Pulegoso Vittoriale

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Pulegoso Vittoriale

Designer Napoleone Martinuzzi , 1892-1977 (Italian, 1892 - 1977)

Manufacturer V.S.M. (Vetri Soffiati Muranesi) Venini & C. (Italian)

Place of OriginVenice, Italy

Dateabout 1955, (design about 1930)

Dimensions13 3/8 × 12 × 7 3/4 in. (34 × 30.5 × 19.7 cm)

MediumGlass, gold leaf; blown, applied decoration.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Jefferson D. Robinson in memory of his wife, Mary Elizabeth Robinson, by exchange

Object number

2008.145

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, 3

DescriptionVessel with ovoid body blown of bubbly green glass (pulegoso), short neck constricting near rim and thick applied rim decorated with gold leaf. On either side of the body are applied black ribbed handles, each consisting of a vertical row of five C-scrolls with applied gold foil.

Label TextSculptor Napoleone Martinuzzi (Italian, 1892–1977) was artistic director of the Venini glass company from 1925 to 1932 and was responsible for the great success of Modernist influence in the company’s production. He conducted enthusiastic research into materials, inventing new kinds of glass and finishes as well as unusual lighting effects with bubbles and gold leaf. Venetian glass had historically been prized for its lightness and transparency (see Venetian Renaissance glass in Gallery 4). “Pulegoso” glass (from the Italian dialect word pulega, "bubble") was developed by Martinuzzi in the late 1920s. It is a glass containing numerous bubbles of all sizes, produced by adding bicarbonate of soda, gasoline, or other substances to the melt. The bubbles make the glass semi-opaque and give the surface an irregular texture. Martinuzzi’s ten-handled amphora, named “Vittoriale” for the villa of an Italian poet, remains one of the finest examples of this technique.Published ReferencesBarovier, Marina, Napoleone Martinuzzi, Padua, 2001, p. 80, fig. 21.

Venini, Blue Catalog, no. 3273, ill. no. 431 Triennale Archives (see reprint in Franco Deboni, I vetri Venini, 1921-2007).

Murano Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection, p. 61 (ill.), 2003, p. 258, no. 22.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Viva vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America. Carnegie Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 53 (ill.), and 189.