The Manufacturer
AV Mazzega
The manufacture was founded on Murano Island, Venice, in 1946. With time AV Mazzega became one of Italy's leaders in sculptural and hand-blown glass lighting
Founding & History
From small furnace to Murano Icon
AV Mazzega was founded in 1946 by glassblower Angelo Vittorio Mazzega. So the company name comes from the founder's initials. In early years it was only a traditional furnace making Murano glass, creating vases, ashtrays, and decorative pieces mostly for the American market.
Everything changed when the founder's children, Lidia and Gianni Bruno Mazzega, took over the company and took a turn towards modern lighting design. Gianni found young designer Carlo Nason and provided him full freedom of creativity. That decision determined the future of the AV Mazzega for the next fifteen years and brought some of the most Iconic lightning pieces from the 20th century.
Today the company exists under the name Mazzega 1946, led by the founder's grandson, Andrea Mazzega. It still produces new lighting collections and their historic designs.
The Design Approach
Years of experimentation, then decades of collaborations
AV Mazzega's fame is heavily based on designs created during 1965 to 1980. During these times, designer Carlo Nason controlled production from the first sketch to the metal fitting on the finished lamp. And he was the one who designed layered, sculptural glass lightings the house is still best known for.
Carlo Nason set the design narrative, but he wasn't the only known designer. Aldo Nason, a relative of Carlo, is well-known for his chain like designs. And after the company's relaunch as Mazzega 1946, it collaborated with many international designers like Michele De Lucchi, Christophe Pillet, Paolo Piva, Nigel Coates, and Jean-Marie Massaud. But no matter the model or designer, each of the AV Mazzega pieces has thick, hand-blown, and 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.
