Foreword — the founding of Venini in Murano
Venini must be reckoned the most familiar name in the Italian world of artistic glass production. The company began its work in 1921 in Murano, near Venice — the beating heart of Italian glassmaking. Its founders were Paolo Venini, a lawyer from Milan, and Giacomo Cappellin, a specialist in antiques. Later, in 1925, Cappellin parted from Venini to set up his own firm. The young Venini, with Napoleone Martinuzzi as partner and artistic director, founded the new company under the name 'Venini', and from the very beginning followed a clear policy: to call upon the power of selected designers to revitalise the craft of glassmaking and open new horizons in artistic, hand-made glass.
By this means, Venini in a short time established its place as the maker of the taste of those who care for Murano glass. Between 1925 and 1930 Venini and Martinuzzi produced extraordinary designs which are still considered masterpieces by collectors of glass works at the major auction houses. Franco Venini, Paolo's brother, joined the company in the late 1920s as the head of chemical research. The colours of the glass produced by Franco were so particular and so beautiful that none of the Venice glassmakers of those years could rival the Venini work in colour-variety or quality.
Carlo Scarpa and a decade of cooperation
Among the various designers who have worked with Venini, none has been so closely tied to Venini and to glassmaking as Carlo Scarpa. Scarpa worked with Venini as a designer for a ten-year period, from 1933 to 1947, and the designs of those years form many of the classic Venini works. The art of glassmaking truly owes itself to Scarpa and Venini. The two of them, in the course of their cooperation, brought into being many techniques in glassmaking, and at the same time revived many old, forgotten techniques. Even years on, Venini's glassmakers continue to produce many of Carlo Scarpa's designs.
The post-war golden years — 1948 to 1965
The years of the Second World War were years of stagnation in glass production at Venini. With the end of the war and the start of post-war reconstruction in Europe, Venini's golden period began in 1948 and continued until 1965. In that time, many designers worked for the firm — among them Fulvio Bianconi, Massimo Vignelli, Tobia Scarpa (Carlo Scarpa's son), Ricardo Liccata, and others. There can be no doubt that Bianconi's work has a particular place. A caricaturist and glass designer, he joined Venini in 1948. Bianconi was a very creative artist with his own particular style; his designs had a great effect on the flowering of form in the Venini work. Experts hold that Carlo Scarpa's designs are wholly distinctive in the classic Venini collection, but it was Bianconi's designs that played the central role in the formation of the Venini school.
After Paolo Venini
In 1959 Paolo Venini died, and the management of the firm passed to Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, his son-in-law and the husband of Anna Venini. Both Ludovico and Anna were glass designers and both placed great emphasis on preserving the tradition of authenticity and beauty of production in tune with the modern designs of those years, as well as on inventing a semi-industrial method of producing glass that had previously been made only by experienced glassmakers blowing and shaping the molten glass paste. This method succeeded in lowering the firm's prices and so raising sales. Yet these same cheaper products are bought and sold at major European and American auction houses for several thousand dollars.
At these auctions, the highest prices for Venini products belong to two collections — the 'Faccia di Venezia' face vases and the 'Incalmo Vases' — both designs by Thomas Stearns for Venini. Stearns started at Venini as an apprentice in 1960. His creative and often unusual ideas were not much to the taste of the traditional master glassmakers at Venini, and Venini once even said of his designs: 'Stearns's designs of 1960-62 were a clear sign of his neglect of the undeniable role of good design in glass works.'
The 1972 fire and the Ferrozi era
In 1972 a great fire destroyed much of the Venini building and everything in it. Many of the firm's and the collaborating designers' designs were lost in the fire, and afterwards questions arose about the identity of the designer of many earlier-made Venini products. Venini had, from the start of its work, engraved the signature 'Venini' and 'Made in Italy' on every product. From 1971 the date of manufacture, and later — from 1982 — the designer's name too, were added to the firm's signature.
The fire also brought a slowdown in the presentation of new designs, which lasted until 1980, when Venini was bought by the Ferrozi company. In the 1980s many famous designers again worked with Venini — among them Laura Venini (daughter of Anna Venini), Dale Chihuly, Richard Marquis, Alessandro Mendini, Timo Sarpaneva, Ettore Sottsass, Gae Aulenti, and Gianni Versace.
Venini in the world of architecture
Since 1958, with its lighting elements for the Italian pavilion at the Brussels Expo, Venini has entered the world of light and architecture, and afterwards, in various architectural projects — such as the Intercontinental Plaza Hotel in Dubai, the Banca d'Italia in Trieste, and the Theater Café in Münster, Germany — has designed and executed particular lighting schemes.
Notes: 1. Venini · 2. Murano · 3. Paolo Venini · 4. Giacomo Cappellin · 5. Napoleone Martinuzzi · 6. Franco Venini · 7. Carlo Scarpa · 8. Fulvio Bianconi · 9. Massimo Vignelli · 10. Tobia Scarpa · 11. Ricardo Liccata · 12. Ludovico Diaz de Santillana · 13. Anna Venini · 14. Faccia di Venezia · 15. Incalmo Vase · 16. Thomas Stearns · 17. Ferrozi · 18. Laura Venini · 19. Dale Chihuly · 20. Richard Marquis · 21. Alessandro Mendini · 22. Timo Sarpaneva · 23. Ettore Sottsass · 24. Gae Aulenti · 25. Gianni Versace · 26. Intercontinental Plaza Hotel Dubai · 27. Banca d'Italia, Trieste · 28. Theater Café, Münster, Germany.
