The “Sant’Elia project” came into being at the initiative of the Como
Rotary Club, which was aware of the difficulties of how best to exploit
the 164 drawings by Antonio Sant’Elia kept at the Pinacoteca Civica
gallery of Como.
The project became a collaborative effort with the City of Como
authorities, the owners of the drawings, and other local institutions
such as the Fondazione Comasca, the Fondazione del Credito Valtellinese,
Como Province cultural department and the Chamber of Commerce, which
decided to fund action to make Como’s great architect better known to a
wider public.
Two rooms at the Pinacoteca Civica were therefore equipped to provide
information about and digital consultation facilities for the drawings.
This web site was also created which at the moment shows the
collection of drawings in public ownership but which will also in time
gather together the works from all sources to document the complete
works of Sant’Elia.
Visitors to the website can see images of all the drawings and read
the technical notes on the subject matter and the history of the works.
There is moreover a biography of the architect and an exhaustive list
of the exhibitions at which they have been shown.
Enthusiasts of the Sant’Elia will also find the press review area
particularly useful as it provides real time updates on exhibitions and
events relating to his works.
The city of Como owns 201 original documents relating to Sant’Elia, made
up of 182 of the architect’s drawings, six period photographs (two of
Villa Elisi and four for the Competition for the new Milan Central
Station), two heliographs (for the Caprotti funerary monument), two
drawings of Leonardo Dudreville and nine drawings of the architect
Tancredi Motta for the competition for the savings bank Cassa di
Risparmio di Verona, on which Sant’Elia also worked.
The first work to come into the ownership of the municipal authorities
did so in 1930 when the drawing of the Torre faro [light tower] was
proposed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti as a model for the Monument to the
Fallen on the shores of the lake. The drawing was transferred to the
offices of the municipal authorities and to the museums in 1956.
The first substantial nucleus of 88 drawings was acquired in 1943 by
the family through the efforts of a substantial group of Como patrons
coordinated by Manlio Rho and Gianni Stecchini who had the works donated
to the City the following year, handing them over to the Museo Civico.
In 1958 there was the loss of five drawings that had been loaned to
the Foreign Ministry for the Italian exhibition at the Brussels Expo,
from which they were stolen.
In 1961 preparations were initiated for the great exhibition at Villa
Olmo where Como had decided to celebrate the works of its illustrious
citizen. The city authorities called on private collectors and the
architect’s own family to loan or donate further drawings so that as
complete a picture of the life and works of the architect as possible
could be presented to the public. There was a generous response from the
sculptor Gerolamo Fontana who donated no less than eleven drawings from
his collection, to which was added a further plate in 1967 which was
sold to the municipality by the sculptor’s widow. Also in 1961 Anselma
Sant’Elia, niece of the architect gave a period photograph to the city
of the tables for the Competition for the New Milan Station. The
engineer Gianni Mantero made a donation of one plate and another was
forthcoming from the architect Tancredi Motta.
The following year the bank Cassa di Risparmio di Verona assigned to
the City of Como the tables for the competition for its own headquarters
in Verona. In 1962 the municipality used the compensation received
following the theft of the drawings in Brussels for the purchase of
another nucleus of drawings then in the possession of the artist’s
sister Giuseppina Sant’Elia Broglia. This decision was made by Luciano
Caramel and Alberto Longatti and resulted in 666 sheets coming to the
City including two heliographs of the Caprotti Monument.
In 1967 seven drawings from the collection of the architect Antonio
Carminati were acquired and in 1969 once again 11 drawings were stolen
from the exhibition at Villa Olmo in Como.
Maria Letizia Casati
Collection curator
Como’s Pinacoteca Civica [civic art gallery] is in Palazzo Volpi in the South-west of the walled city. It opened in 1989 with temporary exhibitions, while refurbishment that began in 2003 has seen the introduction of permanent sections which are still in the progress of completion.
Palazzo Volpi
This building, seat of the law courts right up to the nineteen
seventies, was originally built in the third decade of the seventeenth
century by Ulpiano Volpi, who enjoyed a glittering ecclesiastical career
in the Curia romana, thanks to which his family underwent a rapid rise
in social status. The plans for the building were in fact sent to Como
from Rome, the work of the architect Sergio Venturi from Sienna who had
made Rome his home and who is best known for the catafalque he made for
Pope Paul V.
The Medieval section
This Section is offset to the left of the entrance and occupies the
first floor of the building’s south wing, accessed through the
Romanesque portal of the church of Santa Margherita. The area is
introduced by an educational hall (0.2) that tells the story of the
working and re-use of stone, a typical and traditional craft that is
very much as part of the Lakeland heritage. The visitor is led through
three historical periods, the High Medieval, the Romanesque and the
Gothic. The area houses sculptures and fine frescoes from the ancient
buildings which have been subsequently demolished or that are no longer
accessible.
The Renaissance
The Section is to the right of the entrance and is located in three
ground floor rooms in the building’s east wing. In the central chamber
are displayed a number of sixteenth century portraits from Paolo
Giovio’s collection of illustrious men. The two side rooms contain
respectively prestigious works from private collections (0.11) and
important paintings from Como’s artistic production of the Renaissance
period.
