Large vase in pulegoso glass with ten ribbed gilded handles applied one on top of the other

Napoleone Martinuzzi is credited with one of the most revolutionary materials in the history of Novecento glass: pulegoso glass. Originally considered a defect in fabrication, the artist instead exploited the air bubble inclusions within the glass to transform it into a compact and opaque mass with spongy appearance. Some critics were initially sceptical of the introduction of this new material, whole others were more open-minded towards its heavy and solid appearance. One such latter was Carlo A. Felice, writing in Domus (1931): “Who can say what will happen when Murano glass begins changing nature so deeply, when its pristine transparency and ethereal lightness is turned into solid heaviness? Only time will tell. Either we continue along this path or we go back – in a determined moment – to the “soap bubble”. The fact of the matter is that the bowls illustrated here are still expressions worthy of respect. Looking back, either in ten years or two centuries, we will be able to say: these are the “pulegosi” wares the Venini furnace produced around 1930.”

Bibliography

Franco Deboni, Murano ’900. Vetri e vetrai, Bocca, Milan 1996, page 264, fig. 180; Franco Deboni, I vetri Venini, Allemandi, Torino 2007, vol. II, fig. 16; Marino Barovier, Napoleone Martinuzzi. Venini 1925-1931, Skira, Milan 2013, exhibition catalogue (Venice, Le Stanze del Vetro, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 8th September 2013 - 6th January 2014), page 213.