Canova plaster cast gallery

Canova plaster cast gallery
Architect: Carlo Scarpa
Address: Via Canova 74, Possagno, Italy
Completion:1955-57


In 1955, to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Antonio Canova, Carlo Scarpa was asked to extend the Canova Museum at Possagno, so as to rehouse the artist's copies, original plaster casts, marble sculptures and terracotta designs, which till then had been too tightly crammed together. The existing basilica-plan building, erected by Giuseppe Segusini between 1831 and 1836, was one of the first structures to be designed specifically as a museum. The elongated site available to Scarpa, in a road sloping down the valley, was not large. Scarpa built the roof to resemble a waterfall that originates at the top of the hall running down between two converging walls and ending with a glass wall facing a pool of water. He thus multiplied the possible views as to strengthen the contrast between the abstract white of plaster and the vital realism of the recumbent or upright female bodies. In this connection Scarpa spoke of a frame effect. At the far end of the long extension, where the water surface ruffled by the wind reflects a shimmering light, Scarpa placed the group of Three Graces. This hesitant brilliance, so to speak, interprets well the mythical femininity of the dancing girls. To achieve a well-modulated, varied light in the room, Scarpa consciously arranged for opening where the walls joined, greating corner windows. The light is thus always thrown onto a vertical diffusing surface, appreciably reducing the glare of normal windows. But there was another curious result: »I wanted to cut up the blue of the sky«, commented Scarpa.
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A.J.K.
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