Luxury Rezzonico Murano Glass Chandelier: A Timeless Masterpiece With the coming of the Murano glass chandelier,it is felt that the quality has stepped up, at least as far as the richness of the aesthetic elements and the complexity of the production are concerned. Noble father and unrivalled master of this fundamental piece of glass tradition is – without doubts – Giuseppe Briati, who was able to raise the prestige of the Murano art again, which collapsed by the end of XVII under the competition from the Bohemian and English crystal. He was responsible for the creation of a crystal close to the bohemian one for the brightness, but more suitable to the hot working, and consequently the production of varying chandeliers which can count on the possibility of having bigger dimensions and aesthetic experimentations and shapes prior unimaginable.
The Rezzonico chandelier (primarily made during ‘700) can be considered the prince of the illumination sector. It was made for the homonym family, who lived in the luxury Ca’ Rezzonico on the Grand Canal, nowadays the Venetian eighteen-century museum. This type of chandeliers can have many variations with 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 21, 36 or more lights, even up to 60 since the great chandelier of the Murano Glass Museum is having 398cm height, 226cm maximum diameter and 330kg weight. The chromatic combinations can be roughly unlimited; the classical style is distinguished by articulate forms of floral sort with branches, fronds, leaves and flowers which cross in magnificent curls, a harmonic whole wherein hundreds of glass pieces, blown and handmade, can be placed on the metal structure. Another aesthetic solution from the eighteen-century tradition is the so-called “cioccaalla Chinese”, the introduction of oriental motifs which resemble the form of a pagoda. The typical elements of the Rezzonico, quantifiable also in more than 500 handmade-pieces, are placed on the metal structure in order to cover it completely, following a procedure called Investiture.