Tyko Kihlstedt

Photo Essays Capturing the Urban Experience

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Milan Architecture I: Art Nouveau

March 10, 2019 Tyko Kihlstedt 23 Comments

In August 2017, my wife and I enjoyed ten days in Northern Italy. Our base was Milan, thanks to an apartment exchange with a family who lived in the Moscova neighborhood a little north and east of that city’s center. Our stay in Milan was even more comfortable and homelike than one would expect, given our arrangement, because the Milan apartment there was designed by a very interesting architect, Giovanni Drugman (gdmp-studio).

An equally interesting architect, Gabriel Yaari, designed our Bronx apartment in Mott Haven. I can imagine that the Italian family was similarly appreciative of this. See the two images below, each revealing a glimpse of the design sensitivity of the two architects.

In Milan, you can see that Drugman was able to provide a delightful, outside breakfast nook, with plantings, overlooking an interior courtyard. The Bronx offered no such direct outdoor access, but Yaari’s generous, open design makes up for that, and I might add that Boundaries, the large oil painting on the far wall by Brooklyn artist, Dorothy Robinson, provides its own, expansive vision of the natural world.

 

Apartment Trade I, Living Room, Bronx Apartment, Gabriel Yaari (architect), Bronx, New York

 

 

Apartment Trade II, Breakfast Nook off Living Room, Milan Apartment, Giovanni Drugman (architect), Milan, Italy

 

This post will be the first of several on Milan. It’s a city with too much history still visible in its built environment–and a city which continues to expand on that built environment to this day–to be covered in a single blog post (even long ones, as mine often are). In any city, my tendency is just to start walking, camera over my shoulder. The city guides me. Its street pattern leads me on. Only when I understand it as a pedestrian do I take public transportation and venture farther afield.

No matter where I go, no matter the city, I never lack in visual material to record and document. This is true, even for a city I know quite well. There is always something new to discover. My wish would be to greet every urban environment with fresh, even naive, eyes. In this post, I present several buildings that fall into the category of Art Nouveau (using the most familiar, French, term). Italians might also call this architecture Stile Liberty or Stile Floreale, but Art Nouveau will suffice.

Mine is no definitive presentation of Milan’s Art Nouveau architecture. Were it so, as I later discovered, I would at least have needed to search out the Ex Kursaal Diana, the Ex Cinema Dumont, and the Casa Berri Meregalli. For all I know, I may well have been quite close to these other buildings, but the city lured me elsewhere. Next time, perhaps.

This post ends with eight architectural details, only two of which clearly fall into the category of Art Nouveau. Arbitrary as this may be, I include these eight details because each caught my eye as worthy of recording. Yet, such a small number hardly merited a separate post on Architectural Details.

 

Acquario Civico

 

Acquario Civico, 1906, Sebastiano Locati (architect), Via G. B. Gadio, Milan, Italy

 

 

Acquario Civico, 1906, Sebastiano Locati (architect), Boat Prow Sculpture, Via G. B. Gadio, Milan, Italy

 

 

Acquario Civico, 1906, Sebastiano Locati (architect), Neptune by Oreste Labò (sculptor), Via G. B. Gadio, Milan, Italy

 

 

Acquario Civico, 1906, Sebastiano Locati (architect), Hippopotamus Head Fountain, Via G. B. Gadio, Milan, Italy

 

 

Acquario Civico, 1906, Sebastiano Locati (architect), Octopus Roundel, Via G. B. Gadio, Milan, Italy

 

The Acquario Civico (Civic Aquarium) is the only pavilion building still extant from the 1906 Exposizione Internazionale del Sempione. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Simplon Tunnel (railroad) through the Lepontine Alps from Italy to Switzerland. During the seven months of the exposition, the pavilion housed displays related to fish farming. Only later was it transformed into Milan’s public aquarium, which also houses a marine biology research library and a hydrobiology station.

The building’s projecting arched entrance, the segmental pediment above Neptune, its corner pilasters and supporting brackets at the roof line, are classicizing devices carried forward from the Baroque. However, its sculptural decoration is quite un-classical. Its flowing, plant-like and aquatic-related forms reveal its more modern date.

The Boat Prow Sculpture and the Hippopotamus Head Fountain, I am guessing are also by Oreste Labò, the sculptor of Neptune. The Octopus Roundel and most of the other smaller sculptural relief decorations that grace the exterior are the work of Richard Ginori. All of this sculptural work is in decorative concrete, a material associated with modern industry, modernity, and Art Nouveau, particularly in Italy.

 

 

Casa Campanini

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Painting and Sculpture by Michele Vedani (sculptor), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Painting and Sculpture by Michele Vedani (sculptor), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Painting and Sculpture by Michele Vedani (sculptor), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Painting by Michele Vedani (sculptor), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Painting by Michele Vedani (sculptor), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Putti, Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Putti, Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Putti, Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Campanini, 1903-1906, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Via Bellini, Milan, Italy

 

Alfredo Campanini designed this house for himself. Again, the major decorative motifs of its exterior are works in decorative concrete. The two caryatid-like figures flanking its doorway, allegories of Painting and Sculpture by Michele Vedani, greet the visitor with the contrapposto grace of a Botticelli combined with the powerful scale of a Michelangelo.

The wrought iron decoration, as seen directly above in the balcony–as well as in the entry gate–typifies Art Nouveau in its depiction of natural forms such as leaves, vines and flowers. Alessandro Mazzucotelli is the artist behind all the wrought iron decoration. His work can be found in many buildings of the period, both on the exterior and even more on the interior (staircases, chandeliers, lamps, etc.). According to Mazzucotelli, “iron should be treated like a woman,” since with the application of heat it “turns soft like wax…You have to treat it gently and caress it.” Ah, those Italians!

It is possible to get inside the Casa Campanini. I did not, alas. Here is a web site which provides several photographs of its interior as well as offers an email link to request an interior tour.

 

 

Casa Galimberti

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Galimberti, 1903-1905, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

The Casa Galimberti and the Casa Guazzoni (below) are on the same street and are part of a neighborhood that developed in the north-east sector of Milan at the start of the twentieth-century. The spur for this development was the electrification of Milan’s system of tram railways between 1892 and 1901. This meant that newly-erected buildings, at least those showing an interest in modernity, would likely exhibit characteristics of Art Nouveau.

Casa Galimberti, named for the brothers who developed it, is an apartment building for Milan’s upper middle class. It had shops and other public spaces on the ground floor and four apartments per floor above. Decorative concrete plays only a minimal role here (in window moldings and balconies). Instead, the main decorative features are human figures partaking of various leisure activities in front of a background of vine-like floral motifs. They are brilliantly colored and don’t project, because they are glazed and fired majolica tiles fixed to the apartment’s exterior. As such, the decoration will remain clean (or can easily be cleaned with water)–a perfect solution for exterior decoration of buildings in what was then one of Italy’s most industrial cities.

The artists for the tiles were Pia Pinzauti (backgrounds) and Ferdinando Brambilla (figures). The wrought iron decoration was Mazzucotelli.

 

 

Casa Guazzoni

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

 

Casa Guazzoni, 1904-1906, Giovanni Battista Bossi (architect), Via Malpighi, Milan, Italy

 

In the Casa Guazzoni, we return to decorative concrete and wrought iron as the main decorative materials. However, the ground floor windows offer another motif often found in Art Nouveau: a segmental arch divided by two pilaster-like elements that create a tri-partite division and also extend through and above the arch. This particular, inventive (not to mention, highly un-classical) window form typifies Art Nouveau and also can be found in France and Belgium, the other main centers of the style.

