Leopoldo Pollack

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Pollack's Royal Villa of Milