Angelo Barovier (, in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

– 1460, in Venice) was an Italian glass artist. Raised in a family with a long tradition of glass working, Barovier was certainly the best-known member and significant for uniting the knowledge passed down for generations as an artist and a scientist. Biographical details about Barovier are few and fragmentary, but relate his ability in the treatment of glass. The humanist Ludovico Carbone, for example, described ''Angelum Venetum'' as ''optimum artificem crystallinorum vasorum'' (''largest producer of crystalline vessels''). Another testimony to the high esteem for Barovier is the decree of

Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

in around 1455 that granted him the exclusive rights to production of ''clean glass'', produced by a technique he developed, which he called ''

crystal glass Lead glass, commonly called crystal, is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40% (by weight) lead(II) oxide (PbO), while modern lead crystal, historically als ...

'' or ''Venetian crystal''. According to some, Barovier should be recognized for originally developing a glass paste called ''

Chalcedony Chalcedony ( , or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic. ...

''. At the request of Filaret, architect of the Dukes of Milan, Barovier was summoned in 1455 at the court of Milan in order to suggest the best glass paste to be used in the construction of ''

Sforzinda Sforzinda is a visionary ideal city named after Francesco Sforza, then Duke of Milan. It was designed by Renaissance architect Antonio di Pietro Averlino ( 1400 – 1469), also known as "Averulino" or " Filarete". Layout Although Sforzinda was n ...

'', the

ideal city An ideal city is the concept of a plan for a city that has been conceived in accordance with a particular rational or moral objective. Concept The "ideal" nature of such a city may encompass the moral, spiritual and juridical qualities of ci ...

desired by

Francesco Sforza Francesco I Sforza (; 23 July 1401 – 8 March 1466) was an Italian condottiero who founded the Sforza dynasty in the duchy of Milan, ruling as its (fourth) duke from 1450 until his death. In the 1420s, he participated in the War of L'A ...

and designed (but never implemented) by the same Filaret. There are no known true works of Barovier, although some historians assign him a ''wedding Cup ''in the museum of the glass

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was on ...

, the ''cup of birds'' to Trent and a blue glass in the City Museum Medieval of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

The Barovier family

Calice di angelo barovier, metà del XV sec

The name Barovier comes from the word ''berroviere'', which indicates the armiger guarding the captain of the people. It is likely that a Barovier, originally from

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

, settled in

around the 1291, when a law of

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

required all glassworkers to live on the island. The oldest representative of the family of which we know is Jacobello (born around 1295), whose sons Anthony and Bartholomew are mentioned in documents of 1348 as ''fiolari'' (glassmakers). A son of Bartholomew, James, remembered as a master glassmaker and a furnace owner, was the father of Barovier.About Angelo Barovier
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References

Year of birth unknown 1480 deaths Italian glass artists Republic of Venice artists {{Italy-artist-stub

The Barovier family

See also

References