Liberty style ( it, Stile Liberty) was the Italian variant of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

, which flourished between about 1890 and 1914. It was also sometimes known as ''stile floreale'', ''arte nuova'', or ''stile moderno''. It took its name from

Arthur Lasenby Liberty Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty (13 August 1843 – 11 May 1917) was a London-based merchant, and the founder of Liberty & Co. Early life Arthur Liberty was born on 13 August 1843 in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of a draper. He ...

and the store he founded in 1874 in London, Liberty Department Store, which specialized in importing ornaments, textiles and art objects from Japan and the Far East. Major Italian designers using the style included

Carlo Bugatti Carlo Bugatti (2 February 1856 – April 1940) was an Italian decorator, designer and manufacturer of Art Nouveau furniture, models of jewelry, and musical instruments. Biography Son of Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, a specialist in interior deco ...

, Raimondo D'Aronco, Eugenio Quarti, and

Galileo Chini Galileo Chini (2 December 1873 - 23 August 1956) was an Italian decorator, designer, painter, and potter. A prominent member of the Italian Liberty style movement, or Italian Art Nouveau, he taught decorative arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti ...

. The major event of the style was the 1902 Turin International Exposition, which featured by works of both Italian designers and other Art Nouveau designers from around Europe. Liberty style was especially popular in large cities outside of Rome which were eager to establish a distinct cultural identity, particularly Milan, Palermo and Turin, the city where the first major exposition of the style in Italy was held. Liberty style, like other versions of Art Nouveau, had the ambition of turning ordinary objects, such as chairs and windows, into works of art. Unlike the French and Belgian Art Nouveau, based primarily on nature, Liberty style was more strongly influenced by the Baroque style, with very lavish ornament and color, both on the interior and exterior. The Italian poet and critic Gabriele d'Annunzio wrote in 1889, as the style was just beginning, "the genial sensual debauche of the Baroque sensibility is one of the determining variants of the Italian Art Nouveau." Liberty style is considered to be a western offshoot of the 19th-century British Arts and Craft movement, which was a response against the mechanization and dehumanizing of the artistic process.

Palermo in the late 1800s

The first examples of the liberty style in Italy are found in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

, in particular Villa Favaloro, and in the large building of

Teatro Massimo The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (at the time of its ...

and in its square with kiosks in this style dating back to the end of the nineteenth century. In particular, two architects were the first representatives of this new style: Giovan Battista Filippo Basile and his son

Ernesto Basile Ernesto Basile (31 January 1857 – 26 August 1932, in Palermo) was an Italian architect and an exponent of modernisme and Liberty style, the Italian variant of Art Nouveau. His style was known for its eclectic fusion of ancient, medieval and ...

. File:Chiosco Ribaudo Palermo.jpg, Liberty kiosk dating back to the early and 1800s, is located in Piazza Verdi in front of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo File:Villino Favaloro stile Liberty in Palermo 02.jpg, Villa Favaloro was built in 1889 in liberty style by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile in Palermo File:Villino Favaloro stile Liberty in Palermo 03.jpg, Villino Favaloro, Liberty decoration of the entrance door to the loggia, in Palermo

The 1902 Turin Exposition

The 1902 Turin Exposition, formally titled, ''Torino 1902: Le Arti Decorative Internazionali Del Nuovo Secolo'', was the signature event of the style. It included designers from the United States, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, France, Holland, Norway, Austria, Scotland, Sweden and Hungary. Those displaying their works included

Victor Horta Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, built in 1892–93, is often ...

, the pioneer Art Nouveau architect and furniture designer from Brussels. who displayed rooms with sets of furniture. File:Cartolina 1902 Torino.jpg, Postcard of the 1902 Turin Exposition File:Esposizione arte moderna Torino 1902.JPG, Poster for the 1902 Turin Exposition by

Leonardo Bistolfi Leonardo Bistolfi (14 March 1859 – 2 September 1933) was an Italian sculptor and an important exponent of Italian Symbolism. Biography Bistolfi was born in Casale Monferrato in Piedmont, north-west Italy, to Giovanni Bistolfi, a sculptor in ...

(1902) File:Furnishing for decorative arts fair 'la Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna' by Victor Horta.jpg, Art Nouveau furniture by

displayed at Turin Exposition (1902)

Furniture and interior design

The Liberty style in interior design and furniture had three distinct tendencies. The first was very floral and sculptural, following the model of England and France. The major designers in this style were Vittorio Valebrega and Agostino Lauro, and particularly the furniture manufacturer Valabrega, which produced works in series. A second tendency was more discrete, and was similar to designs of the British

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

movement, with linear forms, simplicity, and artisanal quality. The major designers in this school were

and

Giacomo Cometti Giacomo is an Italian name. It is the Italian version of the Hebrew name Jacob. People * Giacomo (name), including a list of people with the name Other uses * Giacomo (horse), a race horse, winner of the 2005 Kentucky Derby * ''Giácomo'' (fi ...