 

 

Palazzo Castiglioni

 

Palazzo Castiglioni, 1901-1903, Giuseppe Sommaruga (architect), Corso Venezia, Milan, Italy

 

 

Palazzo Castiglioni, 1901-1903, Giuseppe Sommaruga (architect), Corso Venezia, Milan, Italy

 

 

Palazzo Castiglioni, 1901-1903, Giuseppe Sommaruga (architect), Corso Venezia, Milan, Italy

 

 

Palazzo Castiglioni, 1901-1903, Giuseppe Sommaruga (architect), Corso Venezia, Milan, Italy

 

One of the, if not the earliest of the Art Nouveau palazzi, is the Palazzo Castiglioni on the Corso Venezia. The Corso Venezia was, and remains, one of Milan’s most elegant avenues, lined with expansive palaces mainly of Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-classical style. In other words, the upscale Corso Venezia presented itself as exclusive, conservative and a bit staid.

Inserting himself into this environment in 1900, Ermenegildo Castiglioni hired the architect Giuseppe Sommaruga to design this palace for him. This Castiglioni was not the better-known businessman, developer and close friend of the liberal philosopher and politician, Giuseppe Mazzini; that man had died four years earlier. It was his heir and adoptive nephew, the engineer Ermenegildo Castiglioni Marazzi.

We can see, in the top photograph of the entire façade, the line of undulating, gyrating putti in high-relief decorative concrete above the windows of the piano nobile. We also can see the un-classical asymmetry of the façade in its single balcony and loggia on the far right side. We can see, in the bottom photograph (directly above), those unusual porthole windows, seemingly invaded by rough, cyclopean stonework. All of these elements call out a challenge to the intended sober, quiet elegance of the avenue.

What we don’t see, however, is the ultimate ‘insult’ that too many of the more conservative of Milan’s elite felt upon seeing the large, nude female allegories of Peace and Industry–decorative concrete figures by sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro, which flanked the central entrance of the palazzo. The public outcry at being visually accosted by nude, female figures who greeted them with their ample backsides–forced the two sculptures to be relocated to a garden façade of another Sommaruga building, the Villa Romeo Faccanoni (1912-1914). To see these ‘offending’ sculptures of Peace and Industry by Bazzaro, open this link and scroll down to the second photograph.

 

 

Two Unidentified Buildings

 

Palazzo with Painted Figures, located near San Babila, Milan, Italy

 

 

Palazzo with Painted Figures, located near San Babila, Milan, Italy

 

The main feature which connects this building to Art Nouveau is the sensuality and even the simple presence of the two painted figures which flank the central window of the piano nobile. The other architectural details seem to be Baroque carryovers, such as the broken pediment, on which the two figures ‘rest’ an elbow, and the heavy rustication of bush-hammered stone of the ground floor. I wish I knew more about the provenance of those two figures, which have been painted on a separate support, then affixed to the façade.

 

 

Art Nouveau Apartment Building, Via A. Caretti, Milan, Italy

 

Here is another moderate example of the style, of which I suspect one can find several more in this area of Milan.

 

 

Eight Architectural Details

 

Rusticated Façade, Palazzo Bonacossa, 1894, Antonio Comini (architect), Via Quintino Sella, Milan, Italy

 

The heavy rustication in a diamond pattern on the ground floor contrasts with the smooth ashlar masonry of the upper floors of this Renaissance Revival palace. Today it houses the Art and Science Museum of Milan. Take care not to stumble into this wall as you pass by!

 

 

Entry Portal I, Palazzo Cusani, 1719, Giovanni Ruggeri (architect), Via Brera, Milan, Italy

 

 

 

Entry Portal II, Casa Valli, 1907, Francesco Magnani & Mario Rondoni (architects), Via Bernardino Zenale, Milan, Italy

 

 

Entry Portal III, Palazzo Baratti, 1909, Alfredo Campanini (architect), Via Senato, Milan, Italy

 

A rather exuberant statement in decorative concrete for this portal and balcony. The building is also sometimes referred to as the Casa Tosi. It was built as a private residence.

