Abstract
By analysing the relationship between drawing and actual object, it is observed that the design of glass artefacts depends on the features of the material itself, on the processing techniques and their limits. More generally, therefore, we can say that form is the result of forces located inside the matter, as it also happens in the generation of a living organism.
For this reason the discourse on the creation and graphic representation of these objects can be approached from the point of view of biomorphism, a feature that can be found in similar artefacts on several levels: from the figurativity of the glass animals to the almost abstract shape obtained from the self-organising matter through its intrinsic forces.
It is precisely in the creations with a higher degree of abstraction that we observe the same “biomorphic” feature found in some of the major scientific and artistic studies since the 1950s, although the tradition of blown glass, with its particular processing techniques, is preserved.
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- 1.
Artistic director of Barovier Seguso Ferro, then (since 1937) Seguso Vetri d'Arte, from 1934 to 1963.
- 2.
For a glossary about Murano glass and its processing techniques, see: http://museovetro.visitmuve.it/it/il-museo/sede/glossario/, accessed on 25.02.2019 at 19.45.
- 3.
In this case, Simondon refers to an evolution that leads to “organic” artefacts that are effective in shaping and amplifying human sensibility by structuring it according to its environment as well.
- 4.
Zanfirico is a variation of filigrana (a glass tube with a coloured glass filament inside) obtained by intertwining glass tubes in various shapes.
- 5.
For the production of the pezzati vases, the tesserae obtained cutting a glass tube were placed in a mosaic and, once introduced into the oven, they were welded together forming a vitreous surface that was closed in a cylinder to be worked, through blowing and hot modelling, according to the desired shape. For the pezzati Bianconi generally adopted unusual shapes, with a flattened section, particularly irregular and characterized by soft lines, sometimes interrupted by bottlenecks and protrusions (Barovier 2016).
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Cazzaro, I. (2020). The Drawing and the Artefact: Biomorphism in the Design of Murano Glass Objects in the 20th Century. In: Cicalò, E. (eds) Proceedings of the 2nd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination. IMG 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1140. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41018-6_65
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