GLASS ENAMELLING DURING THE RENAISSANCE. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GLASS ARTISTS BETWEEN VENICE AND FRANCE Musée national de la Renaissance château d Écouen from 12 October 2021 to 14 February 2022 Curated by Thierry Crépin-Leblond, Director of the Musée national de la Renaissance and chief curator Aurélie Gerbier, Curator at the Musée National de la Renaissance, Françoise Barbe, Chief Curator at the Department of Decorative Arts at the Musée du Louvre and Isabelle Biron, research engineer at the C2RMF, this exhibition was an opportunity to present the public with the results of the vast research programme, run jointly by the National Renaissance Museum, the Department of Decorative Arts at the Musée du Louvre and the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France, on Venetian and French enamelled and gilded glassware from the late 15th to 16th centuries.

The production of Venetian glass, which enjoyed a renaissance in the second half of the 15th century, was immensely successful and was quickly imitated by numerous other glassmaking centres in Italy and Europe (Tyrol, Austria, Bohemia, the Netherlands, France, etc.),

spanning a vast chronological period (15th 18th centuries). This production is referred to as being in the Venice style . Among these works, enamelled and gilded glass have particularly fascinated art historians and collectors. There is also a consensus among specialists that a number of pieces are copies or fakes made in the 19th century in order to meet market demand. The ambition of this exhibition, at the intersection of all cultural issues, was to connect art history with science, technique with research, conservation with transmission.

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