Artwork Details
- Title
- Vase with Dolphins and Flowers
- Manufacturer
- Compagnia di Venezia e Murano (CVM)
- Date
- ca. 1880s-1890s
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 20 1⁄2 × 8 1⁄8 in. (52.1 × 20.6 cm) diam.
- Credit Line
- Gift of John Gellatly
- Mediums Description
- blown and applied hot-worked glass
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Object — other — vase
- Object Number
- 1929.8.469.1
Artwork Description
This tall vase showcases many glassmaking techniques and decorative features admired by American tourists in the late nineteenth century. Its trumpetlike form suggests the action of glassblowing, with the artist's breath extending molten material into an elegant, fluted cone. A trio of dolphins and chrysanthemums rings the stem, each meticulously constructed, attached, and shaped over an open flame. Flowers and sea creatures were favorite decorative elements in Venetian glassware of the seventeenth century, when the island city reigned as Queen of the Adriatic with a strong navy and trading empire.
By replicating complicated and fragile historical designs on a large scale, the creator of this vase declares that a new generation of glassmakers is determined to revive Venice's signature craft tradition, matching and perhaps surpassing earlier success. Their creations soon caught the eyes of American collectors.
Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, 2021.
