Oreficerie veneziane a smalto traslucido (secoli XIV–XV). Immissioni, importazioni e produzioni locali, novità, continuità e abbandoni

Study of an array of fourteenth and fifteenth century Venetian liturgical furnishings (e.g., chalices, monstrances, reliquaries) enables analysis of a craft’s evolution from origination, through dispersal and flourishing, to its eventual disappearance. The goldsmiths’ craft of producing works in enamel traslucido (translucent) originated in Tuscany in the late-thirteenth century. From there, it spread eastward over ensuing decades, taking firm root in Venice, where it flourished for more than a century; Venice was the ideal ground for the development of a significant and original local production. There, local goldsmiths produced works in enamel traslucido that were prized as church furnishings through the fifteenth century. The craft eventually faded, however, and was essentially abandoned by the start of the sixteenth century.