Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The period from the later fifteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries is often described as the ‘Golden Age’ of Venetian glass. Such was the awe in which Venetian glass was held that it was reputed to have magical qualities, breaking or changing colour on contact with poison. Several of the qualities that made Venetian glass so successful are also true of magic: elements of surprise, secrecy, audacity, meticulous timing, imagination, entrepreneurship, showmanship, and the beholder’s bafflement as to how the finished product was achieved. In this whistle-stop survey of Venetian glassmaking in its ‘Golden Age’ Suzanne Higgott hopes to demonstrate these parallels.
Learn more about Venetian glass via the Wallace Collection website: wallacecollection.org/wallace-from-home/#meet-the-expert
Suzanne Higgot's recent talk, A French Renaissance Enamelled Glass, is also available via our YouTube channel: youtu.be/E2XhF8mb-yo
The period from the later fifteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries is often described as the ‘Golden Age’ of Venetian glass. Such was the awe in which Venetian glass was held that it was reputed to have magical qualities, breaking or changing colour on contact with poison. Several of the qualities that made Venetian glass so successful are also true of magic: elements of surprise, secrecy, audacity, meticulous timing, imagination, entrepreneurship, showmanship, and the beholder’s bafflement as to how the finished product was achieved. In this whistle-stop survey of Venetian glassmaking in its ‘Golden Age’ Suzanne Higgott hopes to demonstrate these parallels.
Learn more about Venetian glass via the Wallace Collection website: wallacecollection.org/wallace-from-home/#meet-the-expert
Suzanne Higgot's recent talk, A French Renaissance Enamelled Glass, is also available via our YouTube channel: youtu.be/E2XhF8mb-yo
