IMAGE DETAILS

Marc Heiremans

Dino Martens (Venice, 1894-1970)
For Aureliano Toso
Murano, Italy, 1953
Oriente Rubinio (model 5242)
Free-blown glass decorated with enclosed ground glass, flattened zanfirico pieces and transparent coloured glass squares
H 34 cm x Ø 14.5 cm
Provenance: acquired from an important German collection
Literature: Heiremans M, Dino Martens, Muranese glass designer, Stuttgart 1999, Heiremans M, Vetreria Aureliano Toso, Murano 1938-1968, Stuttgart 2016
Exhibitions: XXVIa Espoizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venice 1952; Vidros de Murano em Lisboa, Lisbon 1961

The present object represents not only the Muranese fifties in full splendor by the combination of bold primary colors but is on its own also emblematic for the glass designs of the Venetian painter Dino Martens. Technically seen, it is the culmination of Martens experiments in coloring glass through ground glass. This series was presented as the 'Oriente', named after their vivid coloring - at the time a novelty on Murano - which reminded Martens of his years in East Africa. The line was firstly presented at the XXVI Biennial of Venice in 1952. Though seemingly arbitrarily, the composition - which consists of ground glass, transparent colored glass squares, flattened zanfirico canes and fragments of broken reticello vessels - was first carefully arranged on a flat surface before being heated and picked-up with a colorless blown form. Iconic because designed by a painter, alien to glass making.