Coppa Nuvola

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Object Name: 
Bowl
Title: 
Coppa Nuvola
Accession Number: 
2009.3.37
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 21.4 cm, W: 35.3 cm, D: 27.4 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
2001
Credit Line: 
Gift of Vernon and Shirley Hill
Web Description: 
Giampaolo Seguso began his career in glass by working in the studio of his father, the widely respected maestro Archimede Seguso. Archimede, who designed and made work for his own glasshouse, Seguso Vetri d’Arte, is a well-known name in 20thcentury Italian glass. Giampaolo worked with him for nearly 30 years, learning the historical culture of glassmaking along with his father’s exceptional techniques. He founded his own glassworks, Seguso Viro, in 1993. The series “La Ragnatela” is the second part of a three-part project that Seguso calls “La Galleria dei 99.” Each part of the project has its own theme inspired by the history of Murano, its glass, and its decorative techniques. The project is documented in books that illustrate the 33 glass objects of each series, which is limited to 99 editions. The first part of Seguso’s project explored the technique that is known as incalmo. In this process, two identical bubbles of glass—most often of different colors—are joined together on the blowpipe. The second part, “La Ragnatela,” examines the techniques of filigrana (“filigree” glass decorated with white or colored canes) and murrine. The word ragnatela (spider web) refers to the long, thin lines and complex patterns of Seguso’s filigrana vases. The third and final part of the series, “I Sogni” (Dreams), will explore the topic of creativity within tradition. Signed: “GPaulo Seguso/Murano1996” and edition number on base. The series is published in Rosa Barovier Mentasti, La Galleria dei 99: La Ragnatela, [Italy]: NOS, 2001.
Series: 
La Ragnatela
Provenance: 
Hill, Vernon, Source
2009-08-05
Hill, Shirley, Source
2009-08-05
Material: 
Inscription: 
GPaolo Seguso / Murano 1996 / 53/99 / "Nuvola"
signature
Engraved On underside of base in script
Primary Description: 
Colorless, and opaque white glass; blown, filigrana technique. Large oval shaped bowl decorated overall with intersecting white filigrana canes.
La Ragnatela/The Spiderweb: Works by Giampaolo Seguso from the Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Bellarmine Museum of Art 2014-04-10 through 2014-06-13
La Ragnatela (or "spider web") refers to the characteristically long, thin, lines and complex patterns of filigrana vases. A glass-making technique that was invented in 1527, filigrana consists of preparing parallel glass canes that are then melted into a mass of incandescent glass, creating perfect geometrical shapes in net and spiral-lie patterns. It is still practiced today by the master glass-maker Giampaolo Seguso, whose family has been making glass on the Venetian island of Murano for more than 600 years. The second part of the three-part project Seguso calls "La Galleria dei 99," La Ragnatela is documented in an eponymous book that beautifully illustrates the 33 glass objects in this series; each of which is accompanied by one of Seguso's evocative poetic mediations on the complexities of moral existence, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of the human spirit. Examples of all 33 vases will be on view (on loan from the Corning Museum of Glass) together with copies of the creator's poetry.
La Ragnatela/The Spiderweb: Works by Giampaolo Seguso from The Corning Museum of Glass (2014-04) illustrated, p. 3;