Carlo Scarpa for Venini & C.

CARLO SCARPA (Venice, 1906-Sendai, Japan, 1978) for VENINI & C.
"Ox", allegory of Engineering, 1943.
Blown and hot-applied Murano art glass.
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: 22,5 x 22 x 9 cm.

With a marked sculptural character, "Ox" materializes the allegory of Engineering with the figure of an ox, symbol of strength, constancy and constructive capacity. Scarpa transforms this traditional motif into a form of great visual lightness, suspended on a circular glass base and animated by a subtle sensation of movement.

The piece is made in slightly iridescent clear glass, with horns, tail and anatomical details hot-applied in amber glass with aventurine. These golden accents add chromatic depth and a refined luminous counterpoint to the main body, accentuating the dialogue between transparency, volume and ornamental detail.

Far from a conventional naturalistic representation, the ox is presented as an almost heraldic creature, where the symbolic solidity of the animal is balanced by the apparent fragility of the glass. The work reveals Scarpa's ability to turn an academic emblem into a piece of extraordinary formal elegance, fully integrated into Venini's technical virtuosity.

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.