Basile, Ernesto

Basile, Ernesto (1857–1932). Palermo-born architect who designed many buildings in Rome and Sicily, including those for the Palermo Exhibition (1891–2). One of the chief protagonists of the Stile Liberty, the Italian version of Art Nouveau, he displayed his work at the Turin Exhibition (1902), the Venice Biennale (1903), and in The Studio (1904). His elegantly linear Art Nouveau architecture is perhaps best represented by the Villino Florio (1899–1902), the Hotel Villa Igiea (1899–1901), and the Utveggio House (1901) in Palermo. He also designed the Villino Basile and the Villino Fassini (1903), both in Palermo. One of his most impressive buildings was his extension to Bernini's Montecitorio Palace, Rome (1902–27), in a sumptuous Renaissance style. After the 1914–18 war his architecture became more Classical, as at the Istituto Provinciale Antitubercolare (1920–5) and the Albergo Diorno (1925), both in Palermo, with which he demonstrated his opposition to the growing influence of Functionalism.

Bibliography

F. Borsi (1966);
Caronia Roberti (1935);
Meeks (1966);
Nicoletti (1978);
Pirrone (1971);
Jane Turner (1996);
Zevi (1973)