Floreale

Floreale. Style of exuberant decorative architecture used particularly for the dwellings of the prosperous Italian bourgeoisie, and essentially a branch of Art Nouveau, derived from America, Belgium, Britain, France (notably Viollet-le-Duc), and (especially) Austria. It featured distorted mouldings, ribbons like tapeworms, and luxuriant plant-forms. It reached its apogee in the 1902 Turin Exposition of Decorative Arts, in the works of Raimondo d' Aronco, and its legacy was ubiquitous, Italian architecture from c.1898 to 1914 being often ornamented with lushly decorated bands, garlands, and growths of flowers and fruit. Sommaruga's Palazzo Castiglioni, Milan (1901–3), is generally regarded as the apotheosis of the Stile Floreale. Basile's dining-room in the Villa Igiea, Palermo (1901), was a fine example of the style too, with ornament in such abundance it seemed almost sinister, in danger of consuming room and diners.

Bibliography

Meeks (1966);
Pica (1903)