Gallery
This Section is located in the rooms on the building’s piano nobile.
There are large canvasses of holy subjects from religious buildings that
were closed during the Austrian and Napoleonic periods, as well as
paintings donated from private collections to the general public after
the establishment of the civic museum. It presents a wide range of the
works of Como’s principle artists who were working here from the times
of the counter reformation to the nineteenth century, including some
special examples from the early seventeenth century, baroque paintings
and canvasses dating from the eighteenth century.
The twentieth century
The section is to be found on the palazzo’s second floor, beginning
with the photo-ceramic panels by Marcello Nizzoli, which were designed
to illustrate the façade of the Casa del Fascio by Giuseppe Terragni.
The story is illustrated, with photographs, paintings, sculptures and
prototype furnishings, of the salient moments in the creative history of
twentieth century Como, from the Futurism of Antonio Sant’Elia, through
the Rationalism of Giuseppe Terragni, to the Abstractism of the Como
Group and to the Integration of the arts attempted by Ico Parisi.
Two rooms at the Pinacoteca Civica are dedicated to the life and works of Antonio Sant’Elia.
One of these shows videos and in the other visitors can consult his works using high definition touch screens.
The rooms are open during the institution’s normal opening times.
Tuesday to Saturday 9.30-12.30 and 2 – 5 p.m.
Sundays and holidays 10 - 1 p.m.
Wednesdays 9.30- 5 p.m. (from 15th September to 15th July – closing from 24th December to 7th January)
Visitors may enter up to 15 minutes before closing time.
Mondays
1st November
8th, 25th and 26th December
1st January
| TICKET TYPE | PRICE |
|---|---|
| Full Ticket | 3,00 € |
| Over 65s | 1,50 € |
| Groups | 2,00 € |
| School Groups | 1,00 € |
| Individual Students 15-18 years of age | 1,00 € |
| Annual Season Ticket - 10 admissions | 6,00 € |
| Accompanied Children under 15 | Free |
| BODY/ASSOCIATION | SPECIAL PRICE |
|---|---|
| CTS (Students and Youth Tourist Center) | Admission 1 € |
| NOI COMO Association | Admission 1 € |
| BRESCIA MUSEI CARD | Admission 1 € |
| T.C.I. (Touring Club Italiano) | Admission 1 € |
| Amico del FAI members | Admission 1 € |
| US Card | Admission 1 € |
| International Student Identity Card | Admission 1 € |
| PLINIO CARD | Admission Free |
| WELCOMO TOURIST LAKE CARD | Admission Free |
| COMO CARD GIOVANI | Admission Free |
Pinacoteca Civica
Via Diaz, 84
Como
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By road
The Pinacoteca Civica gallery is inside the city walls in the ZTL
limited traffic zone so it is not possible to enter this area in your
own car.
There are however several pay car parks just outside the city walls.
By rail
15 minutes on foot from the city’s main station Stazione Centrale FS.
10 minutes on foot from Como Borghi FNM station.
Groups Visits
Tel. +39 031 252554
School
Activities and workshops: information and bookings
Tel. +39 031 252554 - Fax +39 031268053
More info
Biblioteca d’arte e archivi
Presso Palazzo Giovio
Piazza Medaglie d’Oro 1 – Como
Tel. +39 031 252555
Tel. +39 031 269869 - +39 031 252550
Fax +39 031268053
Email address
musei.civici@comune.como.it
Web site
museicivici.comune.como.it
The Municipal Authority of the city of Como owns the rights to the use and reproduction of any item or part therefore that forms part of the collections of the Musei Civici of Como [Civic Museums]. The system of application for images and for the payment of copyright for reproduction of images is a matter for the Administrative Office of the Musei Civici of Como.
Segreteria Musei Civici
piazza Medaglie d'Oro 1, Como
tel. 031 252550
fax 031 268053
musei.civici@comune.como.it
1. fill in the application form for photographic reproduction; the application may be hand delivered or sent by post, or by fax to 031 268053;
2. the reproduction, whether by the museum itself or carried out using your own equipment, may only be undertaken with the prior authorisation of the management of Musei Civici after permission has been given by the collection’s curator;
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4. the applicant must specify the use that will be made of the reproduction; if at a later date it is decided to use the reproduction for some other purpose further prior authorisation must be requested;
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Require copyright payments for reproduction; the specific amounts are established in the table of charges approved by Council Resolution number 61of 09/03/2011
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BANCA SAN PAOLO IMI - SEDE DI GRANDATE (CO), V. VETRERIA 1
Current account number: 46060, in the name of COMUNE DI COMO, SERVIZIO TESORERIA
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Authorisation for the publication and/or photographic material requested will be given to the applicant as soon as payment of the copyright concerned has been made for such reproduction.
Application request for photographic reproduction
Table of charges for the use and the reproduction of items owned by the Musei Civici of Como
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the new century
was heralded with great expectations for technological progress and
industrial innovation, while the great expanding cities themselves set
about addressing this future with ideas for the reorganisation of the
urban landscape to ensure better social and community living.
A number of different models emerged from this process.
