Vase, La Mina,

ca. 1936

With his vase La Mina, the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa created during the prewar depression years a jewel of glass art with an almost transcendent luminance. Scattered across a spherical jet-black vessel, Scarpa had thirty separately blown glass balls applied in harmonious distribution. The resulting bomb form owes its luster to the gold leaf laid over the prints, in some cases in several layers to create an impression of great depth. The glass “landmine” also betrays a kinship with the artist’s Corrosi series, produced from 1936 to 1938. Here, the glassblower sprinkled the extremely thick surfaces with a coat of acid-soaked sawdust, causing corrosion. To emphasize the contour lines of the glass objects, Scarpa almost always used opaque glass in his sleek and unembellished creations. Scarpa acquired a rich stock of technical knowledge in his post as artistic director for the glass manufacturer Cappellin & C., later Venini & C., from the mid-1920s until 1947, putting his knowledge into practice in cooperation with the masters to create numerous vessels. In his longstanding engagement with glass, he ignored the prevailing requirements for serial production and instead went in for seemingly impossible experiments. (Sabine Flaschberger)