TRADITIONS A New Transparency P Since the Middle Ages, has been both beloved E and reviled for its strange shapes, odd colors and secretive techniques. Now, a new O generation of international artisans is referencing and P resurrecting the Italian craft.

By Nancy Hass Photographs by Hugo Yu L Prop Styling by Chloe Daley E P RADICAL INSULARITY WAS for centuries a way of life on Murano, a small island less than a mile north of . After the monumental glass L furnaces that operated during the Middle Ages were moved there from the city in 1291 to sequester frequent fires, the government required workers to remain cloistered on the island to raise their families A through the generations. These glass dynasties elevated the medium’s aesthetic with chandeliers, named bought a glass operation with chalices and mirrors, achieving along the way the Venetian antiques dealer Giacomo Cappellin, C a degree of nobility, but their comings and goings convincing artisans to focus on clean lines and were strictly monitored so trade secrets wouldn’t saturated hues like violet, sapphire, cranberry and leak; even then, globalization was a threat. Venetian emerald. In 1932, Venini hired Carlo Scarpa, a E merchants had learned glassmaking largely from then 26-year-old Venetian who would later become the Muslim world more than a century before, but one of ’s most important architects. Scarpa, they preferred to keep their lessons from the Silk who was soon joined by a young , another Road a one-way street. future Italian design legend, would help create the S Of course, like sand, the main component of lexicon and shapes we now think of as Murano: glass, such expertise was impossible to fully contain. frosted ribbing on translucent orbs, volcanic colors, Murano lost its dominance by the 18th century, as corroded effects that resemble distressed wood countries including France, England and Germany or iridescent fish scales. Murano glass from that era perfected their own glass industries; Napoleon remains coveted by collectors and designers, T Bonaparte’s 1797 takeover and dissolution of the but the following decades were less fruitful: Since city-state — he shuttered most of the furnaces, the end of the 20th century, more than half of the leaving only bead-making and simple island’s industrial operations have shut down, Contemporary Murano- — was the final indignity. leaving about 100 ateliers. Most of the remaining H inspired works, clockwise Fifty years later, local industrialists such as glassmakers are older than 70, and the younger from top left: Stories of Italy black-and-white Antonio , whose eponymous company still generation is largely uninterested in spending long reversible vase, about maintains a presence on the island, tried to bring days in front of red-hot, 2,000-degree ovens I $260, storiesofitaly.com; Murano back, but it wasn’t until after World War I on a spit of land with about 5,000 inhabitants. Hawkins New York Confetti double old-fashioned glass, that the industry once again found its purpose, $14, hawkinsnewyork.com; reborn as “art glass.” Murano wares of the later IN RECENT YEARS, though, a group of international Jonah Takagi Brut vessel, N Middle Ages had been either optically clear (a style designers and artists has rediscovered the innate $1,900, ateliertakagi.com; Hawkins New York Confetti called ) or pale (lattimo), featuring curlicues modernity of Italian blown glass, turning to Murano highball tumbler, $16. and frippery, but in 1921, a Milanese lawyer as inspiration and, in some cases, as a practical G S 34 T: THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS TRADITIONS of hismulticolor Hughes makeone Andrew O.artist tmagazine.com. glass vases, visit Murano-style Murano-style To watch the Diptyque andthe for thecandlemaker and vases create several makersto with island, working travel to the weekly own studio. Now, they decided to opentheir pair’s firstvasesstore inherMilan in 2015, they the designer Viviennedisplayed Westwood fashion the with thecountry’s deep handmadetraditions. After avant-gardean era whentheItalian found a kinship to themrepresentedwhich Murano glass, century to more elemental crafts, especially mid-20th- Italy’s fashion scene, buttheyfelt increasingly drawn design inFlorence, spent careers theirearly in who met in 2000whilestudying business partners, conscious polish. of manufactured rejection The withtheisland’sworking symbolizes a artisans brand Stories of Italy,both 39, who run the Milanese is notlikeanywhere else,” says. Nichetto the world what itisto have how these craftsmen, it etching. “I explain to people I work withall over more intricately, enablingwildshapesandcomplex the material —soit can beworked of nature the sodium oxide, nitrate andotherminerals, changes of sand, ofeach type aswell astheproportion hotter longerbecauseofits unique ingredients — decoration isapplied. Murano glass, he says, stays spinning theglobesasmolten liquidglass with aubergine waves, vertical which he makesby for instance, hisfishbowl-size Rotea pendant from hereturns thekilns, to Murano to produce, decorated who works that emerged mother a of as thegrandson ofa master glassblower andtheson and Stockholm Venice. andraised ontheisland Born designer with studios inboth multidisciplinary in theblood,” says Luca Nichetto, a44-year-old place to fabricate ambitious objects. “I have Murano For Buratto Dario Antonacci, andMatilde Other recentOther works, from left: spartan-shop.com; Oro gold-leaf glasses, $410 medium vase, about $260. Murano Glam Serenissima .com; ivory,Italy green andblue for setofsix, artemest Confetti bottle, $280, Andrew O. Hughes

Stories of

work sideby sidewith them. They are your hands.” 15 to become amaster at this. They want you to read emails, whomaybe stopped goingto schoolat email,” says Buratto. are peoplewhodon’t“These gothere insteadactually ofjust sending a sketch by Orientalhotel inParis.Mandarin “You have to most soulfully mysterious ofthemall.” mystery,”certain he says, Murano isthe deepest, “but vibrant, whipsawed history. “Glass, by nature, has a greens andlusciouspinksthat conjure the island’s features rounded bottoms anda cascade ofdeep of vases he crafted last year for ashow inNew York iterating uponexisting objects.) at island’s(The fabricators,skilled unsurprisingly, are to have produced for Guild, theirTriBeCastore. retail Standefer andStephen Alesch later took to Murano prototypes ofcandleholdersthat thefounders Robin New York-based interior design to firm, blow recently was askedby andWilliams, Roman the and that an aesthetic rediscovery.” has sparked He the world perceive the place asmore welcoming, happen now,” hesays. “People who blow glass around technical questions. “Idon’t thinkthat would ofDesign but refusedIsland School to answer any family camefor ademonstration at theRhode student, one of the members of anancient Murano among the islands’ glassmakers. When Hughes was a interiors, anincreasing openness to outsiders for of glass inan era ofpared-down theluminosity to several abit of ceramic factors: fatigue, adesire 42, attributes interest contemporary inMurano ruby echothosefound intheVenini archives. confetti-like motifs inintense tangerine, and marigold other glassmakershadpreviously used; their molds created from bitsofcastoff materials that that vessels includes geometric made in ceramic Takagi, for instance, recently released a collection 41-year-old Washington, D.C.-based designer Jonah coloration. élanandfervid of modernist The a state ofmindthan a place ofpilgrimage, asymbol FOR OTHER DESIGNERS

Hughes’s work hasevolved in tandem: The series Andrew O. Theglass artist Brooklyn-based Hughes, , however, Murano is more

Andrew O. Hughes. Andrew says the artist rediscovery,’ aesthetic an sparked has that welcoming, and Murano as more perceive world the around glass blow who ‘People

PROP ASSISTANT: HOANG DINH. BOTH STORIES OF ITALY VASES ARE PART OF THE MACCHIA SU MACCHIA COLLECTION