Glassware used to be very precious but, as with all commodities, more efficient production methods made the price tumble. This is what happened in Roman times.

Inventories from houses in Pompeii show that by 79 AD — when volcanic ash from Vesuvius smothered the city — the middle classes had replaced most of their metal household vessels with glass ones. Glass was still too expensive for poor households, but was apparently too cheap for the rich, who seemed to have stuck with their gold and silver vessels.

The exhibition “Vitrum”, which runs until 31 October in Florence, shows how Roman technologists made glass affordable — in large part by perfecting glass-blowing techniques, which vastly increased its versatility too. They also developed other techniques, such as glass ‘cameoing’, and colouring using different metal oxides.

With its new and seductive transparency, glass quickly won over many levels of society. In the Pompeii mosaic above, the fruit bowl, whose fruit is sparklingly visible within it, is clearly a source of domestic pride. But glass also transformed architecture. Many glass window panes have been found in Pompeii, replacing the traditional cloth hangings that left interiors dark. Mosaics for walls then became popular, using coloured glass chips which had reflective properties that further lightened domestic space.

The scientific élite also embraced glass for its own pragmatic and experimental purposes. Physicians began to use glass urine containers. Urine was a major diagnostic aid in those days, and a transparent vessel that allowed its colour to be easily monitored was a boon. Sealed glass ampoules also came into common use to protect pharmaceutical preparations from contamination.

In the second century AD, Ptolemy used variously shaped vessels — “made of glass that is as thin and pure as possible so they are transparent” — that he filled with water, to demonstrate his laws of optical refraction.

This unusual and informative exhibition enjoys an exceptional location in Florence's fifteenth-century Palazzo Pitti, in rooms whose walls are completely frescoed.

→ http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/vitrum