Venice, Glass, and the Mamluks

There is no commodity more associated with Venice than glass. The glass produced by the artisans of Murano is still highly valued today as the techniques, forms, and styles they have developed over their many centuries of operation are wholly unique and dazzling. However, in the Late Middle Ages, Murano glassmakers had not yet developed this unique style and were rather borrowing and sometimes imitating glasswares produced by their Muslim neighbors in the Mediterranean, primarily those originating in Mamluk Syria and Egypt.

Description of the Glass Jug

This glass jug made in Murano is quite large at 19 cm. tall and 18.5 cm. wide. It was produced sometime between 1475-1525 and is today kept in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The jug features enamel artwork of a lion rampant on a grass field within a roundel outlined in red and white as well as some gilding that depicts the sun and its rays. The top and bottom of the jug are decorated with blue, red, and white dots and the jug also features an ornate handle for pouring. The jug appears to be very sturdy and stable due to its flared base and conically indented bottom, allowing it sit flat atop a table without much risk of tipping over.

Techniques of Medieval Glassmaking

This technique of indenting the bottom of the glass for extra stability was developed in the glass workshops of Medieval Syria using a metal tool called a soffietta. The soffietta was pressed into the bottom of the glass while still hot to provide that conical indent, which had the effect of minimizing the amount of surface area on the bottom of the glass so it would sit more stably on a surface while filled with liquid. It is likely this technique was picked up by Venetians abroad in Syria and brought back to Venice, where it was put to use as early as the late-13th century when the Venetian glass industry first moved to the island of Murano.

Styles and Motifs

The glass is also decorated in a way similar to contemporary Islamic glasswares. First, the artwork on the glass jug is organized in horizontal registers is much the same way Mamluk Syrian bonham glasses were organized as well as Mamluk Egyptian glass lamps. Furthermore, the Murano glass jug uses similar hues of yellow, blue, red, and green to many contemporary or earlier Mamluk glasswares such as the Luck of Edenhall. However, the Murano jug differs in its use of animal imagery where Mamluk glasses typically were decorated with elaborate Kufic scripts and sometimes human figures. This represents a local Venetian development, possibly due to Venetians’ love for lion imagery as the winged lion was the emblem of the city and its patron saint, St. Mark.

Conclusions: Origins of a Modern Glass Powerhouse

Though Murano glass is today seen as the apex of luxury glasswares by many experts and connoisseurs of fine glass, the earliest glassares of Murano were largely based on Mamluk glasswares, which were more highly valued in this time. The techniques and programs of imagery used in Murano mirrored those of Mamluk Syria and Egypt as Venetian glass makers attempted to capture their share of the Mediterranean glass market, particularly in Europe. However, once they established themselves in this market, they innovated their own forms and styles, such as the cristallo style, which became even more popular and sought after than Syrian and Egyptian glass.

Bibliography

• Jacoby, David. “Raw Materials for the Glass Industries of Venice and the Terraferma, About 1370-About 1460.” Journal of Glass Studies 35 (1993): 65-90.
• McCray, W. Patrick. Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice: The Fragile Craft. Routledge, 1999.