Provenance on Display: "Carlo Scarpa (1906–1978), An Easel"

Abstract: In a softly lit room of the Museo Correr in Venice, slender easels elevate Renaissance masterpieces to eye level. The objects in question—art mounting mechanisms designed by architect Carlo Scarpa (1906–1978)—have become Scarpa's most iconic furniture pieces, apotheosis of Italian postwar design, protagonists of recent exhibitions, and sold at auction. Their iconicity has fueled their transformation from design objects into highly desirable art objects. Long embedded in narratives of Scarpa's greatness, the easels' provenance had never been questioned. Now that these tailored, skillfully crafted objects circulate on the art market, however, their provenance as well as their authorship have become critical. Drawing on early sketches, oral histories, and photographs, this article attends to the easels with a degree of attention usually reserved for the paintings they support.