LEHAR CUORE ROSSO

The craft of the Murano master glassmaker, specializing in chandeliers, represents the pinnacle of craftsmanship. With a simple iron rod, the master moves a drop of incandescent glass paste from the vessel into the blazing furnace. The preparation of the glass is slow, and the process varies depending on the type of glass desired: for ordinary glass, the melting point must reach 1400–1600 degrees Celsius; while for crystal glass, potassium carbonate is used instead of calcium carbonate. Lead, aluminum, zinc, barium, and carbon dioxide are added to increase rigidity and prevent the glass from becoming brittle over time.

The master glassmaker has no model in front of him, only his skill and imagination help him. He puts the long tube in his mouth and, with the energy of his lungs, the sparkling glass ball swells, bends, expands and takes on the desired shape. A spatula, pliers and a pair of scissors are some of the tools he uses to crush, flatten, cut, pull, bend and twist. After patiently subjecting the glass to a great number and variety of operations, the work of art leaves the hands of the master, perfect, and is placed with all the other works of the day in a long cooling tunnel called "ara" before being allowed to leave the factory. 

The oldest and most authentic examples of Murano glass that have reached us date back only to the mid-15th century and consist of goblets and glasses with a large glass surface in bright colours of ruby ​​red, cobalt blue and emerald green, on which the master painted profane scenes, erotic episodes, portraits of married couples looking at each other, etc.

But the true glory of transparent blown glass, Venetian "crystal", came only between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. The most beautiful pieces of blown glass were produced by the Murano factories in this period and can be admired in public and private collections in Italy and abroad, and reproduced in paintings by Titian, Veronese and Bonifazio de' Pitati.  

The historical families of glass blowers for Murano chandeliers are the following: Barovier, Toso, Ferro, Salviati, Fuga, Seguso, Radi, and all the furnaces that were opened, each of which is a real factory of Murano chandeliers.