Wine glass c. 1912

Curator: Well, what strikes you first about this rather unusual "Wine Glass," crafted around 1912 by Otto Prutscher? Editor: It feels… strangely architectural. Like a modernist skyscraper shrunk down. There's this playful tension between fragility and rigid geometry. It almost seems too precious to actually drink from. Curator: Indeed. Prutscher was quite influential in the Viennese art scene. What appears at first glance as simple decoration reveals an undercurrent of deep, structural thinking. The stacked cubes forming the stem aren’t merely decorative; they recall ancient columns. Editor: And that intense blue against the clear glass? It's arresting. Blue, of course, represents everything from trust to melancholy… does it speak to deeper emotional resonances for you in the design, then? Curator: The use of blue often points towards higher social status and divinity – lapis lazuli was a valuable commodity at the time. Yet in glassware it takes on an added symbolic level due to its fragile and permeable material – here acting as a symbol of aristocratic status as well as intellectual pursuit, or perhaps spiritual attainment. And this interplay continues across the container supported by these visual supports as well. Editor: Yes, exactly! The transparency is crucial, isn’t it? A tangible, almost theatrical tension. It’s as though Prutscher wanted us to savor the light *through* the form, as much as anything *within* it. There’s also something so inherently unstable feeling about an elongated, rectangular glass form resting on a thin stem that really creates this wonderful precarious sensation, of balance on the edge. Curator: Balance on the edge is right, the whole visual object walks on this sharp distinction between weight and transparency! Prutscher masterfully creates a bridge between the visual and the symbolic realms. This seemingly functional wine glass is truly a fascinating miniature essay in aesthetics. Editor: A miniature architectural essay in glass! Yes, I think seeing it that way really helps bring it all home, both for the piece and its symbolism within glass art history! Thanks!