Hercules and Lichas (1795/1815) by Antonio CanovaMuseum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
The Scarpa Hall is considered as one of the most significant interventions of the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa.
It was built between 1955 and 1957 to enhance the immense Canovian heritage, including some monumental plaster casts that would have come on loan from Venice and which can still be enjoyed within the Museum, such as Hercules and Lichas and Theseus vanquishing the Centaur.
Scarpa created a structure well harmonized with the existing nineteenth-century basilica and the surrounding landscape. He designed a square-shaped room that was originally intended to house the great model of Theseus.
Theseus vanquishing the Centaur (1805) by Antonio CanovaMuseum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
Museo Canova - Scarpa's Hall (1957)Museum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
Here he added a lower, trapezoidal body with a side parallel to that of the basilica.
He built a real optical telescope focused to the Grazie group located at the back of the room.
The Graces (1813) by Antonio CanovaMuseum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
Detail of the Scarpa Hall
The key point of his project, however, is the attention to the nature of the surrounding landscape. The natural light and the intelligent positioning of angular windows combine the choreography of bodies with the green hills, evoking in the observer an image of perfection.
Dancing girl with Cymbals - detail (1812) by Antonio CanovaMuseum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
Detail of the light on a sculpture in the Scarpa Hall
Museo Canova - Scarpa's Hall (1957)Museum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova
On 15 September 1957 the new pavilion was inaugurated on the occasion of the bicentenary of the artist's birth but, in reality, work continued and for another two years with new interventions and improvements.
