Thursday, March 13
Come early for a free Behind the Glass lecture featuring Dr. Paul Roberts, Senior Curator, Head of the Roman Collections, Greek and Roman Department at The British Museum. Dr. Roberts will speak on themes related to his 2013 British Museum exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Friday, March 14
8am: Registration
9am: Welcome: Karol Wight, Executive Director and Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass, Corning Museum of Glass
9:15am: Memories of a Mentor and Friend Lisa Pilosi, Conservator, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ancient Glass
9:30am: A New Roman Inlaid Bowl at the Corning Museum of Glass: Interpretation, Conservation, and Manufacture; William Gudenrath, historian and artist, Corning Museum of Glass; Karol Wight, Executive Director and Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass, Corning Museum of Glass; Stephen Koob, Chief Conservator, Corning Museum of Glass. In 2012, The Corning Museum of Glass acquired a significant Roman inlaid bowl, the first nearly intact example of the type to survive from antiquity (2012.1.1). Against a background of a dark, aubergine glass, a fantastic scene of a Nilotic landscape is inlaid in the form of colorful birds, a dragonfly, plants, and flowers. After a few months on display, the bowl was sent to the Museum’s conservation department for disassembly, cleaning, study, and reassembly. While in conservation, the bowl was closely examined to determine its method of manufacture, and to analyze the different types of glass used in its construction. The papers presented will discuss the bowl’s historical background, its conservation treatment, and investigations into its manufacture.
10am: Cosa in Context: Glass in the Early Roman Empire in the West; Jenny Price, Professor Emeritus, Durham University. A large quantity of glass, mostly in small fragments, was found during the American Academy in Rome excavations at the Roman town of Cosa, a colonia on the Tuscan coast, some 85 miles to the north of Rome. The glass assemblage ranged in date from the Hellenistic to medieval periods, with a massive concentration of material belonging to the early-mid first century AD. During the 1970s, the late David Frederic (Dai) Grose wrote several papers based on the Cosa glass finds and prepared a scholarly catalog for publication in the Memoirs of the American Academy, but this has remained unpublished. After Dai’s death in 2004, David generously took over the project and worked to enable its completion. The catalog, which will shortly be published, is a detailed study reflecting the state of glass scholarship in the early 1980s. Price’s paper for this seminar will explore some groups of early imperial glass from elsewhere in the western Mediterranean region in order to provide a fuller background for the Cosa finds. It is intended to honor the scholarship of both Dai and David.
10:30am: Break
Byzantine and Islamic Glass
11am: Glass of Knights, Merchants, and Layman—Crusader Glass from the Holy Land;Yael Gorin-Rosen, Head of the Glass Gepartment, Israel Antiquities Authority
11:30am: Coincidental Developments Mamluk and Venetian Glass 1275-1425, Rachel Ward, independent scholar. This lecture will explore parallels in the shapes, techniques, and decoration of Mamluk and Venetian enameled glass that demand explanation. Did similar technology evolve independently at either end of the Mediterranean? If not, what were the connections? How do they help us with the chronology of the material in both Venice and the Mamluk Empire?
12pm: Lunch
1pm: Sasanian glass from the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and Gilan; St. John Simpson, Assistant Keeper, department of the Middle East, The British Museum. Cut glass is one of the famous products associated with the Sasanian empire, which alternately rivalled and threatened Rome between the third and early seventh centuries. Many pieces are known from the art market and said to come from the Gilan region of northwest Iran. This paper compares these with excavated examples from the Caucasus and Mesopotamia, and concludes with some new thoughts about the origins of the pieces reported from Iran.
1:30pm: David Whitehouse and The Studio; Amy Schwartz, Director of Education and The Studio, Corning Museum of Glass. While we all knew David Whitehouse as an accomplished archaeologist, scholar, and director, he was also remarkably original, innovative, and forward thinking. He played an integral role in the development and growth of The Studio, the Museum’s glassmaking school. This lecture will recount the beginnings of The Studio and David’s involvement. Over the years, he provided valuable support to the many artists who came through The Studio, creating a lasting legacy in the art world and beyond.
1:45pm: Break
2pm (At The Studio): Demonstration for a Friend;Lino Tagliapietra, artist. David Whitehouse was intrigued by contemporary artists with a link to history. He especially admired the talents of his treasured friend, Lino Tagliapietra. One of the Studio Glass Movement giants, Tagliapietra creates work rooted in Venetian tradition, but innovative in style and depth. This is a unique opportunity to watch Tagliapietra create original work in honor of his dear friend.A live stream of this demonstration will also be viewable from the Museum auditorium.
4pm: Dedication of memorial area in honor of David Whitehouse (Rakow Library);
Reception to follow, Dinner (on your own)
Saturday, March 15
8am: Breakfast
9am: Welcome. Amy Schwartz, Director of Education and The Studio, Corning Museum of Glass
Venetian Glass
9:15am:Two Masterpieces of Glass from the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum; Dora Thornton, Curator of Renaissance Europe, Curator of the Waddesdon Bequest, The British Museum, Andrew Meek, scientist, The British Museum. This lecture explores the Waddesdon Bequest, comprised of rare Venetian turquoise glass of c 1500 and Bohemian opal glass of the late 1600s. The presenters have analyzed the metal in each type of glass, and have completed new historical research on both pieces. This lecture will place both types of glass in their intellectual and historical context as virtuoso masterpieces of the kind found in European Kunstkammern from around 1500. It will discuss the recipes used to make the turquoise and white glass, how they are connected to cristallo glass, and how this potentially relates to contemporary glass made in the Middle East. They will also explore the composition of the enamels and how they relate to the compositions found by Isabelle Biron, et al., in Paris. For the opal glass, we will see how its compositional characteristics very clearly reflect the recipe/raw materials published for the Buquoy glasshouse in Glass of the Alchemists, and can easily be differentiated from the recipes used in Venice at the same time.
