Unknown
(Italian, Venice)
Goblet
16th century
glass with gilt, enamel decoration
6.75 x 4.75 in diameter
17.15 x 12.07 cm
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
86.11
Not on view
Constructed in a Venetian workshop, this goblet of ogee profile (a shape that combines convex and concave curves) sits on a high conical stem and is decorated with a fish-scale pattern in gilt, bordered by rows of blue and white enamel dots. Venice was the first Western city to master the art of decolorizing glass and was thereafter regarded as the greatest of all glass-making centers. This process rendered glass comparable to the rarer rock crystal. The clarity and restrained elegance of this glass goblet attest to the skill of 16th-century Venetian glassmakers, elevating this object and others like it to luxury items purchased only by the wealthiest of patrons.
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