Now You See It, Now You Don't

I kept looking at these three contemporary glass pieces, wondering why I wanted to put them together. Then the right word (I think) came to me - Rococo. The exuberant line that comes to us via Art Nouveau, the heir of the figura serpentina, the line that turns on itself, in its joyous display. Remember that the nouveau Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861-1947) called it the Stem Style.

There is something else, too, an intriguing combination of color and transparency, that misleads and delights the eye. The leaning cactus holds up a clear bowl, the clear disembodied hand clasps a delicate blue seashell, and in the place on the braided stemware glass that the early Murano glass makers might have embedded a multi-colored bead - there is a purple head, and why not. (There is a frontal view of the glass at the website of the National Ceramics Museum that makes it appear to be a vehement wind god.)

Hilton McConnico is an American who has designed glass pieces for the presitigious manufactures of Sevres and Daum in France.

Milvia di Melasso Maglione (b. 1934) is an Italian artist and designer whose work is also included in the collection of the Pompidou Center, Paris.

Lucio Bubacco, also Italian, designs in glass using the lampworking technique, in which a gas torch is used to melt and bend rods or tubes of glass.

1. Hilton McConnico - Cactus Bowl, 1987, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nancy.

2. Milvia Di Melasso Maglione - Cloud, 1969, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nancy.

3. Lucio Bubacco - Purple-headed Glass, 1999, National Ceramics Museum, Sevres.