Art Nouveau in Milan

[10] According to Ogliari and Bagnera, wrought iron found its best interpreter in Alessandro Mazzucotelli, who elevated the working of this material from a simple decorative element to a true art.

[3] This almost exclusive relationship between the new ruling class and the new architectural style, as well as the move away from the architectural models of the "old" aristocratic class, seem evident when one notes that, while the new bourgeoisie elevated residences à la mode following the new dictates of liberty, the more conservative commissions related to the old financial and ecclesiastical world—among which the new bank headquarters in the Piazza Cordusio area stand out—remained attached to the already decadent eclectic style, in vogue in the 19th century.

[17] The palace, considered by Lopez, Susani and Roiter one of the best examples of Italian art nouveau and built in one of the most elegant streets of Milan, remarked even more clearly the status of the new bourgeois class and introduced with force in the city the use of cement as a sculptural element.

[18][19] The "breaking signal" thrown to the old ruling class was even more intense due to the presence on both sides of the entrance of two statues representing two naked women in very daring poses, which caused a great scandal, to the point that the palace was colloquially renamed by the Milanese la ca' di ciapp (the "house of the buttocks") in reference to the subsequent nudity of the two women and the architect was forced to remove them and move them to the then peripheral Villa Faccanoni, another example of a liberty, suburban villa also designed by Sommaruga, in which the putti sculptures and the motif of the windows divided by columns on the top floor of Palazzo Castiglioni were reproduced.

[9] The facade of this building presents a complex decoration with ceramic tiles painted with human forms and plant elements that show elaborate chromatic contrasts.

[21] A few meters away is the Casa Guazzoni, also by Bossi, which despite retaining the typically floral style of the facade presents a decoration completely centered on sculpture with elaborate putti devices, female figures and plant forms also in cement and wrought iron with overlapping balconies.

[22] Bossi lastly designed the Casa Alessio, more akin to the Viennese Secession style with its rigid geometries and the vertical strip in correspondence with the entrance.

The composition of the facade shows at a general level a strong inspiration in the work of Sommaruga, in particular by the sculptures of female figures at the entrance, explicit homage to the portal of Palazzo Castiglioni.

The classic wooden entrance gate is replaced here by a wrought iron gate with plant motifs, the same motif of the balconies, made by Alessandro Mazzucotelli: other wrought iron decorative elements are also his, which, together with the frescoes and stained glass windows, constitute a typically modernist interior decoration, without any trace of eclectic influences, something uncommon in many other contemporary buildings in the city.

[24] On the fringe of the logic of creation of new residential areas dedicated to the bourgeois class, the Casa Ferrario was built from 1902 according to the project of Ernesto Pirovano in Via Spadari, one of the most central and oldest streets of Milan.

[33] Finally, some works dedicated to other tertiary activities can be cited: according to López, Susani and Casero, one of the most remarkable examples is the facade of the former Trianon Hotel, characterized by very elaborate decorations with windows and putti that hint at important neo-baroque influences, a style later taken up again in Alfredo Campanini's Casa Tosi.

[13] Another example of popular architecture built in the same period was the Quartiere Ripamonti, although, unlike the previous case, the decoration is almost null, except for the wrought iron elements.

[40] An intervention again of a different kind was the realization of the first nucleus of the Villaggio dei Giornalisti, founded in the early years of the 20th century by a cooperative of professionals belonging to the world of journalism, which aimed to build housing dedicated to the petty bourgeoisie, who had been excluded from the popular architectural plans but were not wealthy enough to afford luxurious art nouveau palaces in the center.

[44] Among the various technological pavilions were some less technical ones to attract a larger public, among which were those dedicated to the fine arts, which were to serve as a showcase for the progress shown in the artistic field in Italy.

[10] According to Ogliari and Bagnera, wrought iron found its best interpreter in Alessandro Mazzucotelli, who elevated the working of this material from a simple decorative element to a true art.

[11] Mazzucotelli's masterpiece is, according to Lanza, the so-called Cancello delle Farfalle ("Door of the Butterflies") of the Casa Moneta, a work that encapsulates all the styles of the Milanese variant of liberty: the geometric and ordered motifs of the lower part are quickly transformed into complex lattices that give life to leaves and the two butterflies, which thanks to the dynamism of the composition seem to take flight, almost completely annulling the heaviness of the iron.

[5] Alongside a real revival of neo-Renaissance and neomedieval architecture with slight modernist influences, as shown by the Castello Cova built in 1910, one can find opposite cases, such as the Villino Maria Luisa, realized with mosaic decoration in which neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance themes coexist with modernist mosaics with floral themes and a railing by Alessandro Mazzucotelli, which is one of the best examples of iron sculpture in the city.

[53] According to Melano, other examples to note of this trend are the Casa Berri Meregalli and Palazzo Berri Meregalli by Giulio Arata, built in 1911, in which one finds a mixture of classical styles alongside modernist themes: rustic bossage and the vertical development of the building recall neo-Gothic architecture; the interior decorated with mosaics recalls the Byzantine architecture of Ravenna; while Mazzucotelli's wrought ironwork and the succession of animal statues take up the typical themes of floral art nouveau.