In England Ebenezer Howard (1858-1928) came up with the concept of
Garden Cities that was not limited to a design project but which
embraced an organic complex of principles, standards and procedures.
The matrix for his proposals was inspired by Roberto Owen’s utopian
socialism and the anti-urban philosophy of John Ruskin which aimed at
freeing up overcrowded city centres and moving the population out into
new towns surrounded by green land, i.e.
“garden cities” each with no more than thirty-two thousand inhabitants.
These would be well equipped with efficient infrastructures while
remaining well connected to the historic city by a good transport
network.
Industrial plant would be situated on developments at the margins of the settlement along the railways.
The project was presented as an ideogram with a series of satellite
centres each sufficiently distant from the other to stop them from
joining together and to ensure the independence of each.
The Garden City model was successful and at least two were actually
built, at Letchworth and Welwyn between 1904 and 1926, with a simple
residential plan (not suggested by Howard who left the builders free to
choose the system most convenient for them), that included detached,
semi-detached and terraced houses, all on two floors, doubling the
number of dwellers envisaged in the rules sketched out by the founder.
While Howard proposed an idea of the city that put the brake on its
excessive expansion and raised the possibility of a system that echoed
medieval communities with a wholly modern twist, from 1901 to 1904 the
French thinker Tony Garnier worked on ideas for an integrated city for
the industrial age.
He drafted each part with great attention to detail and included the
factories, hydroelectric power plants, utilities and housing, while
systematically applying the new processes of construction with
reinforced concrete.
He too rejected the idea of the oversized metropolis and envisaged a
medium-sized city, suggesting its possible ideal location on a plane
crossed by a water course and dotted with areas of raised ground.
To such a chequerboard of different levels would be allocated
functionally differing areas, with residential zones, general service
industry areas and quarters equipped with sporting and leisure time
amenities, clearly separating pedestrian thoroughfares from motor
traffic areas.
The urban fabric would be low density, determined by a heliothermal
axis (along the direction of the sun) with detached homes and apartment
blocks made in diverse variants.
Schematic plans with specific reference to technological modernisation
would be useful for the development of future urban planning.
Of particular interest to Garnier was the idea of correlating
industrial areas with residential zones through the efficient layout of
infrastructures that would not interfere one with another.
It is worth noting that to facilitate the flow of intense motorcar
traffic and heavy goods transport, in 1905 the Parisian engineer Henard
drafted plans for an industrial area with highways running on different
levels.
Milan, the Italian city that had more than any other been subject to
an impetuous wave of industrialisation did not turn a deaf ear to the
new theories on city planning.
Without wishing to dwell on the influence of theories emanating from
central Europe, it should be noted that Howard’s idea was implemented by
a cooperative that intended to build a garden city in the area between
Cusano Milanino and Cinisello Balsamo, announcing a procurement
competition for a “small modern villa”, one of the entries for which
came from the very young Sant’Elia and the new “green” quarter was in
fact in large part actually realised.
Much more importantly a project was funded at the same time by the two
major manufacturers of Pirelli and Breda for the building of an entire
“citadel” for industry for northern Milan towards the San Giovanni area,
a clear sign that even the ideas formulated by Garnier could be
effectively employed in the metropolitan area.
The plans never however left the drawing board due to the outbreak of
the first world war, with the result that an important and possibly
decisive route for urban expansion outside the strict confines of
traditional town planning regulations was left untried.
The path taken was therefore conditioned by the Beruto radiocentric
planning of 1884 that involved the dismantling of the ancient Spanish
boundary walls to replace them with the new encircling Bastions, while
allocating the central areas the privileged function of representation.
It was a sprawling structure only partly modified by the subsequent
Pavia-Masera plan of 1910 for a city that had grown from a population of
314,817 in 1881 to 600,612 in 1911 (before and immediately after the
Beruto plan), with an increase in the residential properties in the
period from 260,000 to 480,000.
The make-up of Milan had changed rapidly over just a few decades, with
the bourgeoisie occupying the areas within the circle of the Bastions,
relegating the working classes to the outskirts, and concentrating
capital investment in the central areas.
These were the years of the opening up of Via Sempione, now Via Dante,
together with the areas of Cordusio and the Foro Buonaparte, that of
the Sforzesco castle and Piazza d’Armi and also the restoration of the
façade of the Duomo.
They were years in which projects of architectural prestige sought
solid reference points in the Italian cultural heritage, restoring also
the city’s monuments to their former glory, with the dominating force
was the philosophy of the Camillo Boito school, patrons of
“philological” restoration, and the “stylistic-Romantic” school of Luca
Beltrami and Gaetano Moretti.
Running counter to the cult of preservation of the historic was the
modernist reaction that sought inspiration in the Viennese example of
the school of Otto Wagner and his pupils with their severe and rigorous
buildings characterised by harmonious lines.
Late Art-nouveau and the Secessionist ideas went head to head with the
variously represented eclecticism of Boito and Beltrami in the public
works competitions and at the exhibitions, while in the universities and
in the academies engineers and “lecturers in architectural design” were
being trained, and diplomas obtained, primarily for virtuous expertise
in embellishing styles and for tireless defenders of conservation.
