ORSONI HISTORY


Angelo Orsoni

HISTORY
When Angelo Orsoni set out for Paris in 1889, little could he have guessed at the success his courageous, original idea was to bring him. With his strong and resolute air, at the age of forty, he was taking a crucial gamble: showing the world that, alongside the most avant-garde techniques and within the vast enclosures of the Great Exhibition in Paris, the ancient and noble medium – mosaic could have be assigned a place of honor. His success was enormous!He presented a multicolored panel created for his sample collection of smalti and gold mosaic which immediately acquired artistic status and was considered a sign of its maker’s genius.


Angelo Orsoni was born into a poverty-stricken Murano family in the mid-nineteenth century and spent his early years working in glass factories were he developed a great passion for glass becoming specialized and skilled in making crystals, colored glass and avventurina. In 1877 famous mosaicists Giadomenico Facchina how just received a big commission from France, discovered the young talented Orsoni and offered him to work in his factory to produce smalti.Later Facchina moved to France inviting Orsoni to follow him but he refused, the love for his town and his country made him decide to stay and with the firm believe he would have find the success in his own Venice. Facchina decided to donate Orsoni his workshop and become himself his first and best client. It was 1888, the year before the Great Exhibition in Paris and the blooming Age of Art Nouveau during witch the Mosaic started to explore new categories of applications, detaching his use from the religious image and embracing new concepts for decoration and urban design as well as pure art form. This is a moment of a great smalti production. Mosaic production enjoyed a healthy revival, in large part because of Orsoni’s contributions.

Orsoni’s name soon became linked to major projects such as those involving the Sacre’ Coeur Cathedral in Paris, the celebrated Paris Opera House, the Sanctuary of Lourdes and St. Paul Cathedral in London, to name but a fewWhen Angelo Orsoni died in 1921, his son Giovanni inherited a company that was by now established throughout Europe. Giovanni Orsoni did not betray his cultural, as well as technical, legacy.

He was responsible for the wonderful mosaic decorations on the spires of Gaudi’s masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, for those inside the Altare della Patria in Rome, and the astonishing Golden Room in Stockholm City Hall. Giovanni was assisted by his son Angelo, who took over the company on his father’s death in 1935. Years later, Angelo was joined by his sons Ruggero and Lucio. When their father died in 1969, Ruggero and Lucio carried on the family business as tirelessly as ever and continue today to devote their time and their incredible talents to the fine art of mosaics.

PRODUCTION
The fundamental ingredients for the smalti are exactly the same used in the production of glass : sand and soda, subsequently enriched with opacifying and oxides. These ingredients, along with the coloring agents, are heated in furnaces at extremely high temperatures to create a glass paste.
The magic and artistry of Orsoni smalti lies in the masterful creation of color. Master glassmakers know this stage as "tirare il colore" (drawing out the color) and it is without a doubt the most difficult and delicate stage of the entire operation. Thousands of different colors can be obtained from just a few dozen oxides and Orsoni uses secret family ‘recipes’ handed down through four generations to acquire the incredible tone and intensity of their smalti.

Colour selection
When the color and firing have reached the desired point- and this may take days- the fused molten paste is removed from the melting pot using gestures and movements that have been repeated millions of times, as though in a sort of ritual. The long, heavy spoon is beaten rhythmically on the work surface, the glowing ball of glass is squeezed and flattened into oblong slabs, and then the slabs are slowly and methodically annealed (cooled Once the precise annealing process has been completed, it is time for the preparation of the "tesserae" and every tessera created Orsoni is cut by hand!
The large glass slabs are first sliced into rods with the aid of a diamond blade and then chipped down into small rectangles with the rhythmic strokes of old and rudimentary manually-operated cutting machines Up until now we have talked about tesserae, but it is important to draw the distinction between small glass tile and "tesserae" in the true sense of the word.

The cutting machine
Glass tile are cut in bands directly from the surface of the glass slab, creating relatively regular, smooth and even squares which, it must be admitted, are far less interesting than tesserae. Orsoni smalti, on the other hand, is rectangular in shape, and is intriguing precisely because it is cut at an angle to the glass slab. It is the sheared, cut side of the glass, which serves as the top surface of the tesserae. It is this cut that gives Orsoni smalti its reflective, shimmering brilliance that just cannot be matched.

SAMPLE BOARD
The Sample board Cut A consists of 105 colours plus 20 gold. The Sample board Transparent consist of 20 colours of venetian transparent smalti.
For ensuring a good color match and appreciate the real Smalti we recommend to order a Sample Board.

To order a Sample Board click here.

Sample boards are invaluable for planning your material needs for your newest projects and for ensuring the most accurate color match.
Because of the wonderful subtlety of shades that can only be appreciated in person (and difficult to see on many monitors), we strongly suggest that you order a Sample Board prior to smalti and gold purchases. Our Sample Boards contain each color in the smalti and gold palettes with its corresponding stock number for easy ordering.