Umberto Bellotto & Cappellin Murano Biography
Umberto Bellotto (Venice, 5 March 1882 – Venice, 1940) was an Italian iron and glass craftsman. He was among the very first to combine the age-old art of Venetian glassmaking with that of wrought iron. Umberto Bellotto in fact began working in his father's ironworks shop, inherited at the age of 19, together with the architect Cesare Aurienti with whom he invented and in 1910 patented a technique for "unions of iron and glass". He began working for the glass companies "artisti Barovier" and "fratelli Toso" of Murano, famous for the murrina workmanship. Since the early years of the twentieth century he collaborated with various artists (including the historic Murano glassworks Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano, Barovier and Venini) in the creation of works both of a commercial nature such as furnishing objects, and with architects such as Ferruccio Chemello (Pasubio Ossuary, 1926) in public domain works. Among the most famous works are the Hall of the gates of Castello Bolognini, the gate of Dante Alighieri's tomb in Ravenna and the railings for the Bank of Italy building in Rialto, Venice. In his career he had numerous participations in the Venice Biennale respectively in 1914, 1920, 1922, 1924; in 1925 he participated in the Monza triennial; in 1927, again in Monza, he exhibited for Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano a solo exhibition of works with deco forms of cubist derivation with overlapping spheres, cones, in which the base glass was pure crystal or regularly arranged bubbles. In addition to the iron vases with iron and glass structures, typical of his production, the artist created typical blown vases with schematic shapes and smooth or serrated handles in dark glass for the 1927 exhibition. In 1928 he was called to Rome by his fellow countryman Giovanni Giuriati, then minister for public works, with the task of official decorator of the capital's public buildings, thus ceasing his artistic production. In the 1995 edition of the Biennale, an exhibition of five works was dedicated to the artist. A multifaceted artist in the use of metals, he has also ventured into the creation of works in lost wax cast bronze, glass and majolica, creating ornamental vases with extravagant shapes with applications that appear to be the prows of gondolas. A great enthusiast of his works was Gabriele D'Annunzio.
