Scarpa also used in his glass designs is filigrana. Carlo Scarpa’s use of filigrana is very precise. He employs the canna technique with reticello designs. In his Mezza Filigrana Glass Vase, from the Christie’s Collection, Scarpa experiments with texture greatly. The vase, created in 1934, is a tall, cylindrical shape. Scarpa used cristallo glass as his base and thin strips of milky white lattimo for the reticello decoration. The combination of these three elements results in the production of a truly complex piece of glass. Scarpa’s design reaches the pinnacle for reticello objects. The very precise and consistent mesh-like illusion that Scarpa creates makes it seem as if the vase was actually of that material and not glass. It becomes difficult to see the cristallo glass, itself. The size of vase is an important part of the execution of the reticello ornamentation. It allows for a powerful depiction of a true web pattern to emerge in the glass. The pattern wraps diagonal around the vase, creating a sense of movement that forces the viewer’s eye to travel around the entire vase. This movement has the potential to change directions depending from which side the vase is viewed.
