Carlo Scarpa for Venini & C.

CARLO SCARPA (Venice, 1906-Sendai, Japan, 1978) for VENINI & C.
"Snakes and Cup", allegory of the Pharmacy, 1943.
Blown and hot-applied Murano art glass.
Signed.
Piece belonging to the famous series of allegorical centerpieces designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini & C. commissioned by the University of Padua in 1943.
In very good condition.
Measurements: 21,5 x 17 x 9 cm.

In "Snakes and Cup", Scarpa resorts to one of the most ancient emblems linked to medicine and pharmacology: the snake, symbol of healing, knowledge and transformation. The piece takes the form of a central transparent glass cup, flanked by two ascending snakes that envelop the composition with a symmetrical and ceremonial movement.

The colorless glass, slightly iridescent, contrasts with the amber glass applications with aventurine, visible in the snakes, the lower supports and small ornamental details. The glass functions as the ritual core of the composition, while the snakes provide sculptural dynamism, vertical tension and symbolic refinement.

The transparency of the glass, the golden brilliance of the applications and Venini's technical precision reveal Scarpa's ability to transform an academic symbol into a work of elegant modernity.

In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the University of Padua commissioned the Venetian firm Venini & C. to create an extraordinary series of allegorical centerpieces to represent the various university faculties. The project was entrusted to Carlo Scarpa, one of the most influential figures in 20th century Italian design and then artistic director of Venini.

Made in Murano art glass, these pieces combine Venini's refined technical mastery with Scarpa's poetic and sculptural universe. Each composition adopts a zoomorphic or symbolic form - the ox, the swan, the eagle, the beehive or the snake - to evoke disciplines such as Law, Philosophy, Science or Medicine, reinterpreting the tradition of Baroque "table gardens" from a modern and profoundly Italian sensibility.

For decades, these works remained virtually unknown, carefully preserved in their original packaging at the University of Padua. Historical documentation subsequently recovered made it possible to reconstruct the commission and confirm Carlo Scarpa's authorship for Venini, making this series an exceptional testimony to post-war Italian design and to the collaboration between art, craftsmanship and intellectual thought.

Each piece in the series today constitutes a rare collector's item, where the technical virtuosity of blown glass dialogues with the sculptural elegance and symbolic imagination that made Carlo Scarpa an essential figure in the history of European design.

Artistic director of Venini between 1932 and 1947, Carlo Scarpa profoundly renewed the language of Murano glass through exceptional research into techniques, textures, color and form. His work is represented in major international collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass and Le Stanze del Vetro / Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice.