Venetian Renaissance artists and Murano

[publius71]

I just read an article about Venetian Artists using glass dust, most likely made in Murano, to enhance the light qualities of their paintings.

Here is an excerpt:

WASHINGTON - How did paintings by Tintoretto and other Venetian Renaissance artists get their special glow? Using an electron microscope, Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at the National Gallery of Art, discovered one of their secrets: tiny bits of glass the artists mixed with their pigments.

Yahoo news article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050825/ap_on_sc/glassy_art;_ylt=AroSJ1a33XvCsAikDrf2z3ys0NUE;_ylu= X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-)

Pub

Link:Nation Academy of Sciences Venetian Artists paper (http://www.nap.edu/books/0309096251/html/12.html)

[glassman]

I read the article, very interesting..Makes sense to add glass though to give it an extra shimmer or to deepen the colors

I think this is still done, just not for art purposes? For some reason it reminds me of the paint used on the road, with the reflective glass in the paint?
Maybe?

[publius71]

Nice find with the article! Very interesting reading.