Historical and technical insight into the human motifs in the glass sculpture

Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604 589 Historical and technical insight into the human motifs in the glass sculpture M. Angeles Villegas-Broncano1; J.Alberto Durán-Suárez2 Recibido: 17 de mayo de 2020 / Aceptado: 29 de enero de 2021 Abstract. Although glass proto-sculptures were made with deep artistic value since the most remote times, in the late 19th century the glass sculpture was developed, and during the 20th century the Studio Glass Movement reached the maximum level of technical perfection and aesthetic variety. The scientific and technical glass knowledge contributed to achieve appropriate hot and cold working procedures, and the artists improved their designs and creations. This paper focuses on the binomial glass sculpture and human motifs. The historic evolution of the glass sculpture with human motifs is analyzed, taking into account the production techniques and the relationships between the glass work and the expression of the finished artwork. A set of sculptures and sculptors are shown as representative examples of the main historical periods in which the glass plays an important role in the sculpture scene. The human representation in the glass sculpture can be considered as a constant throughout centuries, even though it is not the most frequent creative or ornamental motif. Either figurative or abstract human references can be found, although the former are the majority. This tendency is also present in the contemporary Studio Glass Movement sculptures. Keywords: Sculpture; glass; human motif; history. [es] Visión histórica y técnica de los motivos humanos en la escultura en vidrio Resumen. Aunque las protoesculturas en vidrio se realizaron con profundo valor artístico desde los tiempos más remotos, a finales del s. XIX la escultura en vidrio se desarrolló, y en el s. XX el Studio Glass Movement alcanzó la máxima perfección técnica y variedad estética. El conocimiento científico y técnico del vidrio contribuyó a conseguir procedimientos apropiados para el trabajo en caliente y en frío, y los artistas mejoraron sus diseños y creaciones. Este artículo se centra en el binomio escultura en vidrio y motivos humanos. Se analiza la evolución histórica de la escultura en vidrio con dichos motivos, teniendo en cuenta las técnicas de producción y las relaciones entre el trabajo del vidrio y la expresión de la obra acabada. Se recogen ejemplos representativos de esculturas y escultores de los principales periodos en los que el vidrio desempeñó un papel importante en la escultura. La representación humana en la escultura en vidrio se puede considerar una constante en el tiempo, si bien no es el motivo creativo u ornamental más frecuente. Se pueden encontrar referencias a lo humano tanto figurativas como abstractas, siendo las figurativas mayoría, lo mismo que en las esculturas del Studio Glass Movement. Palabras clave: Escultura; vidrio; motivo humano; historia. 1 Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España) E-mail: [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9727-5478 2 Universidad de Granada (España) E-mail: [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9714-3555 Arte, Individuo y Sociedad ISSN: 1131-5598 https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/aris.69159 ARTÍCULOS Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604590 Sumario: 1. Introduction. 2. Glass proto-sculpture: portraits, heads and amulets. 3. Art nouveau and Art Déco glass sculpture. 4. Contemporary studio glass sculpture. 5. Some contribution to the glass sculpture based on human motifs. 6. Final remarks and conclusions. Referencias. Cómo citar: Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. (2021) Historical and technical insight into the human motifs in the glass sculpture. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad 33(2), 589-604. 1. Introduction Glass can be considered as a non-traditional sculpture material. This is probably due to the difficulties to work glass both under hot and cool conditions (Rich, 1988). In some aspects it is similar to bronze casting, but also difficulties arise in the fact that glass has been mainly considered as a functional material for conventional or luxury objects, or only used in artisan small-scale objects and decorative arts. In the case of glass work under hot conditions, the hot glass forming needs expensive and specialized investment in furnaces, refractory materials and tools, apart from experience and skills to handle glass at temperatures at least as high as 500-6000C. In the case of glass work under cool conditions, this cool work is always subjected to glass mechanical properties connected with its brittleness (Fernández Navarro, 2003) (Freiman, 1980), which