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Fior di Tabasso: the seasons of Lilla Tabasso at Caffè Florian
From September 14 to October 27, 2024, the Sala delle Stagioni at Caffè Florian in St. Mark’s Square hosted an exhibition that moved and surprised visitors: “Fior di Tabasso. Le Stagioni al Florian.”
A poetic journey through the glass creations of Lilla Tabasso, the show transformed the fragile beauty of flowers into timeless stories.
Who is Lilla Tabasso, the poet of glass flowers?
Have you ever met an artist who can turn glass into flowers so realistic they seem freshly picked?
Born in Milan in 1973, Lilla Tabasso is both a biologist and designer who has managed to unite scientific precision with artistic sensitivity. After studying biology, she approached the delicate lampworking technique, learning it with perseverance despite those who told her that glassmaking was “a man’s trade”. Today, she is one of the most internationally recognized glass artists.
Her floral creations, delicate yet hyperrealistic, are not just tributes to nature but also mirrors of human emotions: for Tabasso, every flower is the expression of a state of mind.
Fior di Tabasso, a dialogue with Florian’s history
It is no coincidence that the exhibition was set in the Room of Seasons, decorated in the mid-19th century by Cesare Rota.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter: four seasons, four atmospheres, brought to life through carafes, trays, and glasses belonging to Caffè Florian’s tradition.
From blossoming peach branches to tireless ants, from Bruno Ceccobelli’s gold-painted chalices to reinterpreted goti in homage to Gaetano Pesce, each season became a story—of rebirth, effort, warmth, or silence.
SPRING
Peonies, rosehip berries, peach and pincushion flowers, muscari, dahlias and wild buttercups are among the triumph of spring blossoms that make up the first of Tabasso’s seasons at Florian. Harbingers of spring, they quaver and spread their fragrance through gentle zephyrs. The flowers are displayed as a centrepiece, as it used to be in the Venetian tradition.
Spring has come with joy
Welcomed by birds with joyous songs,
And the streams, amid gentle breezes,
Whisper softly as they sink.
The sky is covered in black and
Thunder and lightning announce the storm
When they are silent, the birds
Resume their delicious songs.
And in the pleasant flowery meadow,
To the soft murmur of leaves and plants,
The goatherd sleeps, his faithful dog by his side.
To the happy sound of a rustic bagpipe,
Nymphs and shepherds dance in their favorite place
When spring appears in all its glory.
SUMMER
In the sonnet that accompanies Estate, the heat of summer is conveyed by birds and the sun shining over shepherds and their flocks ahead of a summer storm. In the midst of the season, a … stuol furioso (furious crowd) of flies and blowflies keeps the repose away from the young shepherd, already anxious about the impending storm. Tabasso’s summer does not focus on wheat and poppies or other plants typical of the season, as tradition would have it, but rather on the toiling of insects in the heat.
Under the unforgiving sun of the season
The man and the herd are languishing, the pine is burning.
The cuckoo begins to sing and immediately
The dove and the goldfinch join him.
A light breeze is blowing, but Boreas
Woke up to suddenly fight with his neighbor,
And the shepherd cries because above his head
The formidable storm and its destiny.
His weary limbs are deprived of rest
Fear of lightning and scary thunder
And flies and hornets swarming.
Alas, his fears come true:
Thunder and lightning are raging in the skies.
And the hail cuts down the great wheat.
Summer, the glass work by Lilla Tabassso depicting industrious ants
AUTUMN
Red and gold are among the colours associated with autumn. As described in the sonnet, autumn is also the season of hunting and of the wine harvest. For
Florian’s Sala Liberty, Tabasso created an ensemble of red, yellow and gold flowers, withering after the summer heat as the year draws to its inexorable end.
The peasant celebrates by dancing and singing
The pleasure of the rich harvest,
And full of Bacchus liquor
They end their rejoicings with a sleep.
Each peasant ceases his dance and song.
The mild air gives pleasure,
And the season invites many
To enjoy a sweet slumber.
The hunters, at the break of dawn, go to the hunt.
With horns, guns, and dogs they are off,
The beast flees, and they follow its trail.
Already fearful and exhausted by the great noise,
Of guns and dogs, and wounded,
The exhausted beast tries to flee, but dies.
WINTER
The last of Tabasso’s four seasons – a time of cold, rain, snow and ice but also of fire – is an homage to the late Gaetano Pesce. Tabasso has created piles of goti, this is the name Pesce gave to his vessel, from which emerge black hellebores, a poisonous flower that does not exist in nature in black.
Frozen and shivering in the icy snow,
Under the battering of a terrible wind
Run stamping your feet every moment,
Teeth chattering in the cold.
Spend calm and happy moments by the fire
While outside the rain sprinkles everyone.
Walking on the ice with hesitant steps,
By being careful, lest you fall.
Jump in haste, slip, and fall to the ground,
Get back on the ice and run,
In case the ice cracks and opens.
To hear, leaving their screened house, Sirocco,
Boreas, and all the winds in battle…
It’s winter, but it brings joy.
Winter represented composed by Gaetano Pesce's Goti and glass flowers made by Lilla Tabasso
The Fondazione di Venezia Prize
The power of this exhibition did not go unnoticed.
“Fior di Tabasso. Le Stagioni al Florian” was awarded the Fondazione di Venezia Prize during The Venice Glass Week 2024, an acknowledgment celebrating both the talent of the artist and her ability to innovate in the art of glass.
This achievement strengthens the bond between Tabasso and the historic café, while confirming Florian’s role as a stage for international artistic dialogue.
A timeless experience
Lilla Tabasso’s works do more than amaze with their technical perfection: they speak to the heart. Through the fragile yet intense beauty of flowers, they evoke universal emotions.
And experiencing them inside the historic halls of Caffè Florian means weaving together Venice’s history and contemporary art — a dialogue that continues to enchant every visitor who steps inside.
