History of the Tuscan Flask

With its rounded shape and a straw "dress" that recalls the image of peasant tradition, we're talking about the straw flask, one of the symbols of the most authentic rural Tuscany.

The history of the Tuscan fiasco reaches far back in time: it seems the first ones were produced in the distant 14th century, in the Valdelsa, San Gimignano and Empoli area. There, where the art of glassmaking had long been famous, these particular containers began to be produced by blowing the glass bubble.

A Tuscan detail

Why are the flasks covered with straw?

Perhaps the most particular and typical feature, beyond the rounded shape, is the coating of the Tuscan wine or oil flask.

Originally the flasks were left uncovered, but over time it became clear that a coating would guarantee better protection from shocks and better conservation, keeping the contents shielded from the sun's rays and from the elements in general. For this coating, the "stiancia" was used — a marsh grass widespread in the local wetlands, easily shaped and made of a very resistant fiber.

A subject for the greats

Famous flasks

The fiasco became such a widespread object on Tuscan tables that the greatest Tuscan writers and artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance wrote about it or portrayed it in their paintings — Boccaccio, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli among them.

During the 1700s, the fiasco also became one of the favorite subjects of Cézanne's still lifes.