PANTONE 505

This catalogue is intended to provide a brief history

of our furnace and a preview of our extensive

collection. We hope it serves as an invitation to

browse our gallery online and to visit our ancient

furnace in Murano, Venice. We are always happy

to welcome visitors because we love what we do; we

are proud of our art and our heritage and we enjoy

demonstrating our skills to the rest of the world.

4 OSCARZANETTI

8 CALCEDONIO

18 SCULPTURE

23 HORSES

28 FISH

34 GOLD

38 BIRDS

46 ARTISTS

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Oscar Zanetti was born in 1961 into one of the historic families of Murano. His family was one of the first to move to Murano from Venice when, at the end of the thirteenth century, it was decided to relocate all the furnaces to this island for safety reasons. The coat-of-arms of the Zanetti family – representing a fox and a snake – may be seen in the frieze on the Glass Museum, an institution that owes its foundation in 1861 to a member of the Zanetti family. The abbot, Vincenzo Zanetti, devoted his efforts to sustain and promote the art of glass and founded the School of Glass in 1862.

Both Oscar’s father and grandfather were Glassmasters. Oscar’s grandfather, after whom he was named, was a Glassmaster for Venini and opened his own furnace, in 1956, on the Fondamenta Vetrai with his son Licio, Oscar’s father. Licio had

worked for Venini, Cenedese and Alfredo Barbini, and soon became an artist renowned for his creations and for his collaboration with famous artists such as Raul Goldoni, Enzo Scarpa, Fulvio Bianconi and Libero Vitali. Though the furnace represented a future anticipated by many young men on Murano throughout the past century, Oscar was not attracted to it immediately; at the age of twelve he took a job in a metal-working shop. His subsequent introduction to glass was gradual: it began with lamp-work, with which he created objects, figures and animals, and continued with his experience in an actual “piazza” at Barovier & Toso. In that glasshouse, whose specialty was in the production of chandeliers, Oscar’s passion developed quickly and his predilection for the profession soon became evident. He began at the entry level of “garzone”, but was simultaneously offered the

opportunity to act as “servente” and within two years he had acquired a remarkable level of expertise. It was then, in the early Eighties, that his father Licio summoned him to work with him, and this represented a new beginning. It meant a change from blown glass to solid glass – which is still the distinctive characteristic of the production by Vetreria Zanetti – where the glass to be gathered weighed ten times more, where a different technique was required and, what’s more, there was a relationship to be built with his father.

Still today, Oscar remembers coming to know his father in the furnace, and how Licio would challenge him, without getting involved too closely: “At a certain point he assigned me as servente to a glassmaster who was devoid of talent; when he left, I was told I could try to replace him”. Thus, within six years, in 1989, Oscar

Oscar Zanetti, the artist and the FUrnace

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“Only iFyOU are the master OF the glass will yOU trUly be able tO create”

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technique, abstract figures with the purity of clear glass and the depth of calcedonio.It is the combination of experience and knowledge that allows each piece to be conceived and then created; both exist in the mind of the maestro long before they appear on the tip of the blowpipe. If the point of departure must necessarily be an idea and a sketch, what becomes crucial is how it is transferred to the material. Not because of the change from two-dimensional paper to the three-dimensional piece, but because this is glass: it does not allow you to erase your mistakes and above all it demands and imposes a time limit and a sequence of precise steps.

What must take place in Oscar’s mind is thus a ‘pre-conception’, both of the work and how it will be created, of its end and its beginning, from the composition of the “partìa”, the glass mixture, to when it is gathered, shaped and finished. “When you start a piece you must know what to do, how and where to start and where to go. The form is what counts most, more than the colours, which do inexorably characterize it”. Though this ability to see with the mind’s eye may be recognized as a skill, it does nothing to lessen the emotion that the maestro feels towards his own work, in particular towards new and unique creations. This is a poetry with its own rituals, generated time

became a maestro, with his own piazza, and his own assistants. But in this profession, he often repeats, “you never stop learning”.