Few indeed were those representing independent creative originality,
those more inclined towards the twentieth century impulse as exemplified
by Ernesto Basile, Raimondo D’Aronco and above all Giuseppe Sommaruga
(1867-1917).
One of the most daring works of this latter was the Hotel Tre Croci at
Campo dei Fiori (Varese) perched on a hill that could be reached by a
funicular railway and often compared with the building ideas
characteristic of the later period of Sant’Elia’s artistic language;
including as it did such features as powerful buttresses supporting the
massive edifices of the New City, where Sommaruga used huge piers for
the vertical support of buildings standing sheer above the valley below
this Varese hotel.
The fact is that to whatever extent his works of the time straddled
the two centuries, the past and the present, the traditional and the
modern, influenced also by his cultural education and Secessionist
background, they were nevertheless for Sant’Elia only to a moment of
transition.
They represented the architectural environment he had grown up in, and
he would burn his bridges with much that was imparted to him in his
school days.
He was not so much interested in detailed studies of individual
buildings in the urban setting but rather with the relationships of the
buildings as a whole.
He wished to envisage how they could be put together into a living
future city, a megacity that could fearlessly take on the great load of a
populati on that was growing almost immeasurably.
His gaze turned towards the inspiring forest of growing skyscrapers in
a distant science fiction New York that came to and appeared in Italian
magazines as fantasy illustrations of cartoonists rather than actual
photographs.
The Città Nuova or New City of Sant’Elia did not seek to break itself
up into independent nuclei in the manner of the future proposed for
urbanisation at the beginning of the twentieth century, but tended
rather to take head on the idea of an extreme synthesis of the modern
conurbation.
It was this approach that made him stand out at his debut in the Milan
exhibitions of 1914, something that was well understood by the critic
and architect Giulio Ulisse Arata, who for his part had quite different
taste, a different background and addressed the matter from a different
perspective.
A.L.
1888
Antonio Sant’Elia was born in Como on 30th April 1888, son of Luigi
Sant’Elia, a barber in Como (1845-1914) and Cristina Panzillo (Capua
1848-Como 1922).
1899
At the end of the nineteenth century the city was going through a
prosperous time with much development taking place in the textile and
tourist industries.
At the same time improvements were being made to the infrastructures
both on the land and on the lake and new hotels were springing up and
changing the appearance of the landscape.
Aware that it was an active and vital centre, Como celebrated its own
prosperity in with its great exhibition to Volta of 1899 on the
centenary of the Alessandro Volta’s invention of the Voltaic Pile or
electric battery.
The Expo put on show the products of the textile industry and promoted
the history and art heritage of Como.
The event had an extraordinary emotional impact on the eleven-year-old
Sant’Elia, especially the displays of the engineer Eugenio Linati with
wood pavilions and a spectacular entrance through two imposing
reproductions of Piles with interior lifts and a series of illuminated
fountains.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the public gas lighting was partly
replaced by an electrical grid and the first trams started running.
1903
After graduating from Cantù technical school, he entered an art and
craft school the Castellini Scuola di Arti e Mestieri in Como in 1903.
1906
He obtained his construction industry technician’s diploma with marks of 160/200.
In that same year the Sempione Exhibition was held in Milan, which Sant’Elia would certainly have visited.
1907
At the age of nineteen he moved to Milan where he found his first job
as site manager for the completion works on the Villoresi Canal, which
work meant he was able to view the hydroelectric power station of
Vizzola Ticino.
He then moved on to work as building design assistant at the Municipal
Town Planning department for the city.
During his stay in Milan he experienced in first person the problems
associated with the growth of the metropolis and became thoroughly
cognisant of all the innovations in technology and hygiene that were
being introduced by Milan’s administrative authorities.
The increase in population and the need for higher quality standards
led to an at least partial introduction of mains drinking water, a
sewage system, electric lighting, school buildings, charitable
accommodation, the Monumental Cemetery and the Abattoir.
The questions of urban transformation and the renewal of the road
system made necessary by the growth in traffic were new subjects of
discussion that Sant’Elia embraced and addressed in competitions, in
exhibitions and in congresses.
He attempted to propose his own responses by designing multi-family
and multi-functional buildings to be located on the outskirts of the
city.
1908
In January 1909 he sent a design to the Milan magazine “La Casa”,
which published it, for a villa unifamiliare or detached house of
formally Secessionist inspiration that received partially positive
comments from the magazine as well as some criticism.
1909
In November he enrolled with the higher architecture course at the
Fine Arts Academy of Brera.
He attended the courses on perspective, embellishment and architecture
and went to the lectures held by Giuseppe Mentessi in geometry, Angelo
Cattaneo in perspective and scenography, Enrico Butti in sculpture,
Cesare Tallone in painting and Gaetano Moretti in architecture.
He lived in Corso Garibaldi, renting a room in a council house with
Giovanni Possamai, a sculptor of his own age.
His studies at the Accademia enabled him to gain his diploma as
teacher of architectural design.
A more technical education and the title of civil engineer or
architect would have been available to him had he attended the
Politecnico.
The Brera for its part however represented an essential meeting place
for animated debate.
