Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice: The Fragile CraftThe transformation of the Venetian glass industry during the Renaissance was not only a technical phenomenon, but also a social one. In this volume, Patrick McCray examines the demand, production and distribution of glass and glassmaking technology during this period and evaluates several key topics, including the nature of Renaissance demand for certain luxury goods, the interaction between industry and government in the Renaissance, and technological change as a social process. McCray places in its broader economic and cultural context a craft and industry that has been traditionally viewed primarily through the surviving artefacts held in museum collections. McCray explores the social and economic context of glassmaking in Venice, from the guild and state level down to the workings of the individual glass house. He tracks the dissemination of Venetian-style glassmaking throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and its effects on Venice's glass industry. Integrating evidence from a wide variety of sources - written documents such as shop records and recipe books, pictorial representations of glass and glassmaking, and the careful physical and chemical analysis of glass pieces that have survived to the present - he examines the relation between consumer demand and technological change. In the process, he traces the organizational changes that signified a transition from an older and more traditional manner of 'artisan' manufacture to a modern, 'factory-style' manner of production. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Renaissance Venice | 15 |
Artisans Guilds and the Venetian State | 22 |
Copyright | |
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activities Angelo Barovier Aquileia archaeological artisans associated Barovier ceramics chemical collections coloured common consumer demand consumerism consumption craft craftsmen cristallo glass decorative techniques discussed ducats economic enamelled Europe example façon de Venise fifteenth Florence frit glass compositions glass furnaces glass objects glass pieces glass production glass vessels glasshouse glassmaking technology glassworkers Goldthwaite guild important innovation inventory Italian Kingery labour lattimo lead crystal luxury glass luxury glass compositions majolica manganese manufacture material culture Medici medieval Muranese glass Muranese glassmakers Murano Museum Neri Neri's overall raw materials recipe books records refined Renaissance society Renaissance Venetian glass Renaissance Venice rock crystal role seventeenth century sixteenth century skeuomorphism skill social soda ash sources tacit knowledge tazze technical technological change Ticino River Torcello trade traditional treatise Venetian cristallo Venetian glass industry Venetian glassmaking Venetian government Venetian luxury glass Veneto Venice Venice's glass industry vessel glass vetro workers Zecchin