As anyone who approaches this most peculiar medium knows, the relationship with glass is a lengthy evolution that is nurtured by the sacrifice of a lifetime. “You enter the furnace at a very young age, and you develop the passion. You end up neither wanting nor being able to ever let go of it again. It is a learning experience in which the shaping process between material and man is mutual. You must guide the glass, not let it dominate you; only if you are the master of the glass will you truly be able to create.” Licio used

to repeat to his son. ‘Guide’: this is not a matter of domination, but of knowledge, acquired through a slow and meticulous process of familiarization, at the end of which it is realised there is a ‘limit’ that coincides with the essence of glass itself, to which the maestro sometimes must “surrender”. Only when the fundamental character of the material is understood, when glass is respected for what it is, can it shaped and worked. “If you gather ‘him’ on the blowpipe, ‘he’ will fall off; you are the one who must make him turn and go where you want. But some pieces are technically impossible and there are times when you must

abandon a project because it is simply not made for glass”. Oscar states these words not with a tone of defeat but with the serenity of a man who has reached maturity, both professionally and personally.

This maturity that has allowed Oscar to produce, especially after the Nineties (in his furnace in Fondamenta Serenella, which he opened in 1993 when his father retired from the profession), not only sculptures responding to a more generally accepted taste, but original works that have been acclaimed by connoisseurs from around the world: torsos of women and lovers, animals prized for their colours and the complexity of their

and time again to lead the material to its form; a poetry that has now touched Oscar’s young son, Andrea.Traditionally the maestro serves as a director, a conductor who coordinates and supervises the piazza from his position at the centre; Oscar does so too, but without a hint of the veneration that was the heritage of a time when, he smiles, “… the glass

master alone, and no one else, was allowed to marry a noblewoman though not himself a nobleman”.The mutual respect and understanding that one learns from dealing with glass are the same qualities that become crucial in the relationship between the master and his assistants. The creation of the work depends on the understanding between the members of the

piazza and the skill of the artist: “It is important for the master to understand glass, to make himself understood and to be understood; the piazza needs to be aware of the way the master works, because each master is different, as is each furnace”. This broad understanding is in fact what distinguishes each furnace: it is a question of language, methods and gestures, which determine how natural the working process is. It all becomes visible in this furnace,

located just a few steps from the Colonna. Those who visit will be party to a dialogue which coincides with the birth of a sculpture, between the kiln, the “fornin” and the workbench “scagno”.

It is not surprising that similar principles of the furnace are useful at another level, in the relationships and collaborations that have progressively been established between Oscar and artists such as Stefan Szecsny, Eva Moosbrugger,

Elvira Bach, Margherita Serra and in particular today with Bruno Pedrosa, Rodica Tanasescu Vanni and Guido Pettenò. These are artists from a variety of backgrounds who produce their original works in other media, but have found in this maestro the opportunity to experiment and indulge their facination in glass. An opportunity used by Oscar to broaden his own inspiration and creation; a virtuous circle of art.This is the substance of Oscar’s

works. In their richness and variety of forms, in the purity of their transparent lines, they reflect themselves and the specific human and productive environment at the heart of which stands the Glassmaster, and where it is impossible to distinguish the work from its history, the glass from the man. These are the elements that nurture the greatest tradition of glass art.

“it is impOrtant FOr the master tO Understand glass, tO make himselF UnderstOOd and tO be UnderstOOd”

“when yOU start a piece yOU mUst knOw what tO dO, hOw and where tO start and where tO gO.”

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tangomaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Licio Zanetti

CQ55 x 34 cm

8

calcedOniO

If glass carries its own limits within, it is also true that

these limits paradoxically have no end. Calcedonio

offers the most expressive illustration of this fact: it

is a dark and opaque vitreous material, characterized

by the infinite variations of its nuances, which not

even the most skilled of masters can predict. This

is a recipe based on silver nitrate and other ‘secret’

components, invented in the fifteenth century and

long forgotten; it was rediscovered in the twentieth

century and owes its name to the chromatic

richness that is reminiscent of calcedonio quartz.

Oscar began to experiment with calcedonio several years ago, fascinated by the impossibility of a totally

controlled and predictable, though always astounding, result which “could be achieved no other way, not

even by mixing all the colours in the fire. The chromatic variety is perhaps more similar to that which a

painter might achieve, but I believe that no other art has a palette similar to calcedonio in a single material”.

