Alchemists: Lead Crystal-Gold Ruby

Often dismissed during their lifetimes as mere charlatans, their contributions to the creation of colorless lead crystal and gold ruby, two key developments in the history of glass production and artistry, have also previously been overlooked.

Drawn extensively from the collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, the most comprehensive collection of glass in the world, the exhibition brings together 117 objects from eight international lenders, with 87 from the Corning Museum's collection. The exhibition is curated by Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, curator of European glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, and will be on view in Corning through January 4, 2009.

David Whitehouse, executive director of The Corning Museum of Glass, said: "We're delighted to present this innovative exhibition that approaches fine 17th- and 18th-century glass vessels in a new way. As well as focusing on masterpieces of glassworking and engraving, it explores innovations in glassmaking—new formulas that created glass with new properties, and therefore new optical and decorative effects."

"These marvelous innovations have long been viewed as the isolated achievements of individual, talented glassmakers working in the leading glassmaking regions of northern Europe," added von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk. "But this exhibition reveals the previously disregarded role of the mysterious scientists, whose experiments to unlock the secrets of nature wielded unexpected and profound results on the history of glassmaking."

The exhibition will be the centerpiece of a broad roster of programs throughout the summer which will allow visitors to further explore the science, magic, and even wizardry, of the material—from hot glass demonstrations and interactive installations, to presentations that showcase the incredible properties of glass and make-your-own workshops where visitors will be able to create objects in the gold ruby color, ornament-sized wizard hats in fused glass and flameworked magic wands.

Alchemists traveled widely throughout northern Europe, interacting with glassmakers and disseminating their knowledge of material science and glass production. In some cases, they also turned to glassmaking themselves. In doing so, they served as a link between glassmakers in disparate regions of Europe and as far afield as Asia. This connection accounts for the rather unlikely, and nearly simultaneous, appearance of crystal glass in Baroque glassworks across Europe.

Often interpreted as accidents, the innovations of the alchemists were actually deliberate experiments that provided an unexpected foundation for today's material sciences. Alchemists strived for the explanation of natural phenomena, especially of what they perceived to be the generation and growth of natural resources. Through experiments that simulated natural processes, this early stage of chemistry explored the basic natural sciences and technology of materials (metal, glass, ceramics, and their raw components). The knowledge gained was decisive in the discovery of colorless lead crystal in the 1670s and gold ruby glass a decade later.

In the 1670s and 1680s, Venetian glass reigned over the market, with its voluptuous, highly colored forms and thin-walled vessels. The northern European innovations revealed a shift in interest from glassblowing, showcased exquisitely in the Venetian style, to the material itself, facilitating the creation of vessels with walls thick enough to carve and cut in their decoration. Critical to these advancements were new glass formulas, an improved treatment of raw materials, and innovations in furnace technology. All of these came straight from the laboratories of alchemists. Repeated experiments, coupled with a deep knowledge of material science, allowed the alchemists to both select the right raw materials to produce the new variety of glass and to understand the potential interactions, both desirable and not, of the component elements. Such experimentation could not have happened in a large glassworks factory, where the focus was on production. -- www.cmog.org