Those studying with Sant’Elia were just as dissatisfied as he was with
the Realism and Symbolism that were then in vogue, and included the
likes of Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Gerolamo Fontana,
Leonardo Dudreville, Achille Funi, Mario Chiattone, Carlo Erba and
Giovanni Possamai whose company Sant’Elia kept before his encounter with
Marinetti and Futurism.
Some Milan haunts, such as the downtown coffee bars Il Campari and Il
Cova were also meeting places in which Sant’Elia met, among others, the
painters Romolo Romani, Anselmo Bucci and Aroldo Bonzagni, the art
critic and writer Mario Buggelli and the author Marco Ramperti.
1910
At the end of his first year at the Accademia, when he scored 9.5 in
architecture, 6 in embellishment and 5 in perspective, he passed into
the second year which he attended only for a short time.
1911
He gained an honourable mention for his entry to the Competition for a
small modern villa announced in 1908 by the Cooperative “Milanino”,
which was proposing to build a garden city in the area between Cusano
Milanino and Cinisello Balsamo.
There were two important International Exhibitions to celebrate the
fiftieth year of the Kingdom of Italy, one in Rome dedicated to art and
another in Turin celebrating industry.
We know that Sant'Elia went to the Rome exhibition with a group of
friends that included Luigi Pellini, Romeo Moretti and the painter
Giulio Cantoni.
He was particularly struck by the Austrian pavilion designed by Josef
Hoffmann which exhibited paintings by Gustav Klimt and Franz Von Stuck,
works of the sculptor Anton Hanak and reproductions of a number of
designs by Otto Wagner and his pupils, Emil Hoppe, Marcel Kammerer and
Otto Schöntal.
The Rome exhibition also put on its National Architecture Competition
for the “modern house”.
It is probable that he also went to the Turin exhibition where the
public particularly appreciated the Hungarian pavilion designed by Emile
Töry and Maurice Pogány.
At the end of that same year he worked with Italo Paternoster, who was
both a friend and fellow student at Brera, on the plates relating to
the International Competition for the new Cemetery of Monza, which would
be announced in the February of 1912.
The joint Sant’Elia-Paternoster, design was dubbed “Crisantemo”
[Chrysanthemum], and was classified among the finalists.
1912
He executed some tables for the architecture firm of Arrigo Cantoni
for the second stage of the Competition for the New Milan Railway
Station.
At the same firm he became friends with the designer and silversmith
Arrigo Finzi who he met in 1909.
He designed some kitchenware for him which was briefly in production
from 1914 up to the time both departed for the war.
On his return from the front Arrigo Finzi reopened the factor in Via
Caminadella and restarted manufacturing without meeting the favour of
customers.
It was not until the “Sant’Elia” trademark was filed in 1933 that the
cutlery, vessels and silver coffee services in the art deco style, quite
different from the art-nouveau designs from Como’s architect, obtained
success on the market and were particularly acclaimed by Giò Ponti.
He designed and built, with his friend Gerolamo Fontana, Villa Elisi
in the Le Colme a San Maurizio area above Brunate (Como) to the order of
the industrialist Romeo Longatti.
The small villa had a tympanum, that no longer exists, and geometric
decoration influence by the Vienna school whose culture had been spread
by such Italian magazines as “L’Arte Decorativa ed Industriale” of
Camillo Boito, “Emporium” and “L’Illustrazione italiana” as well as by
foreign magazines.
This same Milan architect paid great attention to any new ideas coming
from the other side of the Alps.
The plans and designs of the architects Gaetano Moretti, Giuseppe
Sommaruga, Ulisse Arata, Angelo Cattaneo and Ernesto Pirovano found
inspiration in the Austrian models for a middle way in architecture
between the new and the traditional, which language also met with the
approval of the new entrepreneurial bourgeoisie that was at this time in
the ascendant.
His friends Gerolamo Fontana and Mario Chiattone were in possession of
publications on Wagner and the Wagnerschule.
Sant’Elia himself acquired the Wagner School yearbook of 1902.
Having left the Brera Academy in the October he took and passed the
professional examinations as teacher of architectural design at the Fine
Arts Academy of Bologna (with marks of 242/280), obtaining the highest
mark for his design for the project the Façade with portal for the
transept of a large metropolitan church.
He obtained good marks in the practical tests (67\70 and 70\70), with
lower marks in the essay (49\70) and in the final interview (56\70).
1913
He rented a room in Milan at Via S. Raffaele, number 3, from the
painter Carlo Prada. The room that he set up as studio and lodging was
just a stone’s throw from the Electrical Power Station of Santa
Radegonda.
This, among other things, set in motion for him some real reflection
on the nature of his own personal architectural language, unbounded by
the taste of commissioned orders, as he set about drawing up the first
elements of his Città Nuova, the New City.
He worked with the Arrigo Cantoni architecture firm on the plans for
the Competition for the New Headquarters of the savings bank the Cassa
di Risparmio di Verona, bearing the name “Costruire” [to build or
building].
The design of the final plates was shared out between Sant’Elia
(perspective views and cross sections), the architect Tancredi Motta
(floor plans), and the painter Leonardo Dudreville (water colour
perspective views).
