The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection

The book The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection, curated by Giordana Naccari and Cristina Beltrami, retraces - in an original and fascinating way - the history of 20th-century Murano glass from an unusual angle: the glass animal.
The over 750 works of art - representing, among others, elephants, hippos, cats, giraffes, bears, parrots, fish, turtles, foxes, and tiny, lamp-worked lifesized insects - belong to the personal collection that Pierre Rosenberg, art historian and Former Director/President of the Louvre in Paris, put together over thirty years.
The book presents some of the most famous series, such as the pulegosi [bubble glass] pieces by Napoleone Martinuzzi and the birds by Tyra Lundgren and Toni Zuccheri for Venini glassworks. Alongside the Zebrati [zebra-striped] series by Barovier & Toso, the aquariums by Alfredo Barbini, and the wellknown examples by Seguso Vetri d'Arte, the volume also features a vast sample of animals made by lesser-known but equally interesting glassworks from the point of view of the technical and design experimentation of 20th-century Murano glass production. The catalogue also showcases sculptures by living artists such as Cristiano Bianchin, Isabelle Poilprez, Maria Grazia Rosin, and Giorgio Vigna demonstrating the inexhaustible source of inspiration that the glass animal has to offer.