ABSTRACT
It is here that the "black box" of consumer demand for fine luxury glass in the Renaissance, particularly those pieces made in Venice is opened. The forces in the Renaissance which helped create a renewed demand for glass are identified. Demand is the necessary precursor to production. Changes in consumer demand, needs, and preferences create important repercussions on the manufacturing technologies and techniques. Before beginning to describe and explain the
The simplest explanation for the increased consumer demand and interest in glass would follow the argument that more money was available and, as a result, people bought glass which stimulated production and innovation. This line of reasoning says nothing about why certain goods and materials were desired. Greater wealth is only a permissive cause. It does not explain why people wanted new types of objects or why these objects had value, i.e. effective cause. As Richard Goldthwaite astutely notes in his treatment of construction and architectural activity in Renaissance Florence: "The economy determines the context in which spending is possible .... The economic variables that impinge upon demand, however, can only shape demand, not create it. Demand itself arises from other sources."1 The task then is to demystify demand which brings us closer to issues of need, taste, and fashion. This necessitates drawing upon the three primary sources of information available - written material, pictorial representations, and material evidence from museum and archaeological contexts - from which a picture of the qualities and attributes that the Renaissance consumer found desirable in luxury glass objects emerges.