The plans were admitted to the second stage of the competition and
were finally awarded third place.
1914
He took part in the Competition for the New Parish Church of
Salsomaggiore, which was announced on 1st February of that year.
Sant’Elia participated in two exhibitions that amounted to
denunciations of official culture and expressed the need for alternative
exhibition space.
In March he showed some designs at the group exhibition organised by
the Associazione Lombarda Architetti [association of Lombardy
architects] at Palazzo della Permanente managed by Giovanni Rocco,
alongside the works of Raimondo D'Aronco, Giuseppe Sommaruga, Ranieri
Arcaini, Ulisse Stacchini, Tancredi Venturini, Orsino Bongi, Angiolo
D'Andrea, Cesare Mazzocchi, Giovanni Broglio and Marcello Piacentini.
From 20th May to 10th June he exhibited with the Nuove Tendenze, New
Trends, group which had been set up the previous February by Ulisse
Arata, Decio Buffoni, Gustavo Macchi and Ugo Nebbia at the headquarters
of the Famiglia Artistica Milanese at via Agnello 8 in Milan.
He exhibited the plates of the New City (The new city, Station for
aeroplanes and trains, The new house, three Electrical power stations
and five Architectural sketches) showing these alongside the works of
Leonardo Dudreville, Mario Chiattone, Carlo Erba, Achille Funi, Giovanni
Possamai, Adriana Bisi Fabbri, Marcello Nizzoli and Alma Fidora.
The plates by Sant’Elia presented a picture of surprising modernity
and captivated the attention of the public.
The exhibition catalogue has a brief passage written by Sant’Elia
which emerged with additions and some reworking by Marinetti and his
companions in the Manifesto of futurist architecture, distributed in the
July in the form of a leaflet printed by Taveggia of Milan and
subsequently published in the magazine «Lacerba» on 1st August.
Manifesto of futurist architecture
At the request of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti he designed the cover of
the book Ponti sull'oceano [Bridges on the ocean], a collection of poems
by Luciano Folgore.
In July of that year he stood as a candidate on the list of the
Revolutionary socialist party headed by Arturo Labriola for the Como
local governmental elections.
He achieved a good result, obtaining 2446 votes to come in fourth and
was thus elected as council member sitting on the opposition’s benches.
The popularity he achieved in Como resulted in his obtaining a number
of commissions, including for the school for the Viganò district (which
was never built), for the decoration of the façade and the boundaries to
the Francesco Baracca school in via Brambilla, as well as for the
decoration of the façade of a building in Via Cesare Cantù, where his
father had run the barber’s shop.
He drew up the plans, on commission, for the New headquarters of the
Società dei Commessi [sales clerks’ society] of Como, which was not
finally built.
In December he completed the design of the Gerardo Caprotti Funerary
Monument which he had been working on since October of 1913.
The tomb was built by the contractors Donzelli in the cemetery of
Monza, to the most economic version of those designed by Sant’Elia.
1915
He joined up, together with other futurists such as Marinetti,
Boccioni and Russolo with the Lombardy Volunteer Cyclists’ Battalion
commanded by Captain Carlo Monticelli.
After a short period of training at Gallarate, he was assigned to
Third Company, Eighth Platoon, with Boccioni, Bucci, Buggelli, Erba,
Funi, Sironi, Piatti and Marinetti.
In July of that year, during their stay at Gallarate, the futurists
organised some benefit theatre shows for soldiers’ families at the
Teatro di Condominio and Sant'Elia was assigned the task of coordinating
the scenery.
Between August and September the battalion was moved to Peschiera,
where it quartered at the Polveriera Ronchi.
At the end of October the Volunteer Cyclists were incorporated into
the Alpini and undertook hard training at the end of which they took
part in the conquest of Dosso Casina, which had been held by the
Austrians.
The Battalion was broken up on 30th November 1915 and in December
Sant'Elia and his brothers in arms were given a period of leave.
1916
In May he left Como again for the Carso as Second Lieutenant and was
assigned to the 225th regiment of the Arezzo Brigade, in the 5th Armata.
At Monte Cucco the Army Corps succeeded in pushing back the
Austro-Hungarians to Monte Zebio of Asiago, where on 6th July Sant’Elia
was wounded to the head during an attack, standing out for his scorn for
his personal safety and for the generous conduct towards his fellow
soldiers in difficulty.
As soon as 16th July, decorated with a silver medal, he went back to
fight.
After a brief period on Monte Baldo he re-joined his regiment at
Monfalcone where he was charged by his commander General Napoleone
Fochetti with the task of designing the War Cemetery for the Brigade.
The works began straight away under the direction of the
master-builder Nino Dabbusi.
On 10th October 1916 during the eighth of the eleven battles of Isonzo
he was mortally struck in the brow by a machinegun bullet as he led his
platoon on an assault on Quota 77 at the foot of mount Hermada.
He was buried in the military cemetery of the Arezzo Brigade of
Monfalcone that he had himself designed, being awarded posthumously a
second silver medal.
The obsequies, without the presence of his body, were celebrated in
Como on 12th November 1916.
