Dino Martens Murano Glass: The Painter of Asymmetric Chaos
The Visionary Designers: A Collector's Guide
Dino Martens — The Painter of Asymmetric Chaos
Artist Key: Dino Martens
- Role: Painter-Designer / Art Director (The Painter of Asymmetric Chaos)
- Life/Dates: Venice, 1894 – Venice, 1970 (Born Corrado Martens; signed paintings as "Dino")
- Primary Furnaces: Successori Andrea Rioda (1932–1937) | Vetri Decorativi Rag. Aureliano Toso (1939–1963)
- Signature Techniques: Vetro Oriente (Opaque glass patchwork with pinwheel murrine) | Vetro Eldorado (Aventurina transparent mosaic) | Zanfirico Patchwork (Asymmetrical filigree cane grids) | Pittorico (Painterly splashed ground) | Vetro Epico (Ribbon-spiraled vessels) | Filigrana Semplice a Fascia Bianca Nera | Vetro Pesante a Spinte / a Mace | Forati / Moore Perforations (Asymmetric hollow perforations)
- Market Price Tier: Very High-End Investment Grade (specifically 1952 Oriente and Eldorado asymmetrical models with intact star-shaped pinwheels, early Zanfirico Patchwork vases, and 1950s Forati) to Mid-Range (later Fascia Bianca Nera filigree bowls, molded tablewares, and post-1960 utility items)
- Key Collaborators: Aureliano Toso | Aldo 'Polo' Bon | Mario Zanetti | Luigi 'Gigetti' Martens | Ermete Vittorio Toso ("Fasioloni") | Guglielmo Barbini | Enrico Potz
Summary:
Discover the secrets to identifying and collecting the radical, avant-garde mid-century modern glassware designed by Dino Martens, Aureliano Toso’s legendary artistic director. This collector's guide covers his transition from Futurist painting to glass design, exploring his pioneering Vetro Oriente opaque patchwork series, the glittering Vetro Eldorado aventurina series, and his organic, perforated Forati collection. Learn how to verify authentic diagnostic markers—including asymmetrical mosaic layouts, distorted star-shaped pinwheels, flat ground-polished base rings, and authentic Aureliano Toso paper labels—to confidently identify his creations and spot true investment-grade treasures on the secondary market.
Visual Career Timeline
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│ DINO MARTENS │
│ - THE PAINTER OF ASYMMETRIC CHAOS - │
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│
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│ 1894 │ ──► Born Corrado Martens in Venice; later signs paintings as "Dino."
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│1918-24│ ──► Studies painting at the Venice Accademia di Belle Arti after WWI military service.
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│ 1925 │ ──► Partner and glass decorator at S.A.L.I.R.; later focuses strictly on painting.
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│ 1926 │ ──► Marries Amelia Toso, niece of accountant and future furnace founder Aureliano Toso.
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│ 1932 │ ──► Designs avant-garde blown glass for Salviati & C. / Successori Andrea Rioda.
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│1935-37│ ──► Volunteers for Mussolini's colonial war in Eritrea; continues to paint in Asmara.
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│ 1939 │ ──► Returns to Murano; Aureliano Toso invites him to design for his newly opened furnace.
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│ 1940 │ ──► Debuts at XXII Venice Biennale with bold, heavy-walled chessboard patchwork designs.
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│ 1944 │ ──► Appointed formal Artistic Director of Vetri Decorativi Rag. Aureliano Toso.
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│ 1948 │ ──► Unleashes "pennellata" splashed vases and "Fantasia" series at XXIV Venice Biennale.
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│ 1952 │ ──► Landmark XXVI Venice Biennale: launches the legendary Oriente and Eldorado series.
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│ ├─► Introduces the organic, perforated Moore-style "Forati" vases.
│ └─► Pairs with legendary master blower Aldo "Polo" Bon.
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│ 1954 │ ──► Launches the commercial, half-filigree Fascia Bianca Nera and Pittorico lines.
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│ 1959 │ ──► Aureliano's son, Gianfranco Toso, enters; pushes for semi-industrial modern lighting.
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│ 1963 │ ──► Dino Martens completely withdraws from glass design due to creative clashes.
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│ 1970 │ ──► Passes away in Venice in September, immortalized as Murano's boldest modernist.
