Carlo Scarpa

1906 - 1978

Architect and designer. Born in Venice, he graduated in 1926 at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. Soon after his graduation he began work at M.V.M. Cappellin where he soon replaced Vittorio Zecchin as artistic director. Following the direction laid down by Zecchin, he initially created transparent blown glass pieces with essential forms, in particular the pieces characterized by their conic base. Scarpa later designed light glass pieces in brightly coloured pasta vitrea, or decorated with festoons (fenici). Deservedly famous was the refined collection of lattimi with gold or silver leaf which he presented in Monza in 1930 together with the canne verticali and millefiori glass pieces. Cappellin closed for bankruptcy in 1932, puting an end to the collaboration, and in 1934 Scarpa became artistic director of Venini, where he stayed through 1947 circa. Beside Paolo Venini, who often participated in design personally, Carlo Scarpa experimented the vast potential of glass, using and innovating many traditional techniques with which he obtained extraordinarily modern pieces. After the mezza filigrana glass pieces came the first sommersi, the paste vitree which were inspired by Chinese ceramic motifs, the corrosi, the battuti, the vessels a fasce colorate, a pennellate, the variegati, and the famous polychrome murrine with cut surfaces. After the war Carlo Scarpa returned almost exclusively to his work as architect and teacher.

click to enlarge