Lino named his Contarini series for one of Venice’s most famous and historical families. There are a number of palazzos throughout Venice that once belonged to the Contarini family, and each features eye-catchingarchitectural details that have inspired the Maestro to recreate in glass over nearly two decades. Like its namesake, the Palazzo Contarini, Lino’s Contarini features “windows” which here offer us a glimpse of the opposite side of the vessel.

The Saturno, considered by the Maestro to be “the biggest technical challenge” of his career. The Maestro began working on this idea in 1968, and explains that the technique took nearly twenty years to perfect. Using a play on the Italian process incalmo, which combines separate vessels to create bands of color, Lino instead fuses together two bubbles of glass: a feat requiring intense precision and a deep understanding of the material itself.

Lino took inspiration for the Gondola series from the boats that fill Murano's landscape. The simplified boat forms developed from Lino’s admiration for Corto Maltese, a series of Italian comics that chronicle the adventures of a sailor. This particular Gondola is plated in gold leaf. 

The Ala as we know it today was first made in 1995 at the Pilchuck Glass School while Tagliapietra was working with glassblower William Morris. Since then the bird-like shapes have become a signature of Lino’s career.

Lino took inspiration for these artworks from photographs of space - the images of swirling stars and faraway galaxies fueled his imagination and motivated him to craft murrini that would create similar effects.