Oscar prefers to let the colour speak for itself, and thus he favors ample forms and flat surfaces for this

glass, often combining the calcedonio with transparent glass which allows him to fully capture and

intensify the variations on all sides. Such is the genesis of forms like the boats or ballerinas that stretch

out and extend into space, the ribbons whose curls and folds seem to pursue the endless nuances in the

glass; figures of animals, such as seagulls with their wings spread to sustain one another, or rays whose

bodies seem to reflect the light that filters under the surface of the sea. Or again, abstract forms that

multiply the reflections, spirals suspended like dancing creatures, balancing acts of points and spheres;

or couples of lovers, and women gathered unto themselves, as if to contemplate their own glass substance.

calcedonio

13www.zanettimurano.com

Fantasmamaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Licio Zanetti

GR74 x 20 cm

pesce gattomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZM005-CG45 x 30 cm

arcobalenomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z7-G30 x 21 cm

barca a Velamaestro Oscar Zanetti design by Oscar Zanetti

ZV122375 x 50 cm

ZV1223-P62 x 42 cm

calcedonio1�

testuggine grandemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV116411 x 55 cm

mantemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV118350 x 80 cm

marlinmaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Licio Zanetti

DN-M-G79 x 45 cm

1�calcedonio www.zanettimurano.com1�

nastromaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV1237110 x 30 cm

incontromaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV122657 x 36 cm

spiralemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z20-G28 x 18 cm

mezzelunemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

BH-G70 x 29 cm

sassomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z1-G21 x 16 cm

sassomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z2-G21 x 16 cm

sassomaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Oscar Zanetti

Z3-G21 x 16 cm

www.zanettimurano.com18

conchigliamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

24616-G12 x 29 cm

essemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z45-G45 x 17 cm

calcedonio

conchigliamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

24583-G10 x 30 cm

conchigliamaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Oscar Zanetti

24584-G11 x 33 cm

corridamaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Licio Zanetti

DQ29 x 43 cm

panteramaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ6058 x 38 cm

scUlptUre

From a very early age, Oscar revealed a natural inclination to create and

to shape. Glass provided him with the medium that allows him still today

to experiment and create new shapes. The use of clear glass, in particular,

underscores the artist’s formal research because, almost paradoxically, the

greater the transparency, the more clear-cut the lines appear, and the fuller the

volumes. Developing twentieth century influences with originality, thanks to

the drawings of his father Licio in part, and inspired by his collaborations with

many artists, Oscar creates couples of lovers and figures of women in which the

single parts; the head, the arms, the torso, the legs, blend together just as they

seem to stand out distinctly; or abstract transfigurations of action (Corrida), or

natural elements (Rainbow) or even spatial elements, such as the exceptional

Riccio and abstract works, entitled Astratti, which transmit

a sense of being indefinite because they seem to

reproduce the moment of a thought

in fieri, which is all the

more fascinating

as such.

18 sculpture

23

arcobaleno iridemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Licio Zanetti

EN40 x 22 cm

spiaggia alessandritemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

CR42 x 46 cm

perlamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Guido Pettenò

30 x 28 cm

www.zanettimurano.com

distesamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Licio Zanetti

ER47 x 41 cm

pegaso cristallo Oro su basemaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ50-S67 x 54 cm

animals

Animals constitute one of young Oscar’s first contacts

with glass, when he began his experience in ‘lampwork’,

working with a torch at a workbench. His real education

came with the designs of his father Licio, and later with

his own creations/creatures, making the pieces in ‘solid’

glass in which the Vetreria Zanetti is now specialized.

Figures whose colours and forms extend nature’s own

variety and open the doors to a magic dimension,

where sharks emerge from waves of clear glass enclosing

myriads of bubbles, winged horses that exit mythology

to come forward in glass, ducks in flight that blend

their transparency with the transparency of the sky and

triumphant goldfish on curled blue waves. Admiring

the display of works, it looks like their creator has tried

everything, not just in terms of design but even in the

composition of the glass types and in their combinations.

Brightly coloured birds populate branches made of

glass, other transparent birds conceal a soul of rainbow-

colours (‘sbruffi’); and while the parrots appear jealous

of their chromatic qualities, the groups of penguins look

amazed at their own feathers. In addition to the use of

gold and of calcedonio which, for example, highlights

the motion of the horses, or the inclusion of murrine used for the eyes of the pelicans, with their silk white

bodies and pink beaks, many works experiment with

specific recipes generated personally in the furnace by

Oscar, as in “Notte Boreale”, a glass that ranges from an

intense blue-grey to the purity of transparency.

cavalli notte borealemaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ18-A-NB (sitting)34 x 54 cm

AZ18-D-NB (rearing)48 x 34 cm

animals / horses

2�www.zanettimurano.com

cavallo rampante maestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ25-D-CG (calcedonio crystal decoration)68 x 47 cm

