Lot Essay
cf. Sarpellon, Miniature Masterpieces: Mosaic Glass 1838-1924, p. 144 for a peacock murrina by Giuseppe Barovier, and p. 145 for a 1913 sketch of a peacock by Giuseppe Barovier.
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MURRINA DEL PAVONE
The Barovier name has been synonymous with Italian glass since the mid-fifteenth century when the family patriarch, Angelo Barovier invented Murano cristallo. Generations later, Giuseppe Barovier joined the family business and together with his father, uncle and brother produced an extensive range of glasswares. While known for their fantastically light blown vessels, the Baroviers (particularly Giuseppe and Benvenuto) are celebrated for their creations in murrine, though these works constitute a far smaller body of production.
Murrine glass is one of the most ancient techniques in glass-making and involves the joining together of glass canes of various colors in a pre-configured pattern and then heating them so that they fuse into one mass. The resulting bundle is drawn out to form a long rod which is then cut into transverse sections to produce discs (murrine) reflecting the original design. The "murrines" are then arranged in a decorative motif and fused together.
Although the attribution of Artisti Barovier's vast production to either Giuseppe or his brother Benvenuto is often a mystery, it is Giuseppe who is commonly credited with the extraordinary peacock murrina. In 1913 Cá Pesaro in Venice presented twelve new glass works, including the peacock murrina by Giuseppe, in a large hall that was decorated by the painter/designer Vittorio Zecchin, with whom Giuseppe was known to collaborate on mosaic glass plaques. The exhibit was an enormous success, and the May 21, 1913 edition of the Venetian periodical Il Gazzettino noted "All around the hall you admire the splendor of the wonderful glass by the new wizard of art-glass, called Giuseppe Barovier, the true heir to the genius of his sixteenth century ancestors...His masterpiece, to us, looks to be a plate with a figure of a peacock, set in the center as a precious stone." More recently, Giovanni Sarpellon, a leading authority on the subject of mosaic glass wrote "The peacock murrina which earned him [Giuseppe Barovier] the name 'the glassmaking genius' and which created such a sensation at the 1913 exhibition that it was described as a 'gem'...blends a fine artistic sense with great technical expertise...Technical perfection aside, the artistic standard of murrina is so high, that despite the lack of concrete evidence, it is still common belief at Murano that Barovier worked from a design by Zecchin."
This object, which until very recently has been described in texts on glass history as "location unknown" reappears after more than eighty years, and remains one of the masterpieces of the glass makers' art.
'MURRINA DEL PAVONE', A RARE 'MURRINE' GLASS PLATE
THE DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO VITTORIO ZECCHIN, EXECUTED BY GIUSEPPE BAROVIER FOR ARTISTI BAROVIER, 1913
Details
'MURRINA DEL PAVONE', A RARE 'MURRINE' GLASS PLATE
The Design Attributed to Vittorio Zecchin, Executed by Giuseppe Barovier for Artisti Barovier, 1913
23/8in. (6.1cm.) high, 117/8in. (30.3cm.) diameter
The Design Attributed to Vittorio Zecchin, Executed by Giuseppe Barovier for Artisti Barovier, 1913
23/8in. (6.1cm.) high, 117/8in. (30.3cm.) diameter