Carlo Scarpa, Castelvecchio, Verona

Carlo Scarpa began to come into national prominence
with several designs for exhibitions.
The first were in Venice: »Paul Klee« (1948) for
the 1949 Biennale, »Giovanni Bellini« (1949) at
the Palazzo Ducale, »Toulouse Lautrec« (1952)
at the Palazzo Correr, and »Tiepolo« for the
1952 Biennale. Others followed: »Quattrocento«
(1953) at Messina town hall and »Piet Mondrian«
(1956) at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
in Rome. Such commissions finally led him into
the design of museum interiors: among many,
his most celebrated were the Museo dell'Accademia
(1952-56) and the Museo Correr (1953
to 1969), both in Venice, the Palazzo Abbatellis
(1953/54) in Palermo, the Gipsoteca Canoviana
in Possagno (1955-57) and the Museo di Castelvecchio
(1956-64) in Verona. Scarpa's exhibit designs
and museum interiors present a different
way of seeing. On the one hand, seeing the object
through provision of a sympathetic setting
for it; on the other, seeing contemporary »modern
« architecture in the context of the cultural
continuum that has carried it to where it now
momentarily hovers. The Museo di Castelvecchio
was developed on the bombed ruins of the
Scaligery family's medieval castle in Verona. First
commissioned to redesign the oldest section of
the building, Scarpa was later asked to complete
the museum. The work is a monument to Scarpa's
sensibilties about time and place. According
to critic Nory Miller he »achieved an extraordinary
coexistence involving architecture of different
centuries, including this one ... without
the crutches of neutral glass linkages, uniform
materials, or historical references ... Each angle,
shape, surface is chosen to engage the attention
or participation of the visitor.« Indeed, the symbiosis
between Scarpa's work and the surviving
fabric is such that differences are hardly apparent.
With his infinitive capacity for fine detailing,
he touched the past lightly; because he was so
conscious of continuity the museum gives the
»sense that construction has been supended«.
(After Donald Leslie Johnson and Donald Langmead.)
Valeria Carullo is curator of the Robert Elwall
Photographs Collection in the Royal Institute of
British Architects, Paola Marini is director and
Alba Di Lieto curator of the Musei d'Arte Monumenti
of the city of Verona. Richard Bryant is
one of the best-known architectural photographers,
working all over the world. He is the only
photographer with an honorary fellowship of
the Royal Institute of British Architects.