Carlo Scarpa Follow "A Fili" vase, model no. 4540 circa 1942 Blown glass with a fili and a fasce decoration, light iridization. 7 in. (17.8 cm) high Produced by Venini & C., Murano, Italy. Underside acid-etched venini/murano/ITALIA .
Provenance Private collection, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature Anna Venini Diaz de Santillana, Venini Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1986 , Milan, 2000, p. 215 Franco Deboni, Venini Glass: Its History, Artists and Techniques, Volume 1 , Turin, 2007, The Red Catalogue (appendix), n.p. Franco Deboni, Venini Glass: Catalogue 1921-2007, Volume 2 , Turin, 2007, fig. 100 Marino Barovier, ed., Carlo Scarpa Venini 1932-1947 , exh. cat., Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 2012, pp. 410, 415 Catalogue Essay Phillips would like to thank Franco Deboni for his assistance cataloguing the present lot. Clarity of Form: A Carlo Scarpa Coda for Venini During his fertile tenure as artistic director of Venini from 1932 until 1947, Carlo Scarpa singlehandedly imbued the ancient tradition of glassblowing with a thoroughly modern spirit. Scarpa applied his boundless creativity to a prolific corpus of designs that would earn the Murano glassworks a reputation as the most forward-thinking furnace in the Venetian Lagoon. Though trained as an architect, Scarpa came to Venini already familiar with glass, having served as an artistic director at the MVM Cappellin glassworks from 1925 until its dissolution in 1931. This hands-on knowledge of the material properties of glass served Scarpa during his relentless experimentation in pursuit of innovative new manufacturing and decorating techniques. The present lot, a blown glass vase recorded in Venini’s catalogue as model no. 4540, exemplifies Scarpa’s departure from Murano’s glassmaking tradition in its rejection of superfluous ornamentation and its embrace of essential geometric form and abstract decoration. This work is part of the a fili e a fasce (“ribbons and threads”) series of vases and bowls developed by Scarpa around 1942 and exhibited in that year’s Venice Biennale. Significantly, this series, along with the similar a pennellate (“brushstroked”) and “variegated” collections, also from 1942, are the last glass typologies Scarpa produced with Venini before dedicating himself to architecture until his death in 1978. The delicate pastel decoration of the a fili e a fasce pieces was achieved by applying a thin filament of colored glass to the exterior of the transparent form, then fusing the two together through repeated heatings during the working process. The subtle bloom, or iridescence, was obtained by exposing the worked piece to oxidized metallic compounds before cooling. The present vase and its related works in the a fili e a fasce series display an architect’s penchant for pure form and linear decoration, and reflect the deep influence first-generation modernists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Josef Hoffman had on Scarpa’s design sensibility. Geometry and the fundaments of line were aesthetic themes Scarpa explored in many of his earlier designs for Venini, including works decorated with intricate half-filigree (1932-36), vivid striping (1938-40), monochromatic milk glass pieces emphasizing their simple silhouettes (1936), and vessels inspired by the shapes of Chinese porcelains (1940). The ovoid form of the Scarpa vase, with its distinctively conical punt, and wide lip flange, appears to have made an impression on Tapio Wirkkala the Finnish master of elegant glass, who later adapted its shape for his iconic Bolle series of incalmo vessels produced for Venini in 1968. The subtle coloration and decorative restraint testifies to Scarpa’s versatility as a designer–only two years prior he had been producing radically unique series using riotously colorful murrine tessellations and vibrant tessuto patterns. Years spent exploring plasticity, opacity, and surface treatment through novel fabrication and finishing techniques yielded glass pieces which, at first glance, imitated the appearance of ceramics, lacquerwares, hammered silver, and etched stone. In their return to transparency and symmetry, Scarpa’s final designs for Venini celebrate the timeless es
Carlo Scarpa Follow "A Fili" vase, model no. 4540 circa 1942 Blown glass with a fili and a fasce decoration, light iridization. 7 in. (17.8 cm) high Produced by Venini & C., Murano, Italy. Underside acid-etched venini/murano/ITALIA .
Provenance Private collection, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature Anna Venini Diaz de Santillana, Venini Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1986 , Milan, 2000, p. 215 Franco Deboni, Venini Glass: Its History, Artists and Techniques, Volume 1 , Turin, 2007, The Red Catalogue (appendix), n.p. Franco Deboni, Venini Glass: Catalogue 1921-2007, Volume 2 , Turin, 2007, fig. 100 Marino Barovier, ed., Carlo Scarpa Venini 1932-1947 , exh. cat., Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 2012, pp. 410, 415 Catalogue Essay Phillips would like to thank Franco Deboni for his assistance cataloguing the present lot. Clarity of Form: A Carlo Scarpa Coda for Venini During his fertile tenure as artistic director of Venini from 1932 until 1947, Carlo Scarpa singlehandedly imbued the ancient tradition of glassblowing with a thoroughly modern spirit. Scarpa applied his boundless creativity to a prolific corpus of designs that would earn the Murano glassworks a reputation as the most forward-thinking furnace in the Venetian Lagoon. Though trained as an architect, Scarpa came to Venini already familiar with glass, having served as an artistic director at the MVM Cappellin glassworks from 1925 until its dissolution in 1931. This hands-on knowledge of the material properties of glass served Scarpa during his relentless experimentation in pursuit of innovative new manufacturing and decorating techniques. The present lot, a blown glass vase recorded in Venini’s catalogue as model no. 4540, exemplifies Scarpa’s departure from Murano’s glassmaking tradition in its rejection of superfluous ornamentation and its embrace of essential geometric form and abstract decoration. This work is part of the a fili e a fasce (“ribbons and threads”) series of vases and bowls developed by Scarpa around 1942 and exhibited in that year’s Venice Biennale. Significantly, this series, along with the similar a pennellate (“brushstroked”) and “variegated” collections, also from 1942, are the last glass typologies Scarpa produced with Venini before dedicating himself to architecture until his death in 1978. The delicate pastel decoration of the a fili e a fasce pieces was achieved by applying a thin filament of colored glass to the exterior of the transparent form, then fusing the two together through repeated heatings during the working process. The subtle bloom, or iridescence, was obtained by exposing the worked piece to oxidized metallic compounds before cooling. The present vase and its related works in the a fili e a fasce series display an architect’s penchant for pure form and linear decoration, and reflect the deep influence first-generation modernists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Josef Hoffman had on Scarpa’s design sensibility. Geometry and the fundaments of line were aesthetic themes Scarpa explored in many of his earlier designs for Venini, including works decorated with intricate half-filigree (1932-36), vivid striping (1938-40), monochromatic milk glass pieces emphasizing their simple silhouettes (1936), and vessels inspired by the shapes of Chinese porcelains (1940). The ovoid form of the Scarpa vase, with its distinctively conical punt, and wide lip flange, appears to have made an impression on Tapio Wirkkala the Finnish master of elegant glass, who later adapted its shape for his iconic Bolle series of incalmo vessels produced for Venini in 1968. The subtle coloration and decorative restraint testifies to Scarpa’s versatility as a designer–only two years prior he had been producing radically unique series using riotously colorful murrine tessellations and vibrant tessuto patterns. Years spent exploring plasticity, opacity, and surface treatment through novel fabrication and finishing techniques yielded glass pieces which, at first glance, imitated the appearance of ceramics, lacquerwares, hammered silver, and etched stone. In their return to transparency and symmetry, Scarpa’s final designs for Venini celebrate the timeless es
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