Images(3)

beaker

Object NameThe Behaim Beaker

Made FromSoda-lime Glass, Gold, Enamel

Dateprobably 1495

TechniqueBlown, enameled, gilded

SizeOverall H: 10.7 cm; Rim Diam: 7.8 cm; Foot Diam: 6.4 cm

Accession Number84.3.24

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Museum Endowment Fund

Curatorial Area(s)

Early Modern

Exhibitions

The Art of Glass: Masterpieces from The Corning Museum of Glass

Beyond Venice: Glass in Venetian Style, 1500-1750

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy

Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads

Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The Behaim Beaker is a fine example of Venetian cristallo, and it demonstrates how glass from Venice commanded attention abroad. The beaker bears a coat of arms and two panels, each of which contains a figure. The coat of arms belongs to the Behaim family of Nuremberg. One panel depicts the archangel Michael killing a dragon; the other shows Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The unusual combination of Michael and Catherine requires an explanation. It is thought that the beaker was made for the wedding, on July 7, 1495, of Michael IV Behaim of Schwarzbach, then patrician and mayor of the imperial city of Nuremberg, and Catherine Lochner of Nuremberg, the daughter of a rich merchant whose firm controlled trade between Nuremberg and Venice. If this explanation is correct, the Behaim Beaker is an outstanding illustration of fine Venetian glassware custom-made for export to Germany. It also demonstrates two of the features of Venetian glass that attracted widespread attention: the excellence of cristallo and the briliance of the gilded and enameled ornament. The Behaim Beaker appears to be the earliest Venetian gilded and enameled glass that can be dated precisely.

Place Made

Italy, Venice

Physical DescriptionBehaim Beaker. Colorless. Blown; enameled, gilded. Beaker: barrel shaped, with fire-polished rim; integral foot with articulated foot-ring and pontil mark. Below rim, gilded band with scratched design of scales, with rounded side up, between lines and denticular frieze below. Light blue dots adorn scales, red dots decorate denticular frieze, and dense row of white dots and scattered row of blue dots appear below gilding. Above foot, gilded band is scratched into circlets that hold, alternately, blue dot and red dot. Between bands, continuous green ground with black sprigs and white enamel dots; three gold trees, with green and blue enamel dots enlivened with white enamel dots, subdivide surface for large coat of arms and two cusped white and yellow frames with representations of archangel Michael and Saint Catherine. Targe per pale of gules and argent, overall a bend wavy sinister sable; crest a bird argent, gorged with crown sable; helmet mantlings red, lined with white.
Provenance

Provenance Remark

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