. The third tendency was for forms that were much more original and exotic, often derived from the styles of North Africa and the Middle East. These works were The most influential designer in this style was

, a member of a large family of artists and father of

Ettore Bugatti Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (15 September 1881 – 21 August 1947) was an Italian-born French automobile designer and manufacturer. He is remembered as the founder and proprietor of the automobile manufacturing company Automobiles E. Bugatti, wh ...

, the automobile designer. His works first reached international attention at the 1902 Turin Exposition. His furniture was thoroughly original, having little or no reference to other European versions of Art Nouveau. He used an extremely wide range of materials in his furniture, including ivory and rare woods. He was particularly fond of the keyhole form. His cobra chair, was inspired by the chairs of African chieftains, and was made of tropical woods, painted parchment and hammered copper. Bugatti's theory was that any object, no matter what its function, could be transformed into a work of art. An unusual example of the theory that anything could be made into a work of art is the statue of dancing elephant by

Rembrandt Bugatti Rembrandt Bugatti (16 October 1884 – 8 January 1916) was an Italian sculptor, known primarily for his bronze sculptures of wildlife subjects. During World War I, he volunteered for paramedical work at a military hospital in Antwerp, an experi ...

, the son of Carlo Bugatti, in 1908. In 1928, in a version made of silver, it was turned into a radiator cap for the Bugatti Royale automobile. Another notable designer of Liberty style furniture was Eugenio Quarti, who had won a prize at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900. He apprenticed in Paris and worked for a time in the studio of

, but soon departed from Bugatti's exoticism and worked in a more classical style. He used traditional fine woods, such as

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus '' Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Un ...

and

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a tru ...

, combined with inlays of ivory, and brass, glass, and other modern elements. File:Carlo bugatti, stipo, 1895 ca.jpg, Cupboard by

(1895) File:Carlo bugatti, cobra chair, milano 1902.jpg, Cobra Chair by

(1902) (Musée D'Orsay) File:Carlo bugatti, sedia circolare, 1902.JPG, Circular chair by

(1902) (Furniture Museum of Milan) File:Carlo bugatti per a.a. hébrard film, tavolino e servito da the e caffè, 1907 ca. 01.jpg, Coffee serving table (1907) (Cleveland Museum of Art) File:Goodwood2007-055a Bugatti Hood Ornament Type 41 Royale.jpg, Dancing elephant radiator cap by

(1908-1928) File:Eugenio quarti, tavolo a quadrifoglio, 1900 ca.jpg, Table by Eugenio Quarti (1900) File:Tea table, 1914-15, Eugenio Quarti, walnut, mahogany, brass, celluloid and glass, Wolfsonian-FIU Museum II.JPG, Museum or tea table by Eugenio Quarti (Wolfsonian-FIU Museum)

Architecture

The architecture of the Liberty style was more closely akin to the Baroque style. with a lavish excess of external ornament.

Pietro Fenoglio Pietro Fenoglio (Turin, 3 May 1865 – Corio, 22 August 1927) was an Italian architect and engineer, considered one of the most important pioneers of Art Nouveau in Italy. Fenoglio quickly grasped the ascendancy of Art Nouveau as it appeared in ...

was one of the early figures in Liberty style architecture, with the

Casa Fenoglio-Lafleur Casa Fenoglio-Lafleur (or Fenoglio-Lafleur house) is a historical building in the Liberty style located in Turin, Italy. It is situated in the ''San Donato'' borough, a central area with significant Stile Liberty buildings and New Gothic architec ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

, which added Art Nouveau elements onto a more traditional facade. In

the major figure was

, who used curved forms similar to the Belgian-French Art Nouveau combined with

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

murals, as in the Grand Hotel Villa Igiea (1899–1900). Basile also combined elements of a medieval castle with Liberty decoration to create the Villino Florio in Palermo (1899–1902).

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

had a large number of Liberty style houses. The most prominent architects included

Giovanni Battista Bossi Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

, whose Casa Galimberti had a facade drenched with decorative sculpture and murals. The decoration seemed to have been poured over the building. The sculpture somewhat recalls the work of the Renaissance painter

Giuseppe Archimboldo Giuseppe Arcimboldo (; also spelled ''Arcimboldi'') (1526 or 1527 – 11 July 1593) was an Italians, Italian List of Italian painters, painter best known for creating imaginative portrait Human head, heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, ...

. File:Villino Florio.jpg, Villino Florio in Palermo by

(1899–1902) File:Casa Fenoglio-La Fleur.JPG,

(about 1902) File:Villa Scott - panoramio (7).jpg, Villa Scott by Pietro Fenoglio File:20161207 Palazzo Castiglioni.jpg, Palazzo Castiglioni in Milan by

Giuseppe Sommaruga Giuseppe Sommaruga (1867–1917) was an Italian architect of the Liberty style or 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''Fut ...