determines complex and complicated techniques to achieve carving, engraving, polishing, etc. on the glass surface as in stone working techniques. Therefore, glass sculptures in Antiquity were dependent on the technical development of glass as a material and on the scarce technical knowledge that artisans had about it. In fact they were limited by the poorly developed heat technology and the limited technological knowledge about glass behavior and properties, both in hot and cool conditions, even though the artisans possessed wide empirical expertise. The glass proto-sculptures that have survived up to now were undoubtedly the result of the hard work of craftsmen, which created their artworks combining great artistic sense, few material media and little technological knowledge. Most of the glass works throughout History are related to common uses of glass, i.e. functional objects, very often obtained by blowing, with hollow shape and relatively small size, compared with artworks made on other materials (stone, ceramic, metal, alloy, wood, bone, etc.). Nevertheless, glass has been used to make luxury items and artworks (Villegas, Durán Suárez, Sorroche Cruz, Fernández Navarro, 2015), and throughout the centuries, thanks to the technical and scientific development, glass became a sculpture material, mainly from the second half of the 19th century (Villegas, Durán Suárez, Sorroche Cruz, 2017). Since ancient times the motifs of glass artworks have been taken from Nature and the human body, as well as geometrical and abstract designs (Ricke, 2002, p. 130). The human representation in glass is traditionally very common in stained glass windows (Wilie, Cheek, 1997) (Alonso Abad, 2016). However, it is not so frequent in glass sculptures. The objective of the present study is to highlight representation of human attributes in the glass sculpture, from ancient times to the present day. The consideration of the glass sculpture evolution from the point of view of its production technique is also addressed. The chronological evolution of the glass Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604 591 sculpture devoted to the human figure includes the concern and meaning of the artists and craftsmen to perpetuate a part of the Human Culture as a witness of History: the human being is the main character that will be shown and preserved. 2. Glass proto-sculpture: portraits, heads and amulets Despite glass appeared in Mesopotamia c. 2400 BC (M. García Heras, Fernández Navarro, Villegas, 2012) (Oppenheim, Brill, Barag, Von Saldern, 1970), the first well documented glass sculpture is considered to be an Egyptian portrait attributed to Amenothep II (XVIII Dynasty, c. 1426-1400 BC). In spite of the small dimensions of this portrait (H: 4 cm, W: 2.9 cm, D: 3.4 cm) conserved at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (USA), it is undoubtedly a sculpture which includes all the features of a traditional sculpture. The portrait was made by means of casting and pressing glass into a mould and, simultaneously, it is an example and antecedent of the portraits of important people whose sculptures were frequently made by Egyptian and classical Roman and Greek sculptors. In addition to the basic mould pressed glass technique, the Egyptian artisan probably used very simple tools and a great effort to create a very realistic expression. We can say that this Amenothep II glass sculpture was certainly true to the Pharaoh, at least if we bear in mind other portraits made on stone that shows very similar facial features. It has been supposed that the portrait could be a part of another bigger sculpture. In any case if so or not, the portrait shows great perfection and realism. Delicate contours were accomplished on blue glass, which appears surface deteriorated due to the atmospheric interaction. Fortunately such alteration layer did not destroy the figurative details of the portrait. Other small human sculptures, mainly heads and profile bodies, both tridimensional works and reliefs, were found in archaeological surveys and excavations. All of them were characterized by a realistic representation of the human body and its members, and frequently the artisans handled different colored glasses as an expression tool to intensify the symbolic message of the whole sculpture. Thus, they distinguished the hair or the jewelry from the face, arms or legs. Egyptian glass sculptures and reliefs combine human bodies or members with animals’ elements, as well as in all materials in Egyptian art. This is a consequence of the mythological tradition and deep beliefs of ancient Egyptian people on magic features of some animals, which survived up to the Ptolemaic-Roman era (1st century BC to 1st century AD). In the Phoenician civilization (some centuries BC) only heads and faces were the human available representation made on glass. There are in general small sculptures which were used as amulets and, therefore, the facial features were intensified, both in morphology and colors to express a deep symbolic value. Frequently the amulets were used as pendants and their dimensions were about 3-5 cm in height and 2-3 cm in diameter, showing hyper realistic eyes and eyebrows due to the prophylactic use of the amulet against the evil eye or hex (Ruano, 1996). Also the hair and the beard were represented with curls marked that were accomplished by means of rolled glass yarns or small rods. The use of glass yarns was one of the most common ancient techniques to decorate glass objects and sculptures, but it is a different technique respect to the most frequent in the Egyptian portrait. Moreover, the Phoenician amulets show a relatively varied palette of colors: at least black, blue, grey, red, white and yellow, compared with the limited palette of colors of Egyptian artisans. Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604592 Obviously, the most representative glass sculptures of the Roman culture were portraits of important people. Those of the Emperor Caesar Augustus are relatively abundant and very similar concerning facial features, even they were made on different materials, e.g. marble, stone, glass, bronze, etc. and among them the rarity of glass portraits should be stressed. The portrait of Caesar Augustus (first half of the 1st century AD, H: 4.7 cm), conserved at the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne (Germany), was made on turquoise-colored glass, probably by mould pressed technique (Harden, 1987). It is known that Caesar Augustus disseminated his own image throughout the territory of the Roman Empire with the intention that all people recognize him as the Roman Emperor. For that purpose all kind of media were used: coins, portraits, statues, etc. and all of them show the almost same young and handsome man. In fact, they all were official portraits of the Emperor made to demonstrate his power and vitality. Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque were periods in which the glass sculpture is absent in practice. On the one hand, other materials considered noble and more beautiful were used for sculptural purposes and, on the other hand, the glass was devoted above all for stained glass windows production in the Gothic and Renaissance styles, as well as for sumptuary objects, such as common and luxury tableware and for decorative items in the Baroque style. Therefore, the glass sculpture had to wait for several centuries to be reborn. 3. Art Nouveau and Art Déco glass sculpture The glass sculpture did appear again in the late 19th century as a consequence of the powerful fashion of decorative objects made on glass. This was the Art Nouveau era (Vidrio de artista, 2004). Artists and artisans dedicated their knowledge and effort to improve their skills and experience with glass both under hot and cool working conditions. Nature inspiration, as well as designs and models based on living beings dominated the artistic motifs. Complete human representation and human members began to be present in the sculptors’ repertories. The sculptures become a mixture of realistic and abstract concepts in a colorful synthesis of Nature and Art (Arwas, 1996). The French sculptor Henry Cros developed the modern technique of pâte de verre. It is important to note that the true pâte de verre was technically produced in this time starting from powdered glass previously melted and then crushed and finely grounded. This procedure must be distinguished from the ancient process for making partially melted glass objects (e.g. ancient Egyptian objects), even though many people consider that such ancient objects were made with pâte de verre. The aspect of both kinds of glass objects once finished is similar, but their origin is different: in the ancient ones such aspect is due to a partial glass melting, while in the objects made with true pâte de verre their aspect is due to the re-melting or at least softening of a true glass powder (Fernández Navarro, 2003) (García Heras, Fernández Navarro, Villegas, 2012). The works of Henry Cros were influenced by the European Antiquity that was present in motifs and ornaments of his glass works such as reliefs, vases, portraits, etc. in which the human body, members and faces are the main motifs or complementary motifs. Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604 593 Georges Despret played an important carrier as a glass artist. As Henry Cros he worked with pâte de verre making translucent and seductive works, mainly depicting human faces, in which the light subtly suggests the glass depth both to eyes and to touch. Other techniques used by Despret were glassblowing, molding, murrhines, decoration with colored powders, and so on. Although Émile Gallé represented mainly natural designs such as vegetal and animal motifs, the artwork La main aux algues at aux coquillages (H: 33.4 cm, L: 13.4 cm) conserved at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (France), is an example that shows this kind of union: one hand oriented with the fingers in the top position and surrounded by algae and shells; in the bottom of the sculpture the hand wrist emerges from a sea wave base. This sculpture consists on several hot formed glass layers, partially blown and further engraved at wheel and decorated with inclusions and applications. Inclusions were made with metallic oxides and stains, whereas applications were undertaken in low and high relief (Warmus, 1984). This figurative representation of a hand has been interpreted as something connected with the born of Venus in the ocean waters. Other explanations refer to a symbolic meaning: the emergence of human beings from vegetable beings (algae) and animals (shells and small marine living beings). Apart from these interpretations, this sculpture is the result of several glass working techniques, some of them carried out under hot conditions and others run at room temperature. The techniques were combined to achieve a determined design and, thus, they constitute a secondary role compared with the creative and expressive intention of the author, i.e. the technical creation procedures were subjected to a design that is dominated by a human motif and its symbolic meaning. In the short period of time between the First and Second World Wars the Art Déco imposed renewed art and decorative concepts. Natural motifs of the Art Nouveau style were adapted and stylized. Flowers and other vegetal ornaments were simplified and geometrically transformed. For instance, asymmetrical flowers like iris and glycine were substituted by symmetrical roses and daisies. Designs evolve towards simple and reiterative vegetal motifs that represent idealized sketches of the real flowers. Something similar takes place with the human representation: the figures lengthen and show a quasi dreamlike aspect. René Lalique was the most famous jeweler and designer of Art Nouveau and Art Déco times which used elements of the human body in glass artworks. For instance, his stylized sculpture Voilée mains jointes, designed in 1919 (H: 27.7 cm, W: 6.9 cm, base diameter: 6.3 cm) and conserved at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (USA), was made on glass and patina. This is a good example of the Art Déco concepts in glass sculpture and, as well as others of the same designer, was produced by mould casting and pressing of colorless bluish-green glass. The patina frosted aspect was obtained by one of the methods to depolishing the glass surface with an acid bath and/or sandblasting, making the matting by acid attack the most common process (Orgaz Orgaz, Jiménez Calvo, 1984). The figure appears as a unique volume that integrates the body, head, arms and legs; even all the clothes and veil are part of the volume. However, the aesthetic result is impressive: some simple reliefs and lines are enough to express a female body in a serene attitude, but full of life and feeling. Other similar sculptures also represent static human bodies, for instance the work in opal glass named Grande ovale joueuse de flute (H: 37 cm) by René Lalique at about 1919. Several sculptures were produced under such title, as well as many Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604594 other Lalique’s works that were not handmade. These sculptures point out how the designer knew to extend and organize a marketing network around its glass artworks by means of the serial production. The sculpture Danseuse by Gabriel Argy Rousseau (c. 1928, H: 25 cm, W: 13.5 cm, D: 13.7 cm) conserved at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (USA), was made on pâte de verre and is a realistic interpretation of the human body in movement. The female figure is also a stylized vision, but the contours of the different parts of such body are well marked. Nothing needs to be interpreted by the observer, since the sculpture corresponds almost linearly with reality. A new element contributes to that reality: the color. In fact a subtle greenish color mixed with some red veining beautifies its very bubbly transparent and translucent aspect. The representation of a scherzo-like posture was frequent in the sculptures of this period, for instance the design named Chrysis by René Lalique in 1931, which is a nude female statuette used to make a car mascot and also bookends, paperweights, etc. Other example showing similar features is the sculpture Silhouette produced by Marius Ernest Sabino in opal glass c. 1930 (Fig. 1). Figure 1. Marius Ernest Sabino, Silhouette, c. 1930 (H: 18 cm, W: 7 cm), http://sabinoartglass.com. However, coeval sculptures with a vessel primary form of Maurice Marinot (Fig. 2) show a very different aspect. Marinot used to handle thick glass walls in all kind of works, made by blowing and carving, combining bubbles of different size and basic colors entrapped into two thick glass layers (Marcilhac, 2013). Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604 595 Figure 2. Maurice Marinot, Blown and acid etched vase representing a head, c. 1928 (H: 22 cm, W: 16.6 cm diameter), The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH (USA). Contour lines and expressive motifs are simple and scarce, i.e. the minimum necessary to show the idea abstracted by the artist. This type of convincing sculpture of the Art Déco period coexisted with those of realistic and stylized representation of the human figure. Therefore, both can be considered as the two faces of the same chronological time, highlighting the sculpture tendencies of Art Déco. On the one hand the delicate lines stylizing the human figures and, on the other hand, the forthright and absolute designs. In this sense the glass as a sculpture material plays an important role, since it can be definitively adapted for both types of designs and sculpture tendencies by combining hot and cool glass working procedures. Something similar could be said for the series of glass sculptures executed one decade after. Figure 3 shows the portrait of Takijiro Iwaki, the founder in 1883 of the Japan’s first privately owned western-style glass factory. The bust modeled by Yuhei Ogawa and executed by Sotoichi Koshiba was made on translucent colorless pâte de verre (Blair, 1973). It is slightly frosted on the exterior surface, while the lower part is slightly grayish, smooth and glossy inside. Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604596 Figure 3. Sotoichi Koshiba, Portrait bust of Takijiro Iwaki, 1935 (H: 28.4 cm, shoulder H: about 18 cm), Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (USA). This sculpture, almost an absolute real representation of a person showing all facial features, as well as all the clothes details, is in deep contrast with that of Figure 4. This big sculpture (weight 300 pounds) possesses a definitive Art Déco style. It was created with colorless cast and polished glass for the 1939 New York World’s Fair by the Steuben’s designer Sydney Waugh. The sculpture represents a mermaid riding on the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, commemorating the start of glassmaking in America by European people (50 Years on 5th, 1984) (Madigan, 2003). A team of five glassworkers was needed to cast glass into the mould, and another three worked to polish the sculpture for several months. Once again, similarly to Marinot’s artworks, few expressive and simple contour lines are enough to transmit the author’s vision of reality. Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604 597 Figure 4. Sydney Waugh (Steuben Glass Works), Atlantica, 1938-39 (H: 94.5 cm W: 57.9 cm), Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (USA). 4. Contemporary studio glass sculpture The next step in the human representation on glass sculpture reaches the Studio Glass Movement started by Harvey K. Littleton in Toledo, Ohio, in 1962 (Byrd, 2011). Nevertheless, it is important to mention previous glass sculptures by Littleton in which he explores the glass potential under different approaches: hot work, cool work, pâte de verre, several glass compositions, etc. Figure 5 shows a realistic female torso made by sintering Vycor® glass, which is a 96 % silica and 4 % boron oxide glass obtained by acid leaching from a phase separated sodium borosilicate glass, patented by Corning Incorporated, NY (USA) (Fernandez Navarro, 2003). Villegas-Broncano, M.A.; Durán-Suárez, J.A. Arte, indiv. soc. 33(2) 2021: 589-604604 Villegas, M.A., Durán Suárez, J.A. & Sorroche Cruz, A. (2017). Antecedentes de la escultura del Studio Glass Movement en el vidrio artístico soplado del periodo 18001950. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 29 (1), 9-22. DOI:10.5209/ARIS.47613 Villegas, M.A. (2017). La escultura en vidrio en España. Boletín Mensual Amigos del MAVA. Asociación de Amigos del Museo de Arte en Vidrio de Alcorcón. Villegas Broncano, M.A., Durán Suárez, J.A., Sorroche Cruz, A. & Fernández Navarro, J.M. (2017). La escultura en vidrio. Colección Bellas Artes. Granada: Project PIE-CSIC ref. 201310E081 and University of Granada Ed. Warmus, W. (1984). Emile Gallé, dreams into glass. New York: The Corning Museum of Glass. Wilie, E. & Cheek, S. (1997). The art and decorative glass. Todtri Productions. 50 Years on 5th. A retrospective exhibition of Steuben Glass (exh. cat.). (1984). New York: Steuben Glass Inc.