He was commemorated at a session of the city council of Como by the
leader of the socialist group, the lawyer Angelo Noseda.
1921
On 23rd October the coffin carrying his remains were moved to the
Cimitero Maggiore cemetery of Como to one of the cells set aside for
Benefactors, the Meritorious and Martyrs of the Patria”.
The ceremony was organised by the local authorities and was attended
by members of the Fasci of Combat and some socialists, but it was the
futurist Russolo who made the funeral oration.
1930
In September of that year at the Broletto building in Como an
exhibition was held of 95 of his drawings under the management of
Michele Leskovic, known as Escodamè, which exhibition then transferred
to Milan’s Galleria Pesaro and to Rome (to the Artists’ Circle of Via
Margutta, then holding its first Quadriennale).
On 14th October 1930 a funeral celebration was held at the Teatro
Sociale theatre in Como.
Thanks to the action of Marinetti it was decided to build a Monument
to the Fallen based on one of his drawings for the “Light tower”, which
should according to Marinetti suggestion be adapted to the occasion
firstly by Giacomo Prampolini, while the final version would be realised
by Attilio and Giuseppe Terragni.
The Famiglia artistica of Milan and the City authorities conferred
honours upon him and the Milan Polytechnic bestowed upon him a
posthumous honorary degree.
1914
Mostra dell'Associazione degli Architetti Lombardi, marzo 1914, Palazzo della Permanente, Milano
Prima esposizione d'Arte del Gruppo Nuove Tendenze, maggio-giugno 1914, Sede della Famiglia Artistica Milanese, Milano
1916
La mostra dell'autoritratto alla famiglia artistica,1873-1916, (1916), Sede della Famiglia Artistica Milanese, Milano
1930
Mostra delle opere dell'architetto comasco Sant'Elia, 14.09-03.10.1930, Salone del Broletto, Como
Mostra dell'architetto Sant'Elia e di 22 pittori futuristi, Ottobre 1930, Galleria Pesaro, Milano
Mostra delle opere dell'architetto futurista comasco Antonio Sant'Elia, 06.12-17.12.1930, Sede del Circolo Artistico, Roma
1931
I Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale, gennaio-giugno 1931, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma
1950
Futurismo & pittura Metafisica, novembre-dicembre 1950, Kunsthaus, Zurigo
1958
Expo 1958 (Esposizione Universale e Internazionale Brussel 1958 / Wereldtentoonstelling Brussel 1958), 17.04-19.10.1958, Padiglione italiano, Bruxelles
1962
Antonio Sant'Elia, settembre 1962-1982, Villa Olmo, Como
1970
Milano 70/70. Un secolo d'arte. Dall'unità al 1914, 21.05-30.06.1970, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milano
1973
Le Futurisme 1909-1916, 19.09-19.11.1973, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Parigi
1973-1974
Boccioni e il suo tempo, dicembre 1973-febbraio-1974, Palazzo Reale, Milano
1974
Futurismus 1909-1917, 15.03- 28.04.1974, Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
1977
Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre, 14.08-16.10.1977, Berlino
1978
Avant-Garde Art Como 1910-1940, 22-24 maggio 1978, Hotel Pierre, New York
1980
Nuove tendenze. Milano, l'altro Futurismo, gennaio-marzo 1980, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milano
1981
Il liberty Italiano e Ticinese, 29.08-15.11.1981, Villa Malpensata, Lugano; Auditorio, Campione d'Italia
1981-1982
La Stazione Centrale di Milano-Mostra del cinquantenario, 11.12.1981-20.03.1982, Stazione Centrale di Milano Padiglione di rappresentanza, Milano
1983-1984
Boccioni a Milano, dicembre 1982-marzo 1983, Palazzo Reale, Milano
1984
L'idea del lago - un paesaggio ridefinito: 1861-1914, maggio-giugno 1984, Villa Olmo, Como
Futurismo a Firenze, 1910-1920, 18.02-8.04.1984, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze
1986
Sant'Elia. La Città Nuova, un'utopia urbana nell'Italia del 1914, maggio-giugno 1986, Collegio delle Imprese Edili ed affini della provincia di Como, Como
Matita su carta, settembre 1986, Salone San Francesco, Como
Mostra itinerante: Antonio Sant'Elia, maggio-ottobre 1986, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, New York; Farish Gallery, Houston; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables
Futurismo & Futurismi, 4.05-12.10.1986, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia
Lichtjahre. 100 Jahre Strom in Österreich, giugno-agosto 1986, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
1987
Como nel disegno, maggio-giugno 1987, Salone San Francesco e altre sedi, Como
Die Axt hat geblüht, ottobre-novembre 1987, Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
1990
Il mondo delle torri. Da Babilonia a Manhattan, 15.06-9.09.1990, Palazzo Reale, Milano
1991
Antonio Sant'Elia. L'architettura disegnata, 7.09-17.11.1991, Cà Pesaro, Venezia
