Technical Art History Colloquium: The Making of Glass (UvA)

On Thursday 18 May the twelfth Technical Art History Colloquium will take place in Amsterdam. Dr Márcia Vilarigues, Dr Jo Wheeler and Matt Tyler will give lectures on the making of glass. There will be substantial time for audience discussion. Admission to the colloquium is free, all those interested are welcome.

FROM WORDS TO OBJECTS: THE ART OF GLASSMAKING THROUGH RECIPES
By Dr Márcia Vilarigues – Assistant Professor, Conservation Department, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Márcia Vilarigues aims to create new knowledge based on the link between historic documentary information on glass production and the produced historical glass objects. She reproduces representative recipes of glass-based paints dated from the 15th century to the 19th century in the laboratory. These experiments allow the characterization of the paint materials with analytical techniques. The results are being correlated with historical glass paints applied on stained-glass. The aim is to understand how historical written information represents the practices at the stained-glass workshops.

REVEALING TRADE SECRETS: A NEW SOURCE OF MURANO GLASSMAKING RECIPES
By Dr Jo Wheeler – Director of International Development, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Jo Wheeler presents a manuscript collection of recipes written in Murano in 1591 which has resurfaced in Florence. Wheeler examines the importance of these glassmaking secrets and firmly links them to a Murano family. Research has highlighted groups of recipes in common with the Montpellier manuscript (Zecchin, 1964) and the Darduin manuscript (Zecchin 1986) and throws light on recipes of Venetian origin in Antonio Neri’s L’Arte Vetraria (1612). These comparisons will be brought out through a focus on recipes for making chalcedony glass and rosechiero. The relationship of these recipes to actual practice and technical analysis will be raised.

A PROTEAN PIGMENT: SMALT AND THE CRAFT PROCESS
By Matt Tyler, PhD candidate AHRC CDP Programme, The University of Glasgow and The National Gallery
London Smalt can be problematic not just from a conservation perspective, but also an historical one. Its roots in the decorative arts, refinement as a manufactured pigment, and its handling characteristics – all of these are complex areas to explore, made more so by variable terminology and trade secrecy. Tyler’s research intends to answer questions about the origins and production of smalt, and its use by an artist, through a combination of documentary source evidence and scientific data. The findings related to 18th and 19th century manufacturing, as well as an ongoing investigation into 16th century glass-making, will be discussed in this paper.

TECHNICAL ART HISTORY COLLOQUIUM
The Technical Art History Colloquium is organised by Prof. Sven Dupré (Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam, Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project ARTECHNE), Dr Arjan de Koomen (University of Amsterdam, Coordinator MA Technical Art History) and Dr Abbie Vandivere (Paintings conservator at Mauritshuis, The Hague, and Coordinator MA Technical Art History, University of Amsterdam). Monthly meetings take place on Thursdays, usually in Utrecht and Amsterdam.

More information: uu.nl