Venetian maestro Lino Tagliapietra created this sculptural glass vessel titled Dinosaur in May 2006, at the brand-new Hot Shop in TMA’s Glass Pavilion. The relationship of the sculpture to its title may not be immediately apparent, but Tagliapietra considers dinosaurs to be strong but gentle aquatic animals: “Since I live in a place surrounded by lagoons and water, fish and other aquatic creatures are inspirational to me…. I have tried to integrate the strength of the dinosaur with the fluidity of the fishes that inhabit the waters of Venice.”

Dinosaur was blown of transparent, non-lead glass decorated with internal filigree of swirling, interlocking concentric lines, and then encased in colorless glass. Tagliapietra then tooled the sculpture to form the elongated neck with graceful curves. After the sculpture was annealed—allowed to cool slowly in a special oven—it was carefully packed into a custom-made crate and sent to Tagliapietra’s studio in Venice. There, under the artist’s supervision, Dinosaur was cold-worked by grinding and polishing battuto decoration that simulates the hammer marks of a metalsmith and accentuates the patterned fields.

Lino Tagliapietra (Italian, born 1934), Dinosaur, 2006, glass, blown, tooled. Gift of the artist, 2007.16

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