Palazzo Castiglioni is an Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 palace of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It was designed by Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga was an Italian architect of the Art nouveau movement. He was the pupil of Camillo Boito and Luca Beltrami to the Brera Academy in Milan. His monumental architecture exerted some influence on the futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia...

 and built between 1901 and 1903. The rusticated

Rustication (architecture)

thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...

 blocks of the basement imitate a natural rocky shape, while the rest of the decorations are inspired by 18th century stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

s. The building is now used as the seat of the Unione Commercianti di Milano (Traders' Union of Milan).

History

The palace was built for enterpreneur Ermengildo Castiglioni, who chose architect Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga

Giuseppe Sommaruga was an Italian architect of the Art nouveau movement. He was the pupil of Camillo Boito and Luca Beltrami to the Brera Academy in Milan. His monumental architecture exerted some influence on the futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia...

 because of his anticonventional solutions. Castiglioni wanted the palace to reflect his wealth and grandeur; the choice of the Art Nouveau, a new and "trendy" style, for a building that would be located in the historic centre of Milan, was intended by Castiglioni and Sommaruga as a sort of challenge to the Milanese conservative élite. The most provocative element of the original design turned out to be a couple of nude female statues, by Ernesto Bazzaro

Ernesto Bazzaro

Ernesto Bazzaro was an Italian sculptor.-Biography:Like his elder brother, Leonardo, Ernesto Bazzaro studied at the Brera Academy in Milan, which he attended from 1875, winning the Luigi Canonica Prize in 1881...

, decorating the facade; these raised such turmoil that the local newspaper Guerin Meschino published a series of satyrical illustrations on them, and the Milanese population renamed the palace "Cà di ciapp" (in Milanese

Milanese

Milanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....

, "house of buttocks"). The statues, that were intended to represented "Peace" and "Industry", were eventually removed and are now used as decorations of another Milanese palace also by Sommaruga, Villa Faccanoni.

Sources

• E. Bairati and D. Riva, Guide all'architettura in Italia: il Liberty in Italia, Editori Laterza.