9:45am: Rosa Barovier Mentasti, independent scholar
10:15am: Break
European Glass
10:45am: Family Connections: The Formative Years of Beilby Enameled Glass, 1760–1765; Simon Cottle, Departmental Director of Continental Ceramics and Glass, Bonhams, London. Of all 18th-century English glass, the goblets, wine glasses, and other table glass decorated in enamels by the Beilby Workshop in Newcastle-upon-Tyne are considered to be among the most interesting. With stories now emerging from the origins of many of the highly elaborate and colorful heraldic examples found in collections in America and elsewhere, the significance of a wide network of family influences has become much more apparent. Some of the relevant stories will be related and the influences examined in this presentation, which focuses on the first five years of their enamel production.
11:15am: Júlia Báthory; John P. Smith, independent scholar. Júlia Báthory (1901–2000) was a fine designer, teacher, and engraver, in an almost entirely male environment, who devoted her whole life to glass, and who would have been widely acknowledged during her life time, were it not for the political situation in middle Europe during the second half of the 20th century. Born into a well-to-do family near Budapest, she studied art in Budapest and Munich (Staatschule für Angewendte Kunst), where she became interested in glass decoration and design. In 1930, she exhibited in Paris with Imre Huszár, Art Deco sculptor and one of the members of UAM (Union des Artistes Moderne), and decided to move there. We are fortunate that she shared an apartment with a photographer André Kertés. Original glass plates still survive—as do original drawings, plans, and designs—made by Báthory herself. She designed engraved glass panels for buildings and vases for the likes of Chanel. She had her own exhibitions and even designed a radio. In Paris in 1933, Báthory built one of the first sandblasting cabinets for deep abrasive, monumental glasswork. The paper presented at this lecture explores her life and work. One of Báthory’s step-grandchildren is the joint author of the paper. This talk will be illustrated with original photographs of her work taken throughout her life.
12pm: Lunch
1:30pm (At The Studio): The Art of Experiment;William Gudenrath, historian and artist, Corning Museum of Glass. David Whitehouse’s colleague and friend William Gudenrath will recreate a selection of historical objects at the glass furnace. Ranging in origin from the Roman Period through the early 18th century, the methods used will be soundly based on practical research carried out over the last 30 years or so. David was of invaluable help in many of these endeavors, sharing information and wise skepticism (not infrequently), as well as giving support and providing unfailing enthusiasm.
Blaschka
3pm: The Blaschkas’ Botanical Models: A Lifelong Passion; Susan Rossi-Wilcox, independent scholar. Susan M. Rossi-Wilcox will discuss the history and artistry of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka’s Glass Flower models at Harvard. The more than 4,000 scientifically accurate and breathtakingly beautiful flameworked botanicals were made between 1886 and 1936. They illustrate pollination mechanisms, fruit diseases, carnivorous species, and the sex life of mosses and ferns. The collection was highlighted in two major exhibitions at the Corning Museum.
3:30pm: Blaschka Glass: Materials and Preservation; Astrid van Giffen, Assistant Conservator, Corning Museum of Glass. The Blaschkas were a father and son team of glass workers known for their incredible life-like models of invertebrate animals and plants made in the late 19th and early 20th century. This lecture will present an overview of their works as well as their working techniques and materials and how these aspects affect the preservation and conservation of their creations.
Break
Science
4pm: Mining the Past: The Re-use and Recycling of Roman Glass through 2,000 Years; Ian Freestone, Professor of Archaeological Materials and Technology, University of London. The Roman glass industry was of such a scale, and its products of such quality, that it provided raw materials for European windows, vessels, and jewelry for up to a millennium. It appears that old glass may have been removed from buildings on a massive scale. Even today, jewelry made using “Roman” glass, excavated in Israel, is widely available on the internet. Chemical analysis provides us with many insights into these processes, but areas of controversy remain. This lecture provides an outline of the evidence for the recycling of Roman glass, both in the Roman period and later.
4:30pm: Mark Wypyski, Research Scientist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5pm: Concluding remarks, Followed by a reception in the Ancient Gallery and dinner at the Museum
March 14–15, 2014
This seminar honors the life and work of our former executive director and friend David Whitehouse, and celebrates his scholarship in glass, ceramics, and archaeology.
The program begins with a free, public keynote lecture at 6 pm on Thursday, March 13, by Paul Roberts, senior curator, head of the Roman Collections, Greek and Roman Department at The British Museum. Roberts will speak on themes related to his 2013 British Museum exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The next two days will be filled with lectures, reminiscences, and time with many of David’s colleagues and friends.
CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS
1 Museum Way
Corning, NY 14830, United States
+1 (607) 937-5371
www.cmog.org
