In our last Blog we talked about my mentor and dear friend Franco Albertini who owned the furnace La Fenice in Murano. The furnace was in the gardens of the palazzo da Mulla one of the last remnants of Venetian villas built in Murano in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Today WAVE is breathing new life into the historic furnace with 15 workers and the owner Roberto Beltrami. Beltrami is not from Murano and rubs a few people the wrong way that he has the money necessary and talent to run a furnace. From my view point, he is employing 15 workers, he has studied, first science and then glass blowing.
You can watch the interview on CBS here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/meet-the-designer-turning-classic-venetian-glass-into-modern-art/. A few glass blowers are whining that he is not Muranese. I only wish to point out that Antonio Salviati from the famous Salviati furnace in Murano was a lawyer by education from the nearby city of Vicenza.
He went on to open a glass furnace in 1859in Murano along with Lorenzo Radi and produced the mosaic glass for the altar screen at Westminster Abby. He and his friend Austen Henry Layard founded Compagnia Venezia Murano and together they changed the face of business becoming the first glass factory to employ a number of skilled workers (glass blowers) to mass-produce glass for export.
While Murano had been a glassmaking centre since the European Middle Ages, in the 19th century the industry was revitalized by Salviati and others who adapted traditional skills to modern manufacturing processes. Salviati’s firm helped promote glass as an accessible art form and encouraged the public to collect glass ornaments and tableware. This effort rekindled the interest and the furnaces of Murano.
So as a number of local glass blowers whine about Beltrami’s money and belittle that he is not a “Muranese”, many of these are the same glassblowers who happily fly to the US, Japan or elsewhere to teach the secrets of making Murano Glass lining their pockets with money and enjoying being treated as a celebrity and leaving the story of Murano Glass with others who are NOT “Muranese”.
I applaud him for creating jobs in Murano, for continuing the art form. And I can’t think of a more appropriate place than the historic La Fenice on Fondamenta Mula. I believe Franco would be happy knowing that the fires still burn.
If you are going to Murano, visit his website and you can schedule a tour or even a glass lesson.
Thank you for your common sense and logical update. But I doubt it will reach the whiners 🙁 I hope others share your perspective.
Thanks Janet, change is slow on the island. That’s the good and the bad!