The Venetian glass, the Venetian lace, the Venetian masks - this is perhaps the main characters of the world “handwork, made in Venice”. What is it valued these things? Why are they so popular both among tourists and collectors? What's special about them? Let's understand.

Let's begin with the Venetian lace. The Venetian lace comes from the island of Burano, one of the Venetian lagoon islands (it is located in 9 km. from Venice).

It is said that the first masters-lace have appeared in monasteries and they knitted ornaments for altars. . And as monasteries were institutions, we will tell so, not absolutely public it promoted that the lace makers could exchange new patterns and receptions basically with each other, as has generated, finally, special school of the Venetian lace.   It is necessary to tell that laces were woven in Venice and earlier, but with monasteries blossoming (approximately by XV century) and the lace art has flourished in Venice. Soon the lace began to be used not only for an ornament of church attributes, but also for quite secular purposes – for furnish of clothes, table and bed-clothes etc. And the well-known Venetian merchants have extended this lace which was appreciated very expensively, all over the world. By the way, just those years and just in Venice has appeared, as one of the Venetian lace varieties, a tulle or guipure. And in general, Venetian lace is made up of tiny stitches, done with a simple needle with a thread, without a cloth base. Although what is the real Venetian lace, you can see by yourself:

On island of Burano there are a lace School (Scuola di Merletti) and a lacework Museum (Museo del Merletto di Burano). The lace museum has been opened in 1981 in old lacework school building, based in 1871. Now the museum, unfortunately, is closed for restoration works till spring of 2010, but you can always receive the detailed information on its work and exhibitions at the museum's official website: http://www.museiciviciveneziani.it/frame.asp?pid=58&musid=13&sezione=musei  

It is necessary to notice that in Italy there are many lacework museums. Besides a museum on island of Burano, there are museums in Milan (Museo Poldi Pezzoli), in Venice (Museo IRE). There is a museum near to Genoa, in Rapallo (Museo del merletto - Villa Tigullio) and in Modena (Musei Civici - Raccolta Gandini), in Firentse (Museo di Palazzo Davanzati) and Offide (Museo del merletto). And this is not an exhaustive list.  By the way, there is a lace school, where you can learn how to make the Venetian lace, in Venice itself, not far from Piazza San Marco, not only on the island of Burano.

 Let's talk about the Venetian glass. Italians themselves call it the Murano glass because the island of Murano is precisely the center of Venice glass industry for many centuries.

Glass is the second (after bronze) among all oldest artificial materials. There is the Murano glass history information on hundreds sites, therefore we will not go into its details.   Let's tell only that glass workshops in Venice have appeared short time after Venice inception (in IX), that the first-ever exhibition has been arranged by Venetian glass blowers still in XIII century and that since then the Murano glass manufacturing techniques have changed a little: all subjects (from a mirror to a bead), are blown by masters-glass blowers manually, have not dyes in the glass mass – only minerals and gold and silver powder are added. Generally, in the Murano glass production history were not women-glass blowers, the unique forewoman – Elena Rosso, has appeared already today (there are some more women, working at beads factory, but not in foundry manufacture). It is hard business – to melt a mass in a furnace at one thousand degrees and then to blow hanging frequently quite heavy subjects. However, you can see for yourself how it works:

The flowering of the Murano glass production falls on XV-XVI centuries when in all Europe royal houses Murano glass subjects occupied the place of honor, and Venetian glass mirrors were appreciated much more expensively than most well-known artists’ paintings. Many genuine masterpieces made at various times from glass, are stored today in the island of Murano Glass Museum (Museo Vetrario di Murano) about which we already told in this site pages. We will present only short photo sketch about this museum:

By the way, about other glass museums you can read in our site pages also.

It is impossible to imagine Venice without a carnival, and the Venetian carnival – without masks. The Venetian masks – not only the art, but also the whole ritual. There are some versions of the Venetian masks origin: on one of them masks in Venice began to be used as a protection frame from a plague, on another – in order to keep anonymity in a city, famous at that time with a sexual dissoluteness. There are versions similar to legends; there are these that resemble the truth. However, it is known for certain that in XIII century masks wearing among Venice inhabitants became the widespread phenomenon: : the masked conclude trade deals, go on dates, even nuns wore masks. In the end, the Roman authorities have allowed to Venetians to be masked only three months in a year, since December, 26th. . Over time, this period has decreased and now the Venetian masks invade Venice streets, only during the famous Venetian Carnival:

Venetian masks can be made of leather, but in our time the most common mask material is a papier-mâché. A mask basis is made from it, after drying a mask is hand painted and decorated with sequins, feathers, and rhinestones like this:

If you want to make a mask independently, we recommend you an Internet resource www.maskmakersweb.org  which contains a lot of helpful information: various manufacturing techniques, video, masks samples photo, books, links etc.   

 And let’s speak traditionally about museums. Imagine that in the world masks museums (including – Venetian) exist too, and there are a lot of them. For example, international masks museum in Germany where more than 2000  exhibits are stored, or masks Museums in Sardinia, Italy, and in Belgium. If you want to read about similar museums more in detail – all information is in our section “Museums of masks”.