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Water Shapes: the Influence of Water on The 912 SEEKING THE CITY Water Shapes: The Infl uence of Water on the Architectural Philosophy of Carlo Scarpa BEVERLY L. FRANK University of South Florida The hidden, unseen part of reality is no less impor- dations of an ancient temple built by the mytho- tant than the visible portion.1 – Carlo Ginzburg logical poet and musician Orpheus. In all legends surrounding Orpheus, he is revealed as “the se- WATER SHAPES: MYTH ducer at all levels of the cosmos and the psyche – Heaven, Earth, the ocean and the Underworld; There may be more than a little truth that helps the subconscious, the conscious and the super- to shape any myth and more than a little myth in conscious; he enchants.” By enchanting the sea any reality. In the mythology of the city of Venice, and seducing the stones to stack upon one an- several elements remain constant; that Venice is other, Venice was conceived. But the myth of Or- often conceived of as poetic and ephemeral; that pheus also has a melancholic side. He charmed experience and time are marked by vivid con- the gods of the Underworld to release his wife, trasts; and, more germane, that the myth and Eurydice, who had died by snake-bite. Ignoring reality of Venice are shaped by water. Although the condition that he not look at her until she had water and Venice seem inseparable in the imag- returned to “the light of day”, Orpheus turned at ination, it was Water that preceded Venice and the half-way point and lost Eurydice forever. He Water that will be there when Venice is no more therefore also represents an inability to “resolve than a shadow.2 the contradiction between his yearning for both the sublime and the common place.”5 As a result Many myths surround the shaping of Venice of looking backward rather than forward, Orpheus – myths that represent a struggle, a triumph, or lost his will to live and his tattered remains were both – linked to an ancient heritage, and always discarded into the water. Poet or illusionist, like linked to the sea. The most celebrated vision of Venus, Orpheus has a dual nature. The conse- Venice, inspiring centuries of art and verse, has quences of his self-interest ultimately led to the the city rising from the water “…fully-formed and destruction of both himself and what he loved. [a] perfect fabrication…” – just as Venus rose, ful- ly formed from the foam of the sea.3 The image The potential of both myths lay in the power of of perfection, Venus represents romantic love, poetic will with negative consequences threaten- aesthetic beauty, and sensual pleasure. However, ing in the face of absolutes. On one hand, the Venus is also etymologically connected to the con- relationship of Venus and Venice suggests a con- cept of veneration - “to regard with respect, rev- nection with the concept of veneration. On the erence, or heartfelt deference”.4 As such, Venus other, the esotericism of the Orpheus myth sug- is a dualistic embodiment of the feminine. Con- gests the need for the power of poetic will. He is sequently, when allegorically referencing Venus in a reminder that holding on to what is left behind, depicting Venice and Venetian identity, there is an risks the future. inherent dualism of love and beauty ranging from the profane to the transcendent. The contrasts and contradictions represented by Venetic myth are symbolic of the dualistic nature In the same mythologizing vein, and in contrast to of water as well as qualities embedded within Ve- the Venusian myth, Venice originated on the foun- netian culture. It is Venice’s unique relationship WATER SHAPES 913 to the sea which engenders this inscrutable mix- and farther afi eld to the smaller, detached lagoon ture of mystery and isolation, but consequently islands. In this environment of isolation, and of forms a paradox. The very forces that have con- necessity, has been cultivated a strong tradition tributed to its label of “miracolosissima civitas” and care in craft as well as care for the meaning in – miraculous city6, also contribute to very realistic the seemingly mundane aspects of the everyday. struggles within a millennium long marriage to the sea.7 The tension and poetry existing within the intrinsic qualities of water, between Venetic myth, and the WATER SHAPES: REALITY historic actuality of Venice’s conception and emer- gence from the sea, also provide some context in Time has a different dimension in Venice. …Eterni- which intellectual and political forces emerged to ty is a dimension that suits Venice very well, part shape the Venetian reality. Non-Venetian infl u- and parcel of her own special brand of real life. ences – Byron, Ruskin, Sartre, Sargent, to name …And yet what shapes life here is an ever-pres- a few – validated and immortalized these allegori- ent dualism, the clash