Murano city reviews with videos of the products made

We created our first website about Murano glass in 1996. With the website wwww.tintorettoglass.com

For hundreds of years the art of Murano glass making has been preciously guarded in the hands of the Murano glass masters who, from generation to generation, have passed down the secrets of the techniques and compositions to create "the color of Murano glass".

Today, in Murano, thanks to the Abate Zanetti Glass School

the knowledge and experience of local artisans are made available to those who wish to learn this centuries-old art that continues to exert an indisputable fascination.

Through the involvement of the masters of the Murano glass, of artists, artisans, professionals and some of the most prestigious Venetian institutions, the School has become a laboratory, a centre for meeting and cultural exchange on an international level.

Not only a formidable promotional tool, but also an opportunity for analysis and planning aimed at triggering new development systems and processes.

In the various workshops, the students learn how to heat-work and blow glass in a furnace, how to work with a flame, how to decorate with enamel and gold leaf, how to engrave, grind and fusing.

Far from being addressed only to those who already work in the sector, the courses activated by the Glass School Abbot Zanetti they are profoundly diversified depending on the users.

Glass School Abate Zanetti srl

During the pre-Roman era, Venice was one of the most developed cities in the upper Adriatic area and, thanks to its geographically strategic position, it was favoured in trade and consequently in the discovery of new materials such as, for example, Murano glass colored.

Venetian glassmakers stood out for their eccentric yet elegant taste, but above all for their ability to combine clearly opposite colours in the most varied forms thanks to their excellent manual skills.

Initially, the first to try their hand at working with this new material, according to ancient documents, were the Murano glassmakers:

Murano's fame exploded especially in 1291 when Venice ordered to move all the glass factories to this area in order to avoid fires: in fact these buildings were mainly built of wood.

Venice and Murano, unlike other countries where the glassworks were located in places where raw materials were produced, imported the materials, including wood.

from distant and exotic places.

The distinctive element of Murano from all other centers was the manual skill and imagination of the Murano glass masters who over time were considered as the best since the Renaissance in the various courts.

As if that were not enough, it was precisely in this period that the first glass school was developed, established to direct young talents towards technical knowledge and manual skills and the secrets of the Murano masters.

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Murano glass was particularly sought after and desired by the wealthiest and richest families in the form of transparent glass, which gave various objects (vases and glasses) a more elegant and refined appearance.

In the Baroque period there was an explosion of glass processing in the form of lattimi, that is, milk-white glass that perfectly matched Venetian furniture.

Murano glassmakers soon gained a prominent and respectable image within society with the granting and authorization to carry swords, to enjoy immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and their daughters being allowed to marry the heirs of the wealthiest families in Venice.

However, the glassmakers could not leave the Venetian Republic, and for several centuries, they maintained a monopoly on the quality of the Murano glass, on the development and refinement of manual techniques and on secrets such as crystal glass, enamelled glass, glass with gold leaf, but above all how to obtain brilliant and unique multicoloured Murano glass.

Even today, Murano artisans preserve and use these centuries-old techniques with unparalleled mastery.