The Strasser Glass Collection was assembled by Rudolf Strasser (1919 – 2014) over a collection period of more than 50 years. It features precious glass objects from all of Europe’s major glass production areas, such as Venice, Hall in Tyrol, Innsbruck, Germany, Bohemia, Silesia, and the Netherlands.
The internationally renowned ‘Collection Rudolf Strasser’ came into the possession of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien in 2004; it was assembled over a collection period of more than 50 years and features over 300 precious glasses from the Renaissance to Classicism, manufactured in Europe’s major glass production areas. While 70 objects were assigned to the Kunstkammer Wien in 2013, the larger part of the collection found its final home at Ambras Castle in the same year.
Strasser began collecting glass objects in New York in the late 1950s, when he was working closely together with the Corning Museum of Glass in New York State. He was particularly interested in the historical message of the glass. With his passion for glass art and collecting, the lord of Ambras Castle, Archduke Ferdinand II, shaped Strasser’s understanding of art.
Ferdinand II had merchants and diplomats supply him with Venetian glass, which artfully imitated the shine and clarity of rock crystal; it was, therefore, also called cristallo, turning it into a coveted valuable at the time. Among the earliest Venetian glass decors was diamond-point engraving.
The creation of coloured glass by adding metal oxide was also perfected in the Venetian glass works of the fifteenth century and subsequently adopted further north. In terms of colourfulness, cold painting and especially the development of enamel painting added further means of expression. These techniques flourished even more north of the Alps. Secular-political or religious themes in narrative style as well as heraldic motifs or ornaments based on the art of pottery decorate the numerous glasses from the sixteenth and, even more so, the seventeenth century. These opaque decors became increasingly dense at the time, and often cover the entire vessel.
With his passion for glass art and collecting, the lord of Ambras Castle, Archduke Ferdinand II, shaped Strasser’s understanding of art.
The magnificent dark-red colour of the gold ruby glass was enhanced in the most precious way by adding gold and silver mountings as well as gold and cut decors. Gold is also a component of the glass itself, whose shine is similar to rubies. This fiery gemstone has always enjoyed the reputation of having restorative powers.
In addition, red was associated with power and privileges. Alchemists conducted experiments with gold ruby glass, hoping to create a philosopher’s stone, the substance allegedly capable of turning base metals into gold or silver.
The Ambras collection shows elaborately decorated glasses with diamond relief etching, diamond-point engravings, copper wheel engraving, high and low relief, Schwarzlot painting, Zwischengold glass, and ruby gold glass. They tell the history and technique of glass art from the early sixteenth to the late eighteenth century.
Ambras Castle
Schlossstraße 20
6020 Innsbruck
Daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed in november
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