Oval vase in “laguna” glass, incamiciato (cased) glass with inclusions of gold leaf and applied rim and support foot

Even after moving to Venice for his adventure in glassmaking, Paolo Venini maintained contacts in his home town, Milan. Centre of fresh creative ferment, the city gave him the chance to frequent a group of young architects particularly active in the applied arts field. This was the birth of the Il labirinto society, whose members also included Gio Ponti, Emilio Lancia, Michele Marelli, Tomaso Buzzi, and the glassmaker Pietro Chiesa, all of whom intended to stimulate the rise of new decorative arts in Italy.

After Napoleone Martinuzzi left Venini’s service, Buzzi took his place from 1932 to 1934, making his own contribution to the experimentation of new materials and unprecedented shapes. In the opinion of the French critic Patrick Mauriès, Buzzi’s first concern was to recapture the lights, the reflections, and above all, the opalescence of the Venice lagoon in his glass. His colours are submerged in layers that resemble its sandbars and sea bottoms. If his Lagune glitter in delicately rosy hues, his Alghe explore the subtleties of unfocused and overlapping, translucent and opaque glass paste.

Bibliography

Marino Barovier (editor), Tomaso Buzzi alla Venini. Skira - Le Stanze del Vetro - Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Milan - Venice 2014, exhibition catalogue (Venice, Le Stanze del Vetro, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, September 14, 2014 - January 11, 2015), page 211.