AZ18-D-CG48 x 34 cm

AZ2-D-CG35 x 24 cm

testa di cavallo classicamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

AZ3637 x 44 cm

AZ124 x 19 cm

cavallo san marco calcedoniomaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ18-B-CG49 x 28 cm

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pegaso medio Oromaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ50-M49 x 41 cm

cavallo san marco notte borealemaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ25-B-NB42 x 49 cm

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testa cavallo notte borealemaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ73-NB27 x 33 cm

pesce lunamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV118661 x 40 cm

ZV118761 x 40 cm

30 animals / fish

pesce arlecchinomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV118156 x 40 cm

ZV118261 x 40 cm

pesce tropicale a Fasce con argentomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV1010 with silver “rigadin”71 x 41 cm

ZV1011 with silver “rigadin ritorto”65 x 37 cm

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scorfano a sbruffimaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV114542 x 42 cm

marlinmaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

DNMA79 x 45 cm

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squali su cerchiomaestro Arnaldo Zanella

AZ6964 x 97 cm

animals / fish3�

pesci tropicali a Fasce rossemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV122477 x 58 cm

pesce rossomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV102429 x 19 cm

pesci tropicali giallo e rosamaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV122577 x 58 cm

tuffo delfinimaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

Z123653 x 54 cm

gOld

It seems impossible to imagine anything more precious than

crystal with gold trapped inside; to create a unique substance

in which the transparency is highlighted from within, reflected

by an infinite number of gold specks. Nor is this complex

technique, which requires a sequence of glass gatherings and

overlays to achieve the effect, quite so straightforward: from the

“palina” of fused glass, which must be shaped on the “bronzin”

(marver), to the gold leaf applied by rolling the hot glass over

it, to the next layer gathered to incorporate the metal into the

glass, ready to be shaped. Thus are formed creatures such as the

eagles who spread their golden wings or bulls who incarnate the

perfect essence of solid glass. Or incomparably elegant

Birds of Paradise, dolphins with surfaces

modelled “a rigadin” (with a grooving

mold) to define the pattern of

gold specks, and many more

figures which do not appear

as rich, even in nature.

aruanamaestro Oscar Zanetti

ZV105233 x 38 cm

carpemaestro Oscar Zanetti

AZ48 / 4938 x 23 cm

3� animals / fish / gold

39animals / birds / gold www.zanettimurano.com

Falco Oro su basemaestro Arnaldo Zanelladesign by Arnaldo Zanella

AZ7570 x 44 cm

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tortore su ramimaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV101264 x 35 cm

colombe Oromaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV108534 x 30 cm each

pellicano in piedimaestro Arnaldo Zanella

AZ6462 x 26 cm

coppia anatre notte borealemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV118858 x 72 cm

anatre in Volomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV102574 x 47 cm

�1�0 animals / birds www.zanettimurano.com

aquila ambra su troncomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

AZ7768 x 42 cm

pellicanimaestro Arnaldo Zanella

AZ40 (spread wings)68 x 85 cm

AZ41 (folded wings)50 x 36 cm

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45��

pinguinimaestro Arnaldo Zanella

AZ68S (single penguin)28 x 18 cm

AZ682 (pair of penguins)32 x 28 cm

gruppo pinguinimaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Oscar Zanetti

ZV100743 x 70 cm

���� animals / birds www.zanettimurano.com

albero con nove cocoritemaestro Arnaldo Zanella

AZ2375 x 34 cm

narcisomaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Guido Pettenò

ZV124573 x 26 cm

metamorfosimaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Guido Pettenò

ZV124660 x 25 cm

complicitàmaestro Oscar Zanetti

design by Rodica Tanasescu Vanni

36 x 69 cm

�9�8 artists www.zanettimurano.com

pensieroso di muranomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Rodica Tanasescu Vanni

34 x 64 cm

inquietomaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Rodica Tanasescu Vanni

35 x 60 cm

TreDamemaestro Oscar Zanettidesign by Guido Pettenò

ZV1238-A/B/C49 x 11 cm

CREDITS Graphic designDiego Lombardiwww.diegolombardi.co.uk

PhotographyAlessandro B. AgostiniDamian Farnea

Copywriting Maddalena Dalla MuraEnglish version by Olga Barmineedited by Alison Thorp

Zanetti Murano srl • Fondamenta Serenella 3 • Murano, Venezia 30141 • Tel +39 041739163 • www.zanettimurano.com