Egidio Costantini
founder
His life
He is born in Brindisi on 22 April 1912 and dies in Venice on 7 October 2007. In 1950 he founds the Centro Studio Pittori nell’Arte del Vetro in Murano; in 1955 he opens in Venice the gallery to which Jean Cocteau gives the name of Fucina degli Angeli. His life is told in five chapters, from the first, From childhood to glass, to the last, The master of masters.
His method
Between the artist, who conceives the work, and the master glassmaker, who commands the technique, Egidio is the third mind: he translates forms, colours and expressions from canvas into glass, guiding the master’s hand with his voice and his eyes. He asks every artist to leave him full freedom to make the work by his own intuitions: of the drawing, the glass keeps only the idea. The works are born in the furnaces of Murano; Egidio never owned one.