Aula Baratto

Ca' Foscari-Aula Baratto

The Aula Baratto is located on the second floor of Ca' Foscari, seat of Ca' Foscari University of Venice. It is called Aula Baratto because it is dedicated to Mario Baratto, a teacher of Italian literature who died during a council board in 1984. The room is used today for conferences, conventions, formal ceremonies, advanced training courses and important events of Ca’ Foscari University.

Interventions of Carlo Scarpa

Particular of the Marble Frieze (Aula Baratto)

The architect Carlo Scarpa made two interventions:

• In 1935-37 he designed the Great Hall.
• In 1955-56 he transformed the Great Hall into a normal lecture hall and he designed the boiserie.

First intervention of Carlo Scarpa (1935-37)

Carlo Scarpa designed the Great Hall in order to replace the Museum of Commerce. A massive portal introduces to the hall. On the top of this portal we find the Latin inscription ″STUDIA DECUS ORNAMENTUMQUE VITAE″ which underlines the importance of study in the life of everyone.

Scarpa’s project included:

• The window frame which closes the gothic window.
• The student’s tribune.
• The wooden platform where the desk is located.
• The marble frieze and the two marble pedestals.

The window frame is divided in two sections: on the top the structure is fixed while the structure beneath is made of sliding windows. The student’s tribune was the place reserved for the students and it is now substituted by the boiserie. Behind the desk there is a marble frieze, at each side of the desk there is a marble pedestal: one held the bust of the king Vittorio Emanuele III and the other the bust of Mussolini. The basis of the pedestals reminds the pattern of the intersection of the two circles typical of Scarpa.

Second intervention of Carlo Scarpa (1955-56)

The Boiserie made by Carlo Scarpa between 1955 and 1956

Scarpa was asked to return to Ca’ Foscari to transform the Great Hall into a lecture hall. For this reason the ″student’s tribune″ was removed and the boiserie was introduced. The boiserie divided the external corridor from the room. It has been designed like a wooden box inside the gothic building. The simplicity of the 1936 window frame is now substituted by a more expressive intervention. There are new diagonal structures with a Y shape, the forks, which hold the ceiling of the boiserie. Vertical and horizontal elements of the boiserie repeat the structure of the multi-light window which is visible through the glass. The ceiling is very original: there is a grate, wooden sections with different patterns and colors, empty spaces that show the 15th-century ceiling of the room, timbers, neon light. Natural or artificial light reflects on the boiserie and shows the different colors of the wood (walnut, cherrywood, beech). Dark panels are covered with hempen cloth and are used to conceal the room. When they are closed they remind the ogive of the multi light window, while the forks remind the higher part of the ancient capital. After the great fire of 1979 the boiserie of Scarpa was in a very deteriorated state. Valeriano Pastor, student of Scarpa, restored it together with the same craftsman that worked with Scarpa in 1956.

Ca' Foscari can be visited.

Frescos

Aula Baratto was decorated with two frescos: Italy, Venice and Studies by Mario Sironi and The School by Mario Deluigi

Italy, Venice and Studies

Between 1935 and 1937 Mario Sironi was asked by the rector Agostino Lanzillo to decorate the Great Hall of Ca’ Foscari. He was chosen because he was considered an artist able to convey the faith and the fervor of the Italian Fascist youth of that period. In Italy, Venice and Studies Sironi represents from left to right: a student athlete, who holds a book and a musket; the allegory of Technique and the allegory of Medicine; the city of Venice sitting on a throne and showing a plate, in which the façade of Ca’ Foscari is depicted; the lion of St. Mark and the domes of the basilica; Motherland, who is the figure in chains and it represents the victory of Italy in Ethiopia. There is an inscription over the Motherland figure: “Italy will do by itself”; it refers to the autarky pursued by Italy and to its ambition to become an imperial power.

The School

In this painting Mario Deluigi, a close friend of Scarpa, represents the school of philosophers. In the middle there is the thinker surrounded by the students. The painting presents traces of cubism, but there is also the three-dimensional element. The painting recalls Picasso's and Gris's artistic style and Braque's emphasis on colors.

Bibliography

• Giuseppe Maria Pilo, Ca' Foscari. Storia e restauro del palazzo dell'Università di Venezia, Venezia, Marsilio, 2005.
• Giuseppe Mazzariol, Francesco Dal Co, Carlo Scarpa 1906-1978, Milano, Electa, 1984
• Maura Manzelle, Carlo Scarpa : l'opera e la sua conservazione ; giornate di studio alla Fondazione Querini Stampalia, VII, 2004. Mendrisio (CH): Mendrisio Acad. Press, 2004.
• Ca' Foscari : storia e restauro del palazzo dell'Università di Venezia (1. ed. ed.),Venezia, Marsilio, 2005.
• Luca Massimo Barbero, Mario De Luigi, Venezia, Studio d'arte Barnabò, 1989.
• Claudia, Gian Ferrari, Sironi : opere 1919 - 1959 ; Cagliari, Castello di San Michele, 6 luglio - 29 settembre 2002, Milano, Charta, 2002

External links

• http://unive.it
• http://www.unive.it/cafoscaritour

This article "Aula Baratto" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---