CHAPTER XLI
VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN
If you have been in Venice then you know the Murano Museum and its
beguiling collection of Venetian glass, that old glass so vastly more
beautiful in line and decoration than the modern type of, say, fifteen
years ago, when colours had become bad mixtures, and decorations
meaningless excrescences.
A bit of inside information given out to some one really interested,
led to a revival of pure line and lovely, simple colouring, with
appropriate decorations or none at all. You may already know that
romantic bit of history. It seems that when the museum was first
started, about four hundred years ago, the glass blowers agreed to
donate specimens of their work, provided their descendants should be
allowed access to the museum for models. This contract made it a
simple matter for a connoisseur to get reproduced exactly what was
wanted, and what was not in the market. Elegance, distinguished
simplicity in shapes, done in glass of a single colour, or in one
colour with a simple edge in a contrasting shade, or in one colour
with a whole nosegay of colours to set it off, appearing literally as
flowers or fruit to surmount the stopper of a bottle, the top of a
jar, or as decorations on candlesticks.
It was in the Museo Civico of Venice that we saw and fell victims to
an enchanting antique table decoration—a formal Italian garden, in
blown glass, once the property of a great Venetian family and redolent
of those golden days when Venice was the playground of princes, and
feasting their especial joy; days when visiting royalty and the
world's greatest folk could have no higher honour bestowed upon them
than a gift of Venetian glass, often real marvels mounted in silver
and gold.
We never tired of looking at that fairy garden with its delicate
copings, balustrades and vases of glass, all abloom with exquisite
posies in every conceivable shade, wrought of glass—a veritable dream
thing! Finally, nothing would do but we must know if it had ever been
copied. The curator said that he believed it had, and an address was
given us. How it all comes back! We arose at dawn, as time was
precious, took our coffee in haste and then came that gliding trip in
the gondola, through countless canals, to a quarter quite unknown to
us, where at work in a small room, we came upon our glass blower and
the coveted copy of that lovely table-garden. This man had made four,
and one was still in his possession. We brought it back to America, a
gleaming jewelled cobweb, and what happened was that the very ethereal
quality of its beauty made the average taste ignore it! However, a few
years have made a vast difference in table, as well as all other
decorations, and to-day the same Venetian gardens have their faithful
devotees, as is proved by the continuous procession of the dainty
wonders, ever moving toward our sturdy shores.
|
