique of glass making, like the pulegosi (bubble glass) pieces by Napoleone Martinuzzi, the birds by Tyra Lundgren and by Toni Zuccheri for the Venini glassworks. In the exposition is possible to admire also the Zebrati (zebra-striped) series by Barovier & Toso, the aquariums by Alfredo Barbini and the some examples by Seguso Vetri d’Arte and a few pieces of Pino Signoretto.
Some animals of Murano glass were made with other different techniques, like filigree, mosaic glass (murrino), every piece is different!
At the end of the exposition are exhibited the beautiful original designs of glass animals that belonged to the old Pauly & Co. Collection.
The exposition exhibit also a vast sample of animals made by lesser-known masters, but interesting glassworks from the point of view of the technical and design experimentation of 20th-century Murano glass production.
Murano glass is a surprising art still alive. Do you want to know more about it? Follow me or contact me.
FIORELLA PAGOTTO — I am an art historian and a writer, author of essays on Venetian art history, biographies of artists and an official guide to the city of Venice.
Aureliano Toso -Zebra stripes by Barovier & Toso
