From January 23rd to February 28th
Murano, Glass Museum

_

The Murano Glass Promotion Consortium Promovetro is the driving force behind A Light for Emilia Romagna, an unusual cultural operation that combines solidarity with safeguarding the artistic heritage of the part of the region of Emilia Romagna that was hit by an earthquake in 2012.

This came about when the Murano Glass Promotion Consortium Promovetro accepted an invitation addressed to it by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and of Tourism (MiBACT), through the Superintendency of Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, to recuperate and restore several masterpieces of glass art that had been damaged by the earthquake, including the chandeliers in the building that housed the offices and council chamber of the small town of Sant’Agostino, in the province of Ferrara.

The result of this project will be presented in an exhibition, scheduled to be held from 23 January to 28 February 2016, at the Murano Glass Museum, in partnership with the MiBACT, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Municipality of Sant’Agostino, with the patronage of the Region of Veneto, the Region of Emilia Romagna, the Province of Venice, the Province of Ferrara, the City of Venice, the FAI – Italian National Trust and the University of Venice at Ca’ Foscari and with the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Venice, Rovigo and the Lagoon Delta.

The exhibition, whose design was curated by the Theatre of La Fenice, will gravitate around the imposing gold amber glass chandelier whose four levels together stand nearly five metres tall, enclosed in a circumference of nearly three metres. Made in the mid-twenties of the last century, its style echoes the great eighteenth-century Venetian tradition of monumental chandeliers, along the lines of the ones that can still be seen to this day in the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo or in Ca’ Rezzonico – the Museum of Eighteenth-Century Venice.

Originally intended to illuminate the room known as the Sala dei Giochi (named after the games held in Rome’s imperial arenas) in Ferrara’s Este Castle, this enormous piece of craftsmanship was moved at the end of 1933 into the council chamber of the town hall of Sant’Agostino, which was often used to host festivities from the mid-nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War. Although no certain confirmation has been found in any official documents, a persistent rumour has it that this great chandelier was moved on the order of Italo Balbo, who often attended balls with his mistress in the large chamber in this building designed by Antonio Giordani.

Together with this piece, the exhibition will also show another three, somewhat smaller, restored lamps, which were located in the same room.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book (published by Baraldi) curated by the writer and journalist Alberto Toso Fei, which describes the history of the Sant’Agostino chandeliers and the work done to restore them.

“A Light for Emilia Romagna”, comments Luciano Gambaro, president of the Promovetro Consortium, “is a project that comes straight from the heart, a gesture of solidarity with our friends in Emilia who took such a hard hit from the quake and, at the same time, an attempt to safeguard part of our history”. “The restoration work,” he continues, “was a long, demanding process of teamwork, involving many of the consortium’s member firms and a large number of craftsmen, who pooled their resources for one purpose: to give the chandeliers a new lease of life. As of today, the great Sant’Agostino chandelier represents a symbol of Murano’s determination to endure, to achieve a renaissance: nothing is ever lost if we have a good will and love the work we do, our traditions and our history”.

Over the last three years, the project A Light for Emilia Romagna has developed in several stages: first to salvage the four Murano glass chandeliers from the town hall in Sant’Agostino, which had to be demolished because of serious structural problems following the earthquake, then to contact the technicians and expert glass workers to study how to go about the restoration, then finally and above all to co-ordinate the work undertaken by the consortium’s member firms specialised in lighting and mirrors, so as to execute the actual restoration.

A Light for Emilia Romagna.
THE SANT’AGOSTINO CHANDELIERS
Murano Glass Museum (Fondamenta Giustinian, 8 – Murano)
23 January – 28 February 2016
Opening hours: daily, 10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. (the ticket office closes one hour earlier)
Tickets: full price, € 10.00; reduced price, € 7.50
Information: Tel. +39 0415274718 | email: museo.vetro@fmcvenezia.it | https://museovetro.visitmuve.it
Catalogue: Baraldi Editore

Press offices
CLP Relazioni Pubbliche |
Francesco Sala | tel. +39 02 36 755 700 | francesco.sala@clponline.it | www.clponline.it
This press release and images are on www.clponline.it
ph. f.barbini© – Consorzio Promovetro Murano