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Pirovano, Ernesto
(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 façade (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).
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