Ernesto Pirovano (b
Milan, 30 March 1866; d Milan, 29 Dec 1934).
Italian
architect. He began his career working in an eclectic decorative
style in the last decade of the 19th century, when his work
included the fa?ade (1897-8) applied to the 16th-century church
of S Maria del Paradiso, Milan, and the contemporary works,
carried out in collaboration with Gaetano Moretti, at Crespi
d'Adda. There, in a period of 15 years (c. 1890-1905), an entire
town developed around the Crespi textile factory, comprising the
owners' houses, different types of housing for the workers, a
school, a theatre, a church and a cemetery. Pirovano himself
designed the Villa Crespi (1890) at Capriate d'Adda in the form
of a medieval castle with a tower and spire, as well as the
church, which is a small copy of the Bramantesque church of S
Maria in Piazza in Busto Arsizio, the patrons' town of origin.
In the early years of the 20th century Pirovano, like Moretti,
began to work in the Art Nouveau style and his works of this
period divide into two main categories: urban housing and
cemetery architecture. Pirovano's urban housing projects include
the Casa Ferrario (1902-4) in the Via Spadari and the Casa Tensi
(1907-9) in the Via Vivaio, both in Milan. The principal
features of the former are the balconies linked both
horizontally and vertically. The design is greatly enhanced by
Alessandro Mazzucotelli's wrought-iron work with naturalistic
motifs. The Casa Tensi demonstrates Pirovano's ability to
achieve an organic coherence between the various parts of the
building, decorated with vibrant motifs of Austro-German origin,
which Pirovano often adopted as the stylistic vocabulary of his
own brand of Art Nouveau. The cemetery as a type was an
important aspect of the Art Nouveau in Italy, particularly in
Milan, because it was in such places that the new style had the
opportunity for monumentality. Pirovano had already been awarded
a prize (1896) in the competition for a cemetery at Crespi
d'Adda, which was won by Moretti with an influential plan. Later,
Pirovano won the competitions for cemeteries at Bergamo
(1897-1913) and Mantua (begun 1902-3; not completed), and he
also received commissions to make alterations and enlargements
to those at Cremona and Mortara. He was associated with the
architectural review Editizia Moderna, in which a large number
of his works were illustrated (1895-1916).