Lecture

Carlo Scarpa. I disegni per la Tomba Brion

Roma, Fondazione MAXXI, 20 June 2006

Presentation of the book edited by Erilde Terenzoni, MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome.
As part of the Centenary celebrations of Carlo Scarpa’s birth, the book Carlo Scarpa. I disegni per la Tomba Brion. Inventario will be presented at the MAXXI on Tuesday the 20th of June. The book was published by Electa and is part of the OperaDARC – Archivi di architettura series.

Contributions from: Salvatore Italia, Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Margherita Guccione, Antonia Pasqua Recchia, Sergio Poretti and Erilde Terenzoni.

The event will also be an opportunity to present Carlo Scarpa’s new website to the public www.carloscarpacentenario.it, which will spread awareness of the life and work of the great Venetian master and the events organised for his Centenary. The database created by digitalisation of the archives (http://marcie.iuav.it/DARC/), which can be accessed online, will also be presented.

Press release

The book is the systematic inventory of the 1583 drawings – tables, technical drawings and sketches – that make up Carlo Scarpa’s design archives for the monumental Brion Cemetery in San Vito d’Altivole. The drawings are the result of Scarpa’s usual techniques: freehand pencil, coloured pencils and Indian ink, sometimes on unusual materials such as ‘chamois’ cardboard and the yellow tissue paper given to him by Louis Khan. In the book, a structured system of material allows the design to be contextualised within the complete corpus of sources on Scarpa and in the history and work of the architect. The inventory is completed by images of the drawings that accompany the descriptions, facilitate their reading and introduce consultation of the online database.

The book Carlo Scarpa. I disegni per la Tomba Brion. Inventario was edited by Erilde Terenzoni with a work group made up of Tommaso Dore, Giacomo Martines, Francesca Menchella and Paola Portoghese. Contributions from Sergio Poretti, Margherita Guccione and Vitale Zanchettin shed light on some scientific aspects concerning the ‘philological’ use of the archives, in order to plan restoration and maintenance work and for the analysis and study of the techniques, materials, history and phases of work.

The Brion Cemetery was the Venetian master’s last work: its planning and building occupied him from 1969 – the year in which he was commissioned by Onorina, the widow of Giuseppe Brion who was the founder of Brion Vega – until his death in 1978. According to his wishes Carlo Scarpa was buried in the San Vito municipal cemetery, alongside his final work. Since the Brion Cemetery was built it has attracted a constant and increasing stream of scholars and visitors, both from Italy and abroad.

The collection is part of the entire Carlo Scarpa archives that was acquired by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Architecture and Art in 2001 and has ensured it is kept complete and remains in Italy.  The complete graphic body of work, which documents approximately 200 designs with a total of approximately 31,000 drawings, is kept at the Centro Carlo Scarpa in Treviso and the MAXXI Architecture Archive Centre in Rome. Under the scientific management there the reordering, inventorying and progressive publication of the designs is already underway. The exhibition Carlo Scarpa. Disegni mai visti. Lo spazio dell’abitare will be held at the MAXXI Archive Centre, provisionally located at the Museo H.C. Anderson (Via PS. Mancini 20, Rome), until the 2nd of July. The exhibition displays 50 unpublished drawings on the theme of living spaces.