 

 

Entry Portal IV, Via Osti, Milan, Italy

 

The main feature of this flattened arch over the doorway are the two, deep, semicircular scallops, but I have no idea what to call it. Moorish architecture often has scalloped (or multifoil) arches, but there would be at least five scallops and they would continue all the way across the arch. For now, I’ll call this an interesting bit of creative vernacular design.

 

 

Window I, Casa Valli, 1907, Francesco Magnani & Mario Rondoni (architects), Ironwork by Pasquale Mina; Via Bernardino Zenale, Milan, Italy

 

Here is an interesting window, whose lintel enframes a heavy keystone bracket. However, the segmental arch on either side of that bracket is of brick and much lighter. Because the red brick contrasts with the grey stone, we readily see that the vertical jambs not only frame the window, but also jut out at the top to create an abutment from which the brick arch springs.

 

 

Window II, Via Barletto, Milan, Italy

 

The capping lintels of these windows shows a particularly elegant bit of Art Nouveau design: what is known as the whiplash. In French, the common term is coup de fouet. If the term is also used in Italian writing on Art Nouveau, it would be colpo di frusta.

 

 

Window III, Via Lanzone, Milan, Italy

 

Here, finally, is an utterly beautiful, simple, and elegant window frame: a perfect antidote to a blog post containing so much over-the-top design.

 

Filed Under: Architecture, Places Tagged With: Acquario Civico, Alfredo Campanini, Architecture, Art Nouveau, Casa Campanini, Casa Galimberti, Casa Guazzoni, Casa Valli, Corso Venezia, Decorative Concrete, Dorothy Robinson, Entry Portals, Gabriel Yaari, Giovanni Battista Bossi, Giovanni Drugman, Giuseppe Sommaruga, Italy, Michele Vedani, Milan, Palazzo Baratti, Palazzo Bonacossa, Palazzo Castiglioni, Palazzo Cusani, Putti, Rustication, Sebastiano Locati, Windows

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Comments

  1. Dan Scully says

    March 11, 2019 at 12:19 am

    Tyko,
    Wonderful bountious finds in Milan. I was not fully aware- thanks.
    Especially like art nouveau vegetation then covered by actual growths, as out of the mouth of the head on the aquarium building.
    Oh, and for the banished woman sculptures at an entrance.
    Great raw stone rusticationed bases, especially on Castiglioni.
    Great finds.
    More!
    Northern Italy has to be next.
    Thanks Tyko.
    Dan Scully

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 1:58 am

      Thanks, Dan. The drooling Hippo is pretty great. The rustication is pretty great, too. One could do a study of rustication in Italian architecture from ca. 1500 on…I would have never thought it would bring us back to Greek cyclopean masonry in 1906, however! I have several more Milan posts waiting for me in my Lightroom photos, AND I really must also work up some of my photos from the grounds of a certain architect living in southern New Hampshire!

      Reply
  2. Giulia Tarantola says

    March 11, 2019 at 4:49 am

    Wonderful photos of places that, living in Milano, we know very well but that we almost don’t notice anymore. Thank you to have inserted our window in this list of beautiful place!
    Giulia

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 1:49 am

      Grazie. Thank you, Giulia. We loved being able to return each night to your apartment. Il tuo appartamento è stato meraviglioso.
      Tyko

      Reply
  3. sally michener says

    March 11, 2019 at 8:22 am

    Just a quick look now….great series of architecture and embellishments. Also liked seeing your apartment…looks good. Have not been in Milan since 1980’s on a 4 month sabbatical trip looking at gardens with sculpture and waterworks. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 1:45 am

      Thanks, Sally. Nice to hear from you.
      Tyko

      Reply
  4. steve jenkins says

    March 11, 2019 at 11:48 am

    tyko, ate this up. so many unassuming buildings in milano that with closer scrutiny reveal wonderful, extraordinary detail not to mention marvelous apartments. a reason many of us new yorkers have long been in love with milano.

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 1:44 am

      Thanks, Steve. A presto per un po ‘di olio e aceto.

      Reply
  5. William Marshall says

    March 11, 2019 at 1:02 pm

    Fascinating pictures. I’m ready for a trip to Milan. Your housing looked wonderful. Thank you for sharing and describing what you photographed. I have a granddaughter that is an art major at VCU and I will be sending your post to her.

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 2:03 am

      Hi, Bill, and thanks. Absolutely share the post (and others) with your granddaughter.
      Tyko

      Reply
  6. Abe Geasland says

    March 11, 2019 at 1:24 pm

    What an amazing bit of architectural history!
    I really love the Mazzucotelli quote…his work is some of the most intricate I’ve every seen!
    Fatto bene!

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 9:51 am

      Careful, Abe. part of the Mazzucotelli quotation might get you in trouble today, esp. here in the U.S.A., because of #MeToo! What’s new in the Big Easy…and with your own sculpture?

      Reply
  7. Adam Hozella says

    March 11, 2019 at 10:57 pm

    Yuki,

    Thank you for the stimulating presentation of Milan architecture. The photography and writing are full of style.

    Adam

    Reply
  8. Ben Asen says

    March 12, 2019 at 9:13 am

    Now I really can’t wait to go back to Italy in late May…Florence and Rome.
    Your photos of the building details are wonderful. It’s like walking through a sculpture garden. I look at what is going on in NYC and I realize I’m living in the wrong century.
    Thank you for this fascinating post.

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 12, 2019 at 9:58 am

      Wow! Thank you, Ben. I can’t wait to see the photos you will return with from Rome and Florence, especially Rome.
      Before I retired from F&M, I designed a course on “The City of Rome.” I also put together a walking itinerary for Andrea, me and another couple some 20+ years ago; if I can unearth it somewhere in my computer, I’ll send it off to you for whatever it’s worth.
      Cheers, Tyko

      Reply
  9. Ben Asen says

    March 12, 2019 at 10:26 am

    Been to Rome many times but would love to get your walking itinerary.
    Going to a wedding in Florence for a cousin’s son.

    Reply
  10. Jack Quinan says

    March 12, 2019 at 6:05 pm

    Hi Tyko,
    Great pictures! Keep it up.
    Jack Quinan

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 15, 2019 at 9:47 am

      Q:
      Nice to hear from you. Let me know if you ever get to NYC. Love to catch up after these many decades.
      Tyko

      Reply
  11. Betsy Asen says

    March 12, 2019 at 9:15 pm

    Thank you, Tyko, loved looking at your beautiful photos. I love Italy and I love Art Nouveau, a perfect combination.

    Betsy Asen

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      March 15, 2019 at 9:48 am

      Thank you, Betsy. I hear you are off to Rome (& Florence) soon. It’s a good time to go.
      Tyko

      Reply
  12. Jim ricci says

    December 17, 2019 at 5:24 pm

    Happy memories from 1963 attending the International School of Milan in the old Palazzo at via Senato 28. It is interesting to remember that 30 years earlier via Senato had been a canal.

    Jim Ricci

    Reply
    • Tyko Kihlstedt says

      December 17, 2019 at 5:52 pm

      Interesting, Jim: I suspect this comment pertains to the Public Sculpture post (re. the Miro sculpture) rather than the Art Nouveau post? Love idea that this was a canal not so very long ago. That would have made photos of the buildings on the Via Senato much more interesting. Thanks.

      Reply
  13. Jim Ricci says

    December 17, 2019 at 6:12 pm

    Hi Tyko, it was the Art Nouveau post. Today Palazzo Baratti is home to Santander Private Bank. We would occasionally skip out of school early and make our way to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to enjoy an American style hamburger at Biffi’s.

    Thank you for your wonderful posts about Milano.

    Jim Ricci

    Reply

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