Mosaic glass bowl, ca. 1550–1600
Violet glass, fused slices of mosaic glass, partly on gold, optical blown
(H x Ø)7 × 10,1 cm
About the workA “thousand flowers” – “millefiori” in Italian – are suspended in the bowl. This mosaic glass technique was already very evolved in the Roman Empire and was revived in the sixteenth century: small prefabricated patterned discs were fixed onto a rudimentarily blown piece of glass and incorporated repeatedly using heat. As the bowl took on its final shape, the patterns became distorted. The technique is not only typical of Venice, but also of Barcelona. Glass art there was very advanced at that time, but it was not as well documented as it was in Venice.
AccessionAcquired 1927 from the Kunstgewerbemuseum
Inventory numberP 17786
