Alfredo Barbini Murano Scavo Glass Pendant Fixture

Barbini was renowned for his innovation and considered one of the greatest glassmakers of the 20th century. During an 82-year career that included partnerships with Seguso, Canedese and Vistosi, he is credited with developing the vetro sommerso technique, where color or additional glass is seamlessly introduced into a larger body, and the technique applied to this pendant, known as Scavo. Italian for “excavate,” Scavo is the technique that imitates the effects caused on glass by long periods of time buried underground. The dusty Scavo reproduces this process during manufacture by dispersing a mixture of nitrates, carbonates, silica and talcum over the surface of the glass. When heated, the melting silica and talcum irreversibly adhere to the glass and render it opaque. Further heat causes the decomposition of the nitrates and carbonates, leaving what appears as corrosion on the surface of the glass. When introduced in the early 1950s and applied to archaic forms of vases and sculptures, the pieces were nearly indistinguishable from those of classical antiquity, excavated after a millennium underground. Applied to simple, more ordinary forms like these pendants in the 60s and 70s, the “scavo” technique visually enhanced the work and gave it a distinct abstract-modern quality. Antique bronze finish stem and canopy made by Venfield. There are 3 available in our NYC showroom. Priced and sold separately.