Venini

Founded by Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin in 1921, this year Venini celebrates its Centennial.

Since its foundation, the master glassmakers have been the heart and the soul of the glassworks, the guardians of its memory, its core strength: in the world of glass there are no schools, only teachings that are handed down verbally, with gestures and movements.

In the course of these hundred years of history, Venini has been able to set this millenary culture in dialogue with the creative genius of well-known artists and designers such as Vittorio Zecchin, Carlo Scarpa, Gio Ponti, Tapio Wirkkala, and Gae Aulenti just to name a few. These meetings of excellence have yielded an artistic production particularly rich in the style, form and expressive languages appreciated by collectors and design enthusiasts from all over the world.

Venini creations have contributed to the history of the evolution of Art and Contemporary Design: many iconic works have entered the collections of prestigious museums including the Metropolitan Museum and MOMA in New York, the Cartier foundation and the Center George-Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Shanghai Museum of Glass.

Thanks to the inestimable historical and artistic heritage, recognized all over the world, the Venini works increase their value over time and are still auctioned today in the most prestigious auctions: one of the highest paid piece of Murano glass in history, “La Sentinella di Venezia” signed by Thomas Stearns in 1962, was hammered at the record of 737 thousand dollars.

One of the distinctive features of Venini is its rich and prestigious color palette that has no equal in the artistic glass sector: 125 fascinating and refined colors, the result of studies and reflections, tests and researches aimed at giving life to new blends.

To celebrate the centennial, two new colors have enriched the company's chromatic heritage: Rosa Cipria and Verde Rio, colors that echo the unique colors of the lagoon landscape.

For this occasion, Venini has also created a limited edition of one hundred pieces of her most emblematic work, Veronese, rivisited in Rosa Cipria color with details in Oxblood Red. This blown glass work was madefor the first time in 1921 thanks to the intuition of Vittorio Zecchin, artistic director of Venini, who was fascinated by a detail of the 1580 painting by Paolo Veronese "The Annunciation", still conserved at the Galleries of the Academy of Venice.

From the image to the object, from painting to the master glassmaker’s breath: the Veronese was defies gravity, as in the painting that inspired it, and its eternal beauty takes over everything, even today, centuries later.

This important milestone reached by Venini is a milestone that opens the doors to a new century of art and design, innovation, and the cutting edge of creativity.