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1. The Legend & Legacy
In the history of 20th-century Murano glass, Dino Martens (born Corrado Martens in Venice on 1894) is celebrated as the absolute master of painterly modernism. Unlike his contemporaries who approached glass from architecture, design, or physical craft, Martens was first and foremost a painter. After completing his military service in World War I, Martens studied painting at the prestigious Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice from 1918 to 1924, quickly aligning himself with the avant-garde Novecento artistic movement.
His entrance into the Muranese glass industry was erratic and highly bohemian. In 1925, he briefly became a partner and decorator at S.A.L.I.R. (Studio Ars Labor Industrie Riunite), but withdrew within a year to dedicate himself entirely to painting. In February 1926, he married Amelia Toso, whose uncle, Aureliano Toso, was then working as an accountant for the historic Fratelli Toso furnace. This familial connection would define the rest of Martens’s creative life.
Martens freelance-designed highly progressive glass for Salviati & C. and the Successori Andrea Rioda during the early 1930s, but his restless, volatile, and anti-authoritarian personality prevented him from holding a stable job. Seeking escape, both Martens and Aureliano Toso volunteered for Mussolini's colonial campaign in Eritrea in 1935. After returning to Murano in late 1939, Martens found that Aureliano had acquired Romano Mazzega’s former factory premises to establish his own independent furnace: Vetri Decorativi Rag. Aureliano Toso. Desperately searching for an innovative artistic director to qualify for the prestigious Venice Biennale, Aureliano invited his brother-in-law to take the helm.
The fit was legendary. Appointed formal Artistic Director in 1944, Martens completely disregarded the daily utilitarian output of the factory, treating the furnace floor as an open laboratory for his radical experiments. Working in close harmony with master blower Aldo 'Polo' Bon, Martens translated the gestural freedom of abstract expressionism into hot glass. At the Venice Biennales of 1948, 1952, and 1954, his chaotic, asymmetrical, and brilliantly colored patchwork vessels shocked the traditional establishment, instantly propelling Aureliano Toso to the peak of international modern design.
However, by the late 1950s, a deep generational conflict emerged on the furnace floor. Aureliano's son, Gianfranco Toso, joined the firm with strict ideas to phase out costly artistic hand-blowing in favor of profitable, semi-industrial modern lighting. Totally opposed to this industrial shift, an aging and stubborn Martens withdrew from the company in 1963, dedicating his final years strictly to painting until his death in September 1970.
2. The "Fingerprint" Technique
Dino Martens did not view glass as a clear, uniform medium; he treated the parison as a three-dimensional abstract canvas, loading it with irregular elements to disrupt traditional symmetry:
- Vetro Oriente (1952): Martens's absolute masterpiece and most famous technical invention. The technique involved cold-assembling a dense, highly chaotic "collage" or canvas on a flat metal plate, composed of opaque ground glass in vivid colors (red, yellow, cobalt blue), flattened zanfirico filigree canes, transparent glass squares, copper-aventurina flakes, and a very large, prominent pinwheel murrina (the "fiore" or flower, featuring black, white, and aubergine rays). Once assembled, a bubble of colorless glass was rolled over the plate, picking up the entire composition, which was then inflated and hand-worked into a dynamic, asymmetrical vase.
- Vetro Eldorado (1952): Formulated simultaneously with the Oriente series, this technique used the exact same chaotic mosaic layout but swapped the heavy, opaque ground glass for highly vibrant transparent ground glass. The entire body was heavily sprinkled with glittering aventurina (or avventurina) metal particles, giving the collection its name "Eldorado," referencing the mythical golden land.
- The "Forati" (Moore Perforations): Directly inspired by the organic, hollowed-out modern sculptures of Henry Moore (which Martens observed at the 1948 Venice Biennale), Martens introduced dramatic, gaping perforations directly into the bodies of his asymmetrical vases. To achieve this, the master blower would pierce the hot parison at its center, applied a thick clear glass trail to reinforce the edges of the opening, and then blew the vessel, forcing the glass walls to split around the hole and reunite at the neck.
- Zanfirico Patchwork (c. 1950): An early milestone in modern filigree design. Instead of arranging the complex spiral zanfirico rods into a regular, symmetrical basket-weave, Martens laid them out on the kiln plate in highly irregular, intersecting diagonal grids, fusing them into a bold, off-center patchwork pattern.
