First Edition Murano Glass Poliedri Chandelier attributed to Carlo Scarpa for Venini, 1960s

This elegant chandelier, part of the celebrated Poliedri series designed by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa for the historic Murano glassworks Venini around 1958, represents a masterpiece of modernist design that blends Venetian craftsmanship with a geometric and sculptural aesthetic. It is an original piece, as evidenced by its structure and Venini's signature materials, evoking the suspended elegance of a crystalline stalactite, ideal for illuminating contemporary or historic spaces with diffused, multidirectional light. The chandelier adopts a pendulous cascade shape, with a main body that expands downward in an organic, asymmetrical composition. The supporting structure is a minimalist white metal frame that acts as an invisible skeleton, allowing the glass pieces to float like a suspended sculpture. This configuration creates an effect of ethereal lightness, as if the object were defying gravity—a hallmark of Scarpa's genius, influenced by Murano tradition and Eastern harmonies. The heart of the design lies in approximately 150-200 blown Murano glass elements, hand-shaped into polyhedral forms: each piece is a multifaceted prism, with irregular, sharp faces that capture and reflect light into iridescent fragments, generating an iridescent glow similar to a natural prism. In this original variation, the glass pieces present a sober and refined palette: smoky gray tones—from pale blue to opaque gray, with transparent nuances evoking Venetian fog—intertwined with hints of warm yellow, like pale amber or pale yellow, which add a touch of vitality and luminous contrast. These colors are not uniform, but nuanced and overlapping, the fruit of the mastery of Venini's glassblowers, whom Scarpa artistically directed from the 1930s to the 1950s. The glass is treated with traditional techniques such as cane blowing and hand-grinding, giving each polyhedron a slightly irregular, almost organic texture that enhances the tactility of the material.