The great art historian and former Director of the Louvre Museum Pierre Rosenberg has cultivated a more intimate and secret passion for Murano glass animals, alongside his better-known collection of seventeenth-century prints. Comprising over a thousand pieces kept partly in Venice and partly in Paris, it is treated differently from his extensive holding of ancient drawings, prints and paintings. For the first time in 2021, an exhibition curated by Cristina Beltrami and Giordana Naccari celebrated The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection at Le Stanze del Vetro of the Fondazione G. Cini in Venice with over 750 glass sculptures, a fantastic opportunity to bring together the most precious glassware present in this curious and original collection. Not only did it offer a window into the interest and taste of an anomalous collector, but it also provided a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panorama of Murano’s production of zoomorphic subjects, from the best-known glass producers (Venini, Barovier and Toso, Seguso and Cenedese) to anonymous artists no less important in the reconstruction of Murano’s articulated panorama of animalier sculpture.

Speaker’s biography:

Dr Cristina Beltrami is an art historian, author, curator and lecturer in contemporary and the decorative arts, based in Venice and Paris. On the back of her two PhDs, her research has focused on the history of the Venice Biennale and the traditions of Murano glass, both topics on which she has widely published. In addition, she is an experienced curator who worked with Stanze del Vetro – Fondazione G. Cini (Maurice Marinot, 2019; The Glass Ark, 2021), as well as the Venice Glass Week, for which she has received awards. Future projects of note include two exhibitions: Cento anni di vetro, celebrating the centenary of Nason & Moretti at the Museum of Murano Glass (May 2023-January 2024) and Massimo Micheluzzi/ Carlo Scarpa at the Negozio Olivetti (Venice, May-September 2023). She also regularly lectures in Venice (SIE – Ca’ Foscari, Warwick University).

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