2000 YEARS OF LIGHT AND COLOUR

Emile Galle

With the sweltering heat of Summer now upon us, you could do worse than escape into the cooled confines of the Suntory Museum in Akasaka with its exhibition of glass art, "Two Thousand Years of Light and Color; Painted Glass from Ancient Egypt to Art Glass."

There is something particularly cooling about looking at these 142 items of glass, which range from an enameled fragment with a charming bird design from Roman Egypt to contemporary artist, Hiroshi Yamano’s startling and rather baffling From East to West – Fish Catcher Bag #4, a large chunk of watery-looking glass, apparently encapsulating some ‘dead’ glass fish!

Exhibition curator, Ruriko Tsuchida explains that there are four main ways of enhancing the natural beauty of glass – cutting, engraving, blowing, or painting on it. Although many of the items on display include elements of the first three techniques, this exhibition is focused on glass painting.

“From one viewpoint painting on glass impairs it,” Tsuchida admits. “So, when I see glass art, the most important thing is the balance between artistic expression and retaining the character of the glass.”

The wide range of exhibits allows the visitor to trace the story of this tension through the history of glass. Early centers in the Muslim world are well represented by various fragments and by what Tsuchida believes is the most impressive item in the entire exhibition, a large 14th-century Egyptian Mosque lamp, whose less than sparkling glass clearly benefits from the enameled arabesque and koranic decoration.

Egyptian Mosque lamp

European interaction with the Muslim world, stimulated by the Crusades, led to the rise of Venice as the next major glassmaking center. Here, with true Renaissance ingenuity, the Venetians took glassmaking to new heights. Around 1450, a glassmaker named Angelo Barovier found a way to make glass of such clarity that it was termed ‘cristallino.’

The confidence the Venetians had in the improved crystal clearness of their glass is obvious in the sparse enamel decoration of several Venetian pieces, including an early 16th-century compote made for Florence’s powerful Medici family. This work is decorated with little more than the Medici coat of arms, complete with the papal crown and keys, commemorating the recent election of a Medici as Pope.

Although the Venetians tried hard to guard their trade secrets, inevitably these techniques leaked out, leading to the rise of new centers of glassmaking, mainly in Northern Europe, and yet more discoveries. These included new techniques for staining glass yellow and red discovered by the Bohemian glass painter, Friedrich Egermann. One of his best pieces, an 1835 goblet, commemorating the Napoleonic Battle of Kulm, is a symphony of the possibilities of glass art. The cut and engraved piece is decorated with a small enameled coat-of-arms, but what really sets it apart is the skillful use of color staining to create opalescent hues that are refracted and merged through the multifaceted glass.

By contrast many of the other pieces on display neglect the qualities of glass. A 19th-century goblet from Bohemia, for example, obscures most of the glass with white overlay and a portrait design. The remaining transparent areas are then heavily decorated with a gold-colored, enameled floral pattern to create a lacy effect. Although extremely elegant this work stifles the natural beauty of the glass rather as the complexities of Victorian fashion hid the natural beauty of women.

A more effective balance between material and decoration is struck by a vase in ‘moonlight glass’ by the famous French glass artist, Emile Galle, made around 1878. A spindly enameled insect design with stems and leaves is laid on the undulating surface of the opalescent glass. As you walk past, the glass seems to ripple with subtle shadows, creating the effect of wind blowing round the hapless insect.

The simple naturalism of this piece suggests Japanese influence and, indeed, Galle’s clear interest in the Japonisme movement of the period is testified to by a less successful but more overtly Japanese piece, a rather heavy-looking glass fan with a cock fight design.

The many Japanese pieces on display show a love of delicate flower patterns and a preference for colored glass. This is best seen in a purple sake bottle from around 1825 in which the drooping wisteria of the gold lacquer pattern plays against the curves of the bottle.

Czeslav Zuber

Alongside such magical pieces, there are also many works that fascinate by their sheer oddity. These include the many examples of reverse painting, in which images are painted in reverse order on the back of a sheet of glass to present a protected image on the other side. Many of these have a folk art atmosphere, but, nevertheless, like the early-18th century Dutch People by Araki Jogen, show great skill. Even more astounding are the tiny Chinese snuff bottles with portraits and landscapes painted in reverse on the inside! These pay tribute to the patience and diligence of their artists, who used tiny curved brushes to achieve such mind-boggling effects.

For thousands of years, the art of painting on glass has been a craft art tied to the enhancement of decorative or functional objects like vases and bottles. More recently, however, it has become a medium for pure art. The exhibition tries to recognize this with a selection of diverse objects by contemporary artists.

“Most of these artists say they are painters rather than glass artists,” Tsuchida concedes. “They select the material to support their painting.”

After the carefully crafted works of 2000 years, the artistic freedom shown in works like Czeslav Zuber’s Head No. 18 (1994), a giant lump of clear glass engraved and painted with abstract shapes, is refreshing. However, these contemporary works sometimes seem spoiled by a dilettantism and a lack of the true dedication of the craftsman.

Usually with painting, the canvas or the board is merely supposed to serve as a neutral medium for the pigments. With painting on glass, however, the powerful aesthetic qualities of the material itself allows a whole new dimension to enter the equation.

C.B.Liddell
Japan Times
24th July 2002