Getty Museum

Bowl

Date

1570–1591

Medium

Colorless (grayish-brown) glass with diamond-point engraving, gilding (including silver), and cold-painted decoration

Culture

Austrian

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

The Innsbruck Royal Glasshouse or *Hofglashütte*, founded by the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand II in 1563, probably produced this bowl. The archduke established the workshop for his own enjoyment and curiosity and to satisfy his taste for Venetian-style glass, known as *façon de Venise*. He imported glassblowers from Murano who knew "how to make all kinds of rare and artistic works" and stipulated that only he who had the most "fantasy in him" would be selected to join this prestigious workforce. Decorators added the green fruit and foliage and the goldfinches in cold-painted enamel, a technique in which the paint is applied without a second firing that would have fused the decoration to the glass surface. As a result, much of this cold-painting has worn off over time.

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