|
|
| Lead-crystal glass in literature |
"... like one of those miraculous flowers which spring from slender, misshapen shrubs, so was the goblet that was held aloft by the bent figure of the man who had created it.
Truly beautiful, and mysterious, in the way that natural things are, bearing in its hollowed interior the stamp of human breath, human life, emulating the waters and the skies in its transparency, with its purple rim similar to the jellyfish which float in the seas, simple and pure, with no ornament other than that marine-like rim, with no appendage other than its base and rim; and nobody could have said why it was so beautiful, neither with one word nor with a thousand.
And its value was nil, or incalculable, according to the qualities of the eye that gazed at it." |
|
|
Rather than an industry dictated by necessity, the making of glass, and afterward of lead-crystal glass, has always been regarded as a form of art, nothing more and nothing less.
In the example quoted above, taken from 'Il Fuoco' ('Fire') by Gabriele D'Annunzio, a whole paragraph is devoted to the description of a glass-works and the skill of the glass-workers, creators of fragile work in the hands of experts,
"... prudent, hands reddened with scars and burn marks, expressive forms of skill and precision [...] true instruments of a delicate art, perfected through inheritance by the uninterrupted practice of several industrious generations.".
|
It is thus laborious work which becomes poetry and art, because, in a burning hot environment which resembles a scene out of Dante’s 'Inferno', it creates objects of the utmost beauty and refinement.
|
Another stirring passage in literature comes from a contemporary writer, Corrado Alvaro, writing about a visit he made to a glass-works.
"... they glimpsed antique forms, ancient forms, from our childhood or from countries we have visited, or which we have seen in a museum somewhere, forms known to the Phoenicians, repeated century after century, behind the inspiration of an unknown craftsman who found that first measure of a breath blown down the glass-blower’s tube..."
Precious objects, that bear witness to our culture, and to a tradition which at times is still based on the skill of the craftsman, but also an industrial production which is in no way less prestigious.
|
|
|
"Life is like a comedy: it doesn't matter how long it is, what's important is how it is acted out."
Seneca, Philosopher (5 BC - 65 AD)
|
|
|
