The Manufacturer
AV Mazzega
Was founded on Murano Island in 1946. With time AV Mazzega became one of Italy's defining names in sculptural and hand-blown glass lighting
Founding & History
From a traditional furnace to Murano's lighting house
AV Mazzega was founded in 1946 on Murano by glassblower Angelo Vittorio Mazzega. The "A.V." in the company name is simply his own initials. In its early years the furnace made traditional Murano glass, mostly for the
American market, things like vases, ashtrays and decorative pieces made in series.
Everything changed in the 1960s, when the founder's children, Lidia and Gianni Bruno Mazzega, steered the company toward contemporary lighting design. Gianni Bruno gave a young designer named Carlo Nason free rein to experiment. That one decision shaped the company for the next fifteen years and produced some of the most recognizable Murano lighting of the 20th century. The company published its first lighting catalogue in 1970.
Today the firm continues under the name Mazzega 1946, led by Andrea Mazzega, the founder's grandson. It still produces new lighting collections and re-editions of historic designs from its own archive.
The Design Approach
Fifteen years of experimentation, then decades of new collaborators
AV Mazzega's modern reputation was built during a specific window,
roughly 1965 to 1980, when the Mazzega family gave designer Carlo Nason near-total creative freedom over the company's lighting line. He controlled the process from first sketch through to the metal fittings on the finished lamp, and that freedom produced the layered, sculptural glass the house is still best known for.
That era set the visual language, but it wasn't the whole story. Aldo Nason, a relative of Carlo's, contributed his own pieces during the same period, and since the company's relaunch as Mazzega 1946, it has worked with a wider international roster, including Michele De Lucchi, Christophe Pillet, Paolo Piva, Nigel Coates and Jean-Marie Massaud, continuing the same emphasis on thick, hand-blown, light-diffusing glass.
AV Mazzega's reputation rests on thick, sculptural, hand-blown glass built specifically for diffusing light.
Layered Glass
Multiple glass bodies, blown and nested inside one another, create real depth and a soft, diffused glow. Introduced by Carlo Nason and continued in later collections, it's rare among Murano lamps of the era.
Opaline
A semi-transparent, milky glass, not quite clear and not quite opaque. Good for layering, and for softening the light that passes through it.
Sfumato
An opaque milky color fades, or "smokes," gradually into transparency along the body of the piece. It's the defining look of Mazzega's stacked floor lamps.
Ghiaccio ("Ice")
A crackled, frosted surface made by plunging the hot glass into cold water, so the surface fractures into a texture resembling ice.
Pulegoso
Glass deliberately filled with countless tiny bubbles, giving the body a cloudy, textured quality.
Vetro in Piastra
Molten glass poured onto flat metal plates, then folded or stacked. It's the technique behind Mazzega's disc-form ceiling and wall lights.
Who Designed For Them
Hands That Shaped The Catalog
| Carlo Nason | c. 1965–1980 | Designed essentially the firm's entire modern lighting collection, including the Sfumato, Lotus, Medusa and Iceberg lines that still define the AV Mazzega name today. |
| Aldo Nason | 1960s–70s | A relative of Carlo's, credited with select pieces including tube-form pulegoso lighting. |
| Michele De Lucchi & contemporaries | 2000s–present | Under Mazzega 1946, the firm has worked with a wider international roster, including Christophe Pillet, Paolo Piva, Nigel Coates and Jean-Marie Massaud. |
Held In Permanent Collections
Recognized By Major Institutions
AV Mazzega lighting, largely from the Nason years, is held by the Museum of Modern Art and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. The Triennale di Milano also hosted a dedicated exhibition on Carlo Nason's design work in 2015.