3. Famous Collaborations
Operating as a visionary designer who stood side-by-side with his artisans, Martens’s radical concepts required absolute trust and physical genius at the furnace:
- Aureliano Toso: The accountant-turned-director served as Martens's primary administrative patron and close brother-in-law (Dino married his niece Amelia). Toso gave Martens complete creative autonomy and funded his incredibly expensive furnace trial sessions, actively shielding him from the factory's commercial demands.
- Aldo 'Polo' Bon (1906–1988): As Aureliano Toso's premier master glassblower from 1939 to 1955, Bon was the physical force behind the "Martens style". He possessed the extreme heat control and rapid manipulation required to inflate Martens’s asymmetrical, perforated, and highly loaded patchwork parisons.
- Luigi 'Gigetti' Martens (1926–1989): Dino Martens’s son entered the company as an apprentice (garzone) in March 1941, rose to servente in 1950, and officially took his place as a master blower (maestro) in 1952. Under his father's direct artistic supervision, Luigi blew many of the firm's finest mid-century sommerso and pulegoso vases.
- Mario Zanetti: Succeeding Aldo Bon on the furnace floor in 1960, Zanetti was a highly disciplined maestro who executed Martens’s final design portfolios, including the elegant, color-reduced Flavia and Augusta table services for the 1963 Venice Biennale.
- Enrico Potz: Joining the firm in 1962 as Martens’s young personal assistant, Potz’s early designs so heavily emulated his mentor's late zanfirico and opalescent style that collectors frequently confuse the authorship of works from this transition era.
4. The Collector's Diagnostic Checklist
- Analyzing the Pinwheel Fiore (Flower): Authentic early Oriente and Eldorado pieces (c. 1952–1956) almost always feature a prominent, highly distorted star-shaped pinwheel murrina with approximately 19 to 23 radiating rays in black, white, and aubergine. If this pinwheel is perfectly circular, uniform, and lacks distortion, it is likely a modern reproduction.
- Irregularity vs. Order: On genuine Martens patchworks, the arrangement of colors, zanfirico rods, and metal powders is completely asymmetrical and chaotic. Beware of pieces that show a neat, repeating checkerboard or a structured linear grid—these indicate a cheaper imitation produced by other Murano factories (such as A.V.E.M.’s c. 1959 "Colori Oriente" series, which utilized identical glass inclusions but laid them out in regular square grids).
- Base Pontil and Edge Finish: Authentic Aureliano Toso pieces designed by Martens feature a base rim ground flat to a matte finish, with an uneven, offset, and deeply cut pontil hollow that is meticulously ground and polished.
- Archival Nicknames & Inscriptions: Martens did not merely assign model numbers; he gave highly poetic personal nicknames to all of his exhibition pieces and premium series models. Look for original paper labels or hand-written base inscriptions featuring names like Oriente curzio, Oriente egloga, Oriente Olaf, Oriente Lubecca, Oriente marullo, Oriente dandola, Oriente fenicottero, Oriente Geltrude, Eldorado Dionisiaco, or Eldorado pulcheria.
- Paper Labels & Stamps: Original Aureliano Toso production pieces are almost never signed with an engraved signature. Instead, look for a round or rectangular paper label reading VETRERIA AURELIANO TOSO MURANO in gold/silver or blue/white lettering on the underside of the base.
5. Market Realities (Spotting a Bargain)
- The Price Tiers:
- High-End Investment Grade: Original 1952 Oriente biconical and ovoid vases with central Moore perforations (Forati); original 1952 Eldorado large-scale bowls and pitchers featuring dense aventurina flecks; and 1950 Zanfirico Patchwork exhibition vessels.
- Mid-Range: Post-1954 Fascia Bianca Nera half-filigree vases; Pittorico splashed-color bowls with opalescent white backings; and Vetro Epico trailed-ribbon vases.
- Accessible: Small everyday utility items, molded-blown tablewares, and post-1960 decorative plates produced under his successor Enrico Potz.
- Differentiating the Copies: Because Dino Martens's mid-century modern designs defined the radical "Murano look" of the 1950s, they have been extensively plagiarized. Cheap contemporary copies stand out by their symmetrical forms, uniform colors, and thin, weightless glass walls. Authentic Martens vessels are exceptionally heavy, thick-walled, and feature a brilliant, light-refracting clear glass encasing (sommerso) that feels like solid crystal. Furthermore, fakes lack the surgical base grind and mirror-polished pontil hollow characteristic of an authentic Aureliano Toso masterwork.
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