Antonio Sant'Elia. Gezeichnete Architektur, 8.02-17.05.1992, Francoforte, Deutsches Architektur Museum
Futurismo tra architettura e design, 31.01-23.03.1991, Fonte d'Abisso Arte, Milano
1994
Mostra itinerante: Visions Urbaines 1870 – 1993. La ville moderne en Europe, 14.02-14.06.1994, Centre Pompidou, Parigi; 21.06-09.10.1994, Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Barcellona
Arte a Brera dal 1859 al 1915. I Premi Brera dalla Scapigliatura al Simbolismo, 3.02 -3.04 1994, Accademia di Brera, Milano
Esempi di ricostruzione futurista dell'universo, 05.10.1994-18.11.1994, Museo Ceco di Belle Arti, Praga
1995
Utopie della città. La città virtuale, 02.04-14.05.1995, Palazzo Sanguinetti, Bologna
Boccioni 1912. Materia, 02.04-28.05.1995, Fondazione Mazzotta, Milano
La grande Milano tradizionale e futurista, 10.10-04.11.1995, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milano
1996
Mostra itinerante: The archaeology of the Future City, 24.07-16.09.1996, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; 22.09-04.11.1996, Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima; 12.11-22.12.1996, Prefectural Museum, Gifu
Wunschmaschine Welterfindung. A history of Technical Visions since the 18th Century, 04.06 - 04.08.1996, Kunsthalle, Vienna
Giuseppe Terragni, 11.05.1996-03.11.1996, Palazzo dell'Arte /Fondazione Triennale, Milano
1997-1998
Da Boccioni a Sironi. Il mondo di Margherita Sarfatti, 13.07.1997-12.10.1997, Palazzo Martinengo, Brescia
Mostra itinerante: Futurismo. I grandi temi 1909 – 1944 , 17.12.1997-08.03.1998, Palazzo Ducale, Genova; 21.03.1998-28.06.1998, Fondazione Mazzotta, Milano
1999-2000
La metropoli futurista. Progetti impossibili, 02.10-14.11.1999, Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze
Minimalia, 10.10.1999-10.01.2000, Moma, New York
Tempo sul tempo. C. L. Ragghianti e il carattere cinematografico della visione, 27.11.1999-31.01.2000, Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca
Mostra itinerante: At the end of the century. One hundred years of architecture, 24.11.1999-12.03.2000, Museum of Contemporary art, Chicago; 16.04-24.09.2000, MOCA, Los Angeles
2000
Mostra itinerante: UTOPIE – La quête de la société idéale en Occident, 04.04-09.07.2000, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Parigi; 14.10-27.01.2001, the New York Public Library, New York
Utopies urbaines, 20.12.2000-20.03.2001, Musée de Valence, Valence
Dinamic City, 22.06 – 15.10.2000, Fondation pour l'architecture, Bruxelles
Vision and reality. Conceptions of the 20th Century, 14.09.2000 – 14.01.2001, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek
2001
Mostra itinerante: Futurismo italiano, 11.03-23.06.2001, Museo Sprengel, Hannover; 06.07.2001-22.10.2001, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma
2002
Die Erfindung der Stadt Von Babylon zur Global City, 29.09-29.12.2002, Verwaltung, Erlangen
Le stanze dell'arte. Figure e immagini dell'arte del XX secolo, 15.12.2002-13.04.2003, Mart, Rovereto
La conquête de l'air. Les colonies de l'espace, 13.11.2002-24.02.2003, Les Abattoirs, Tolosa
Il Futuro della Modernita`. Milano 1890-1915, 09.11.2002 – 28.02.2003, Palazzo Reale, Milano
2003
Futurismus. Radikale Avantgarde, 06.03-29.06.2003, Kunstforum, Vienna
Il Futurismo italiano 1909-1926, 15.10.2003-15.01.2004, Musée d'Ixelles, Bruxelles
2004
L'estetica della macchina. Il Futurismo italiano negli anni '20 e '30, 29.10.2004-30.01.2005, Palazzo Cavour, Torino
Arti & Architettura 1900-2000, 02.10.2004-13.02.2005, Palazzo Ducale, Genova
2005
La bellezza della velocità. 'Poesia' e universo futuribile, 30.09-27.11.2005, Villa Panza, Varese
2006
Metropolis. La città nell'immaginario delle avanguardie, 03.02-30.04.2006, GAM, Torino
Modernism: designing a new world 1914-1939, 06.04-23.07.2006, Victoria and Albert Museum, Londra
Il mondo italiano. Italian design and Avantgarde in the 20th Century, 04.05-27.08.2006, Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
2007
Modernism: designing a new world 1914-1939, 17.03-29.07.2007, Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C.
Il modo italiano. Design italiano e avanguardia nel XX secolo, 03.03-03.06.2007, Mart, Rovereto
Il futuro del Futurismo, 20.09.2007-24.02.2008, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo
2008
Futurismo. Rivoluzione radicale Italia – Russia, 17.06-24.08.2008, Museo Pushkin, Mosca
Mostra itinerante: Italidea, 28.11.2008-15.01.2009, Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara; 01-28.02.2009, Museo San Ildefonso, Città del Messico
2012
L'architettura del mondo. Infrastrutture, mobilità, nuovi paesaggi, 8.10.2012-10.02.2013, Triennale, Milano
This files below contain the downloadable full bibliography in PDF.