between this unsuppress- cal representations of Venice in art and literature. able idea of timelessness and an ominous sense The more recent invention of Venetian identity, of ephermerality that soon rears its ugly head…[In relative to her over millennium long existence, Venice] Eternity and fragility cohabit like love and has transformed the identity of the city to a ste- death in a tender embrace romantically immor- reotype. The idea of Venice as fully formed and talized by poets and writers through the ages. perfect represents the idealization of the city and Eros and Thanatos, love and death. …Her entire a historical imperative on the part of the establish- existence is conditioned by the dualism rooted in ment to keep the city frozen in an idealized state. her soul, every aspect of the city helps create her This image of Venice left for mass consumption magic: joy and sadness, meeting and separation, has, in the last century or more, been based on chaste love and licentious, sacred and profane….8 what Venice should “look like” rather than the sig- - D. Reato nifi cant contributions that can be made through appreciation and re-birth of a more authentic Ve- The symbolic nature of water is such that it is netian culture. As a consequence the conception ambivalent, fl uctuating between destructive and of the “perfectly formed” city or sacred and an- generative forces.9 Water also “stand(s) for the cient heritage shifts to form a new myth based on infi nite nature of the possible, containing all that sentimentality and nostalgia. is potential, unshaped, the seed of seeds and all promises of evolution, as well as all threats of ab- Prophetically, the foundation for the new Campa- sorption.”10 Water regulates the daily lives of Vene- nile in the Piazza San Marco was laid in 1906 – the tians and these defi nitions exist in their collective year of Carlo Scarpa’s birth. It had been decided conscious. Everything depends on water. Har- that an exact replica of the Campanile would be vests come from the sea, transportation and com- built where it had once stood and fallen four years merce are conducted through the canals, mists before. Strongly objecting, the fi rst superinten- are a regulatory reminder of the rising and setting dent of Monuments, Massimiliano Ongaro wanted of the sun, and the aqua alta – or “high waters” to expose the “falseness” of the act and the “dan- each year is a cyclical reminder of the city’s fragil- ger” it represented for architecture in overlooking ity and vulnerability. The image of water relative the present for the past.11 This would become to Venice is dualistic. Water vacillates between a Scarpa’s legacy. vision of beauty and an element of destruction. WATER SHAPES: PHILOSOPHY Containment and boundary are typically pre- scribed upon water. However, for the islands of The reason for all this is very simple: essentially I the Venetian lagoon, water delimits implicit and am a Byzantine.12 - Carlo Scarpa explicit boundaries and has shaped a culture of isolation. This isolation is felt more strongly as Carlo Scarpa said, “I’m fond of water, perhaps one moves from the “historic” center of Venice – a because I’m a Venetian….”13 Fondness, it would euphemism for the “touristic” center of Venice – seem, is an understatement. Margaret Plant, in 914 SEEKING THE CITY Venice: Fragile City, describes Scarpa’s “inevita- proach was to acknowledge the historic value of ble” use of water as “sweet evidence of his poetic a site, building or surrounding materials, but in a venezianità” – or Venetian identity.14 As in Venice, metaphorical and phenomenological sense. His the ubiquitous presence of water within Scarpa’s solutions revolved around emphasizing detail and work would suggest that water is far more intrin- decoration through materials and elements rather sic to his architectural language and philosophy than copying what was existing. “Buildings that – something shaping “his poetic venezianità”. imitate look like humbugs,” he said, “and that’s Scarpa’s Byzantine heritage - including all that just what they are. No one is fooled.”18 is mythic and intellectual as well as artistic and crafted, provided him with the insight of a col- Scarpa had a deep appreciation of modern archi- lective memory. This collective memory helped tecture. Its redeeming value did not lie in its for- Scarpa to communicate ideas poetically and in- mal qualities, but in how technological innovation depth, rather than superfi cially, and is ingrained could be applied to addressing commonplace is- in his venezianità. Plant further elaborates on this sues, contemporary challenges and historic con- characteristic in relation to the historic context of text. In this regard, however, Scarpa was truly Venice: “[here is] a dialogue with history in which a rationalist.
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