Virginio Colombo (1884–1927) was a prolific Italian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

later active in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina.

Biography

Born in 1884 in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, Colombo studied architecture in the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

under Giuseppe Sommaruga, the city's leading exponent of the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

style. Colombo arrived in

in 1906, along with two other Italian architects, Aquiles de Lazzari and Mario Baroffio Covati, with a contract to carry out the decoration of the

Palacio de Justicia Palacio (''palace'') is a Spanish language, Spanish habitational name. It may have originated from many places in Spain, especially in Galicia (Spain), Galicia and Asturias. Notable people with the surname include: *Agustina Palacio de Libarona (1 ...

(the Law Courts). Soon after his arrival in Buenos Aires he became director of a studio and later set up his own, working mainly on projects for private clients, usually wealthy Italian immigrants in business, industry or real estate who bought land for the construction of apartment buildings and shops for rental. These entrepreneurs liked architecture that optimized land use and that was stylistically what some might consider ostentatious and extravagant. Perhaps his most important public work was the designing of two pavilions (Public Celebrations and Postal Service) for the Exposición Internacional del Centenario (1910), for which he was awarded a Gold Medal. Colombo embraced Eclectic Modernism, used by many Italian architects working in Buenos Aires at that time, and typified by elements of Medieval architecture including the presence of round arches, windows and loggias, floral ornamentation and crenelated cornices. To these traditional features were added those inspired by Art Nouveau and through exploring the possibilities offered by this combination Colombo was able to evolve a very personal language. His work can be divided into two periods. The first extends up to 1920 and falls within the Italian school of Art Nouveau, as exemplified by the headquarters of the ''Unione Operai Italiani'' at 1374-82 Sarmiento, completed in 1913. At the end of this period Colombo moved towards Classicism and Monumentalism, without renouncing Modernism, when he built Casa Grimoldi in 1918 at 2548-72 Corrientes Avenue for the businessman Grimoldi, owner of the shoe manufacturing company. In the second period Colombo embraced Classical Eclecticism and his designs became particularly self-confident and challenging. Colombo completed close to 50 works in Buenos Aires in 21 years before his death at the age of 43. He died in Buenos Aires on July 22, 1927. Today Colombo is probably best remembered for ''La Casa de los Pavos Reales'' at 3216-36 Rivadavia and ''Casa Calise'' at 2562-78 H.Yrigoyen. Those of his

style buildings that still remain are easily recognized by their abundance of lion heads, balconies, iron work, cherubs, female heads and caryatids, turkeys, falcons and dragons.

References

Mimi Bohm, ''Buenos Aires, Art Nouveau'', Ediciones Xavier Verstraeten, Buenos Aires, 2005.
El Portal de arte y arquitectura en Internet (in Spanish) https://www.arquitectura.com/historia/protag/colombo/colombo.asp http://www.virginiocolombo.com.ar/ di Cesare Ana, Paroli, Margarita; Investigación sobre Virginio Colombo: https://carocolombo.blogspot.com.ar/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Colombo, Virginio 1884 births 1927 deaths 20th-century Italian architects Italian emigrants to Argentina Architects from Buenos Aires Art Nouveau architects Brera Academy alumni Architects from Milan Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery