Vittorio Zecchin (1878-1947). A glass plaque with a decor of murrine and polychrome pate de verre depicting a landscape with trees. 28x25cm. Chippings and restorations.

This plaquette, coming directly from Giuseppe Barovier’s grandchildren, bears exceptional witness to the collaboration between Vittorio Zecchin and Artisti Barovier, as their joint work marked a new beginning in the history of Murano glass for the 1900s.
Zecchin himself, in the catalogue for the 1914 Biennale, presents his new glass experiments created thanks to the work of Artisti Barovier in Murano, consisting in “connecting pieces of glass to create ornamentations and figures, for vases and plaques alike”, pointing out that due to the size of the kilns, “we had to settle for small ones”.
The still Impressionist landscape forged through the fusion of polychrome pate de verre is the backdrop to distinctly Symbolist trees, made of round murrine in bright, contrasting colours that bring to mind Klimt's pictorial experimentations, displayed at the Biennali di Venezia in those same years.