Vase orientalisant

The handle vase on display here was made by the French artist Emile Gallé (1846–1904) from Nancy, who is considered the most famous representative of French Art Nouveau in the field of glass art and was the founder of the École d'arts décoratifs de Nancy. The vase, the shape of which is reminiscent of Islamic mosque lamps, is made of mouth-blown transparent glass. After cooling, Gallé decorated the vase with enamel and also decorated the neck of the vase with gold paint. Using a black outline and a dark blue paint, he drew Arabic calligraphy on the belly of the vase and a coat of arms with a lion on the vase neck. The technique of enamelling, in which ground glass mixed with various colour pigments is applied to the object and then melted in a controlled manner at low temperatures, has its origins in the Islamic world, where it was first documented in the 12th century in ar-Raqqa, Syria, and spread to Egypt during the Mamluk reign (1250–1517). Until the conquest of Syria by Timur (also known as Tamerlane, 1336–1405), Damascus and Aleppo were particularly famous for the gilding of glass, a technique dating back to Byzantine times in which small amounts of gold were fused onto the body of the glass. Glass decorated with gold and enamel became a sought-after commodity in both Europe and China, and the (gold) enamelling technique also reached Venice through intensive trade relations in the Mediterranean region from the 15th century onwards. In order to revitalise their own craftsmanship in Europe, glass artists such as Gallé, who was based in Nancy, also adopted Mamluk art forms and techniques as part of the historicism and orientalism of the 19th century. Gallé produced vases in an orientalising style, particularly from the 1880s onwards, and presented his pieces at the Paris world’s fairs. For example, he celebrated great success with 300 glass pieces at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.