Villa Bernasconi | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Museum |
Architectural style | Art Nouveau |
Town or city | Cernobbio |
Country | Italy |
Coordinates | 45°50′15″N09°04′23″E / 45.83750°N 9.07306°E Coordinates: 45°50′15″N09°04′23″E / 45.83750°N 9.07306°E |
Completed | 1906 |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Alfredo Campanini |
Website | |
www.villabernasconi.eu |
Villa Bernasconi is a typical example of an independent villa with a turret in the Art Nouveau style. Located in Cernobbio, it was commissioned by the textile manufacturer Davide Bernasconi to the Milanese architect Alfredo Campanini. [1] [2]
Bernasconi founded his factory, later known as Tessiture Bernasconi (Bernasconi Textile Mills) in 1876. It started out as a small textile mill with only 40 looms. In 1906, it had grown to 560 looms and new plants had been opened or acquired in the towns of Cantello, Solbiate, Maccio, Giussano, Cagno, Figliaro. The enlargement of the Cernobbio factory took up a vast area at the center of the town, turning it into a typical model village. Beside the mill, it included housing for workmen and clerks, the owner's residence and a kindergarten. [1] Bernasconi decided to leave his old mansion (close to the factory and currently hosting the municipal offices) to his son and to build himself a new one. The villa would stand as a symbol of his commercial success and embody the taste in fashion, the affluence and the optimistic outlook of the era. It was built close to the town center, on a lot adjoining the family's silk mills, and completed in 1906. In the same years, Milan was busy preparing the Universal Exhibition which would celebrate the opening of the Simplon tunnel. The Villa belonged to the heirs of the Bernasconi family until 1955. After that, it was sold to a local transport company, which in turn rented it to the local Guardia di Finanza. In 1989, it was bought by the Town of Cernobbio, [2] which funded several restoration interventions, starting in 1995. [3]
The villa hosts the first permanent talking museum devoted to Art Nouveau and to the Bernasconi family, [4] inaugurated in 2017.
Villa Bernasconi is a two-storey, open-space villa with a basement floor and a turret. The building has two entrances. The main entrance, on the east façade, has steps leading to a veranda with a metal framework and multicolour decorations. [5] The veranda opens on the central, square hall and the main stairway. The second entrance, on the south façade, leads to a curved loggia/ balcony which in turn opens on the reception room. The main compositional element is the central stairwell, which rises beyond the upper floor and turns into a panoramic turret.
Campanini himself designed every single decorative element down to the smallest detail, with a harmonious integration of materials and shapes. He also coordinated the work of highly skilled craftsmen. [2] The façade is embellished by hammered and carved concrete plaster decorations, imitating large blocks. Every architectural element is adorned with larger than life sculpted depictions of a silkworm's life cycle - silkworms, mulberry leaves, flowers and berries, and butterflies. [2]
The building is also ornamented with several different ceramic tile friezes, depicting flowers and stylized vegetable elements in strongly contrasting colours. The higher frieze represents silkworm butterflies, while under the eaves we can find single tile inserts with white petals (possibly magnolias’) on a blue background. Lower down, we have smaller bands of ceramic tiles with a leaf motif. On top of the windows, we find other blue tile inserts with lily-shaped white flowers with pointed petals. [6]
The wrought iron elements are probably the result of a collaboration between Campanini and Alessandro Mazzucotelli. This hypothesis is corroborated by some preliminary sketches for the architect's own home, found in Mazzucotelli's archive, by the high quality of the Villa's decorative elements, and by their affinities with contemporary works by the artist. [7] Villa Bernasconi has many wrought iron fixtures (the fence, the banisters, the balcony railings, some window frames) in a plethora of different motifs: wide, fleshy leaves, Secession-style graphic elements for the backstairs banisters, roses and tendrils for the main staircase.
Like the exterior, the interior is in the Art Nouveau style. The main stairwell is dominated by a three section stained glass wall that lets light and colour in. The figurative portion of the design is made up of small coloured glass panels held together by a metal framework.
The walls are decorated with painted naturalistic motifs. The wooden fixtures, the accurately shaped doors and windows, the exquisite design of the handles (which is different in the public rooms and the servants’ quarters) all express a strong coherence in both design and execution, with a harmonious fusion of structure and ornament.
Unfortunately, nothing is left of the original furniture, save for a marble column with a potted palm, now standing in the veranda of the main entrance.
Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He is considered the founder of Western cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius.
Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme català in Catalan, etc. In English it is also known as the Modern Style. The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period that ended with the start of World War I in 1914. It was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.
Pordenone is the main comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
Ercolano is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania of Southern Italy. It lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The medieval town of Resina was built on the volcanic material left by the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the ancient city of Herculaneum, from which the present name is derived. Ercolano is a resort and the starting point for excursions to the excavations of Herculaneum and for the ascent of Vesuvius by bus. The town also manufactures leather goods, buttons, glass, and the wine known as Lacryma Christi.
Brugherio is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 10 kilometres northeast of Milan. It was established December 9, 1866 unifying the suppressed municipalities of Baraggia, San Damiano and Moncucco, together with the villages of Bindellera, Cesena, Gelosa, San Paolo, Torazza, Occhiate and Increa.
The Casa del Fascio of Como, also called Palazzo Terragni, is a building located in Como, Italy, in the Piazza del Popolo, and it is one of the masterpieces of Italian Modern Architecture. It was designed by Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni (1904-1943). It was inaugurated in 1936 as the local office of the National Fascist Party. After the fall of Fascism in 1945, it was used by the National Liberation Committee Parties and in 1957, it became the headquarters of the local Finance Police, who still occupy it. The building has a square plan and four stories.
The Duomo of Monza, often known in English as Monza Cathedral, is the main religious building of Monza, Italy. Unlike most duomos, it is not in fact a cathedral, as Monza has always been part of the Diocese of Milan, but is in the charge of an archpriest who has the right to certain episcopal vestments including the mitre and the ring. The church is also known as the Basilica of San Giovanni Battista from its dedication to John the Baptist.
The Diocese of Como is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in northern Italy. It was established in the Fourth Century. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Milan. The Bishop of Como's cathedra is in the Como Cathedral.
The Port of Livorno is one of the largest Italian seaports and one of the largest seaports in the Mediterranean Sea, with an annual traffic capacity of around 30 million tonnes of cargo and 600,000 TEU's.
Mario Bernasconi was a Swiss-Italian sculptor.
The Albergo diurno Venezia is a structure built under Piazza Oberdan in Milan, on the western side towards Via Tadino.
Municipio Roma III is the third administrative subdivision of Rome (Italy).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Milan:
Palazzo Rocca is a civil building located in Alcamo, in the province of Trapani.
The Villa del Balbiano is a villa in Ossuccio, in Lombardy, Italy.
Sebastiano Giuseppe Locati was an Italian architect. He became famous at the turn of the twentieth century for his efforts in designing structures in eclectic and Art Nouveau styles.
The whiplash or whiplash line is a motif of decorative art and design that was particularly popular in Art Nouveau. It is an asymmetrical, sinuous line, often in an ornamental S curve, usually inspired by natural forms such as plants and flowers, which suggests dynamism and movement. It took its name from a woven fabric panel called "Coup de Fouet" ("Whiplash") by the German artist Hermann Obrist (1895) which depicted the stems and roots of the cyclamen flower. The panel was later reproduced by the textile workshop of the Darmstadt Artists Colony.
Owing to the importance of its port and industries, the Italian port city of Genoa, the regional capital and largest city of Liguria, was heavily bombarded by both Allied air and naval forces during Second World War, suffering heavy damage.
Chodkiewicza street is one of the most important arteries of Bydgoszcz centre, enabling to cross the city on an east-west axis. Many buildings along this axis undeniably carry historic importance, some are registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage list.
Alessandro Mazzucotelli was an Italian craftsman, particularly known as a master ironworker and decorator. A specialist in wrought iron, Mazzucotelli linked his fame to the decorations of the works of the major exponents of Art Nouveau in Italy and abroad.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)Wikimedia Commons has media related to Villa Bernasconi . |