Murano Glass Gondola

Gondola sculpture

Inspired to the Gondolini of Venice Historical Regatta.

Stylized glass gondola

With this stylization the artist Maurizio Alfier was able to re-create the luxury Venetian gondolas, which usually are very pomp, in a fluid simple and contemporary shape that enhance the colors of the original Murano glass and immediately reminds the famous venetian boat.

The glass Gondolino

History of Gondola

Stylized Gondola, a sculpture inspired to the famous venetian boat which at that period was colored and not entirely black like nowadays. The Gondola is the world-famous boat typical of Venice Lagoon: it was the best way to move in the city’s canals until the invention of motorized boats. In fact this kind of boat was very famous from beginning of XVI century, it was the most popular transport for all social classes, especially nobles and bourgeois. Trough the years the

Gondola was seen as a synonymous of power and welth and it became a proper competition of lust between noble houses of the city. The legend says that in between XVI and XVII the council of Venice decided to punish this excess of lust with fees for excessively luxury and colored boats. The Venetians loved the excess and preferred to pay the tax and keep their gorgeous boats.

At this point, the council of Venice decided to make a law and forced the Venetians to keep the gondolas in black color only. Today we do still have colored gondolas in the Venice lagoon, they are the Gondolini: a Gondolino is a special gondola with two gondoliers, it’s used during the Historical Regatta of Venice which take place every year in September and transform the Gran Canal in a proper circuit where these colored boats race for the yearly title.

Best sellers

Gondolino cm23 red

 135.00

Gondolino cm45 turquoise

 239.00

Gondolino cm45 black

 239.00

Stylized Gondola sculptures

This glass gondola is a stylized sculpture entirely handmade with Murano glass with the casting technique and each piece is unique. By melting small pieces of glass we create this solid sculpture which every time is different in pattern, shape and standing/laying. The non transparent gondolas have every time a different pattern on the top part, the transparent colors and the black pastel color, instead, has no pattern at all due to the softer glass that melt perfectly. After a lot of cold work in order to eliminate the extra part of glass which are really sharp and dangerous, we sandblast the piece to get the final mat finish. The result is always different and this is our most appreciate sculpture’s collection.

Fun Fact

Is it wood?

That’s the funny question we have been asked almost every day @ The Gallery
No, it’s not wood!! It’s entirely made of murano glass which can be transparent or solid, the second type with a mat finish really looks like wood/ceramic.

March

Purple Gondolino

Highlight

Gondolino of the Month.