Musica senza suono. I Maestri di Murano

Hiroyuki Itsuki, the famous Japanese writer, defines the art of Murano glass as “Silent Music,” made of colors, transparencies, stories, and mysteries.

This evocative phrase is now also the title of Jean Blanchaert’s book, published by Marsilio Arte, which for the first time tells the history and current state of Murano glass in a collective portrait.

“The history of Murano glass is exactly this: a story of continuous innovation that relies on ancestral gestures, but which is expressed in ever extraordinary and surprising forms, in a ‘new good way’ that, from Venice, reaches the entire world with its fame“, says Franco Cologni, president of the Cologni Foundation for the Métiers d’Art.

The magnificent microcosm of Murano glass emerges strongly, loved and admired worldwide. Musica senza suono. I Maestri di Murano describes the development of a constant and conscious stylistic innovation, which meets and nourishes a craft centuries old, presenting the main aspects of glassmaking: its deep historical roots and its versatile, metamorphic capacity.

The publication is enriched by contributions from Rosa Barovier Mentasti, David Landau, and Chiara Squarcina, along with a selection of extraordinary glass creations. Thanks to Blanchaert’s deep knowledge, Murano has generously opened its doors, telling its story to the world and revealing all, or almost all, of its secrets—an invaluable openness in a place always proud of its uniqueness and, for many, inaccessible. From Lino Tagliapietra to Silvano Signoretto, from Nicola Causin to Simone Cenedese, from Cesare Toffolo to Andrea Zilio, from Antonio Dei Rossi to Lucio Bubacco, from Davide Salvadori to Nicola Moretti and Giovanni Nicola, to Barbini Veneziani. Even the extraordinary glassmakers Barovier & Toso, Salviati, Venini, NasonMoretti, and iDOGI have chosen to share their story for the first time together in this volume.