(1901–1903) File:Casa galimberti -milano 24.02.11 (ritoccata).jpg, Casa Galimberti in Milan by

(1903–1905) File:20160829 Casa Guazzoni.jpg, Casa Guazzoni in Milan by Giovanni Battista Bossi (1904–1906) File:Chiosco Ribaudo Piazza Castelnuovo (Palermo).JPG, Kiosk in Palermo by Ernesto Basile

Frescoes

A distinctive element of Liberty style was the use of

frescoes Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

for the interior and exterior decoration. One example is found in Livorno in the decoration of the thermal baths at Acque della Salute. The frescos were painted by

Ernesto Bellandi Ernesto Bellandi (January 1842 – 1916) was an Italian painter. He was born in Florence. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. While he had been offered a teaching post in Urbino, he began decorating a private house, for a Counterfe ...

(1842-1916). Painted interiors were a speciality of

of Palermo, an architect devoted special attention to the fusion of the architecture decoration in the interiors. He created a series of villas around Palermo between 1899 and 1901. Interior decoration in the Liberty style continued longer in Italy than in other parts of Europe. An example is the decoration of interiors by

on the themes of autumn and spring, painted in 1922 for the Terme Berzieri in

Salsomaggiore Salsomaggiore Terme ( Salsese: ; Parmigiano: ) is a town and '' comune'' located in the province of Parma, in the region of Emilia-Romagna. Located at the foot of the Apennines, its warm saline waters made this a popular Spa town. History In th ...

. File:Villa Igiea a Palermo salone liberty 3 porte.jpg, Salon of the Grand Hotel Villa Igiea in

(1899-1900), with symbolist murals File:Stabilimento termale Acque della Salute, dettaglio 1.JPG, Frescos at the Thermal Baths in Livorno by

File:Galileo chini, autunno e primavera, 1922, 01.jpg, Autumn and Spring frescoes by

in Salsomaggiore (1922)

Glass and ceramics

Glass and ceramics were important components of the Liberty style. Italian glass art particularly drew upon the tradition of

Murano glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as ...

, from Venice.

was the dominant figure in glassware and ceramics. He created decorative floral designs which were produced in stained glass,

majolica In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery. Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca ...

or ceramics. In 1897 he founded the Florentine Society of Ceramic Arts, and between 1902 and 1914 he decorated the salons of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. He also became the chair of the department of decoration in the Italian Academy of Fine Arts. He was called to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

in 1911–13 to decorate the throne room of the royal palace there. Later works by Chini, with more geometric rather than natural designs, showed the growing influence of the more geometric style of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

and the work of

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's p ...

. File:FratelliToso3.jpg, Vase by Fratelli Toso (about 1910) with more geometric floral style File:Grand hotel & la pace, vetrata di galileo chini in stile secessione, 1904 ca. 03.jpg, Ceramic tile decoration by

, with influence of

File:Manifattura fornaci di san lorenzo, cache-pot con maggiolini, 1906-11 ca. 01.jpg, Polychrome

ceramic vase from the workshop of

(1906-1911)

Graphic arts

As in France and other parts of Europe, the poster and other graphic arts was an important genre of the Liberty style, particularly for travel posters.

Leonetto Cappiello Leonetto Cappiello (9 April 1875 – 2 February 1942) was an Italian and French poster art designer and painter, who mainly lived and worked in Paris.

was an important figure in the early style, though he moved to Paris and spent most of his career designing posters and graphics there.

designed the poster for the 1902 Exposition in Turin, with the combination of feminine and floral themes typical of the early style. In its later years, the Liberty Style in graphics and painting moved away from floral and feminine themes to more modernist subjects, under the influence of

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, an ...

. The painter and graphic artist

Umberto Boccioni Umberto Boccioni (, ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach ...

became one of the major figures in Futurism. File:Affiche pour la lampe incandescente à pétrole, 1896, Giovanni Mataloni.jpg, Poster for gas lamps by

Giovanni Mataloni Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

(1896) File:Manifesto Teatro Regio Boano.jpg, Poster for Teatro Regio by

Giuseppe Boano Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Josephus, Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it. The feminine form of the name ...

(1898) File:Tigri 1900.jpg, Book cover designed by

Alberto Della Valle Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic '' Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Al ...

(1900) File:Livorno stagione balneare, poster by Leonetto Cappiello, 1901.jpg, Poster for baths of Livorno by

Leonetto Cappiello Leonetto Cappiello (9 April 1875 – 2 February 1942) was an Italian and French poster art designer and painter, who mainly lived and worked in Paris.

(1901) File:Manifesto Giornale di Sicilia, Borgoni.jpg, Poster for the ''Giornale di Sicilia'' by

Mario Borgoni is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

(1903) File:Boccioni Brunate.jpg, Poster by

(1909)

Notes and citations

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

*
''Italia Liberty: Tutta la bellezza dell'arte Liberty in Italia''
{{Archhistory Art Nouveau Art Nouveau architecture in Italy fr:Art nouveau en Italie