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Mid 20th Century Italian Art Glass Picture Frame for Venini by, Carlo Scarpa

About the Item

A fine Italian Mid Century Modern glass "Mezza Filigrana" picture frame designed by, Carlo Scarpa for Venini. The mirror frame is internally decorated with pink lattice decoration and further decorated with its original brass pedestal and mirrored glass. The mirror is signed on the back side "Made in Italy" Measurements: Outside: height: 11.25 x width: 10.75 in. x depth; 1.25 in. Interior: height: 8 in. x width: 10 in. Literature: Anna Venini Diaz de Santillana, 'Venini, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1986', Italy 2000, p 242. Biography: Carlo Scarpa - Italian (1906 - Carlo Scarpa was born in Venice in 1906 and would become one of the leading figures on the architecture and international design scene during the 20th century. He was only 21 years old when - still a student of the Academy of Fine Arts - he began working as a designer for the Murano Glass Masters Company Cappellin & C. and in a few years he completely revolutionized the approach to art glass. In a short time the Capellin furnace, under the guidance of Scarpa, not only appeared as the top company, but above all it opened up a millennia of Murano glass to modernity and international fame. Carlo Scarpa created a personal style, a new vision which irreversibly changed glass production. The young Scarpa experimented with new models and colors: his chromatic combinations, impeccable execution and geometric shapes became his modus operandi. Thanks to the continuous research on vitreous matter, Cappellin & C. under the guidance of Carlo Scarpa produced a series of high quality glass, revisiting ancient processing techniques such as the watermark and the Phoenician decoration. Gathering the challenge of opaque glass, he proposed textures of considerable chromatic impact, such as glass pastes and glazed glass with bright colors. Scarpa also collaborated in the renovation of Palazzo da Mula in Murano, the home of Cappellin. At the academy, he obtained the diploma of professor of architectural design and obtained an honorary degree from the Venice University Institute of Architecture of which he was director. In 1931, Scarpa's collaboration with Cappellin ended, following the bankruptcy of the company because it was not able to withstand the economic crisis linked to the Great Depression. But Scarpa did not go unnoticed by Paolo Venini: in 1933, the young designer became the new artistic director of the biggest glass company in Murano. Master glassmakers thought Scarpa's projects and sketches were impossible, but he, passionate and curious, always managed to get exactly what he wanted. Until 1947 he remained at the helm of Venini, creating some of the greatest masterpieces of glassmaking. His work with Venini was characterized by the continuous research on the subject, the use of color and techniques revisited in a personal way and the creation of new working procedures with master glassmakers. At the beginning of the 1930s, "bubble", "half filigree" and "submerged" glass appeared for the first time on the occasion of the Venice Biennale of 1934. A few years later exhibited at the Biennale and at the VI Triennale of Milan were the "lattimi" and the "murrine" romane, born from a joint idea with Paolo Venini. In 1938 Scarpa increased production, diversifying the vases from "objects of use" to sculptural works of art. In the same year he laid the foundations for the famous "woven" glass collection, exhibited the following year. In the following years, Scarpa-Venini continued to exhibit at the Biennale and in various exhibitions with the "black and red lacquers", the "granulari" and the "incisi", produced in limited series, and the "Chinese", inspired by oriental porcelain. Scarpa's creations for Venini garnered an international response and were a great success, leaving forever an indelible mark in the history of glassmaking. The last Biennale in which Carlo Scarpa participated as artistic director of Venini was in 1942. He would leave the company five years later. His time in the most important glass factory in Murano would attach a great artistic legacy to the company. His techniques and styles were resumed in the post-war period, under the guidance of Tobia Venini, Paolo's son. In the 1950s, after the departure of Scarpa, Fulvio Bianconi was the new visionary of the Biennials with Venini.

Creator:

Venini (Workshop/Studio),Carlo Scarpa (Maker)

Dimensions:

Height: 10.75 in (27.31 cm)Width: 11.75 in (29.85 cm)Depth: 1.25 in (3.18 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Art Glass,Brass,Hand-Crafted

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

Mid-20th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1930s

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Englewood, NJ

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU888827615722

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Venini

Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Giò Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearnsof the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.

Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm, he took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction it produced mainly classical Baroque designs. In 1932, he hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).

Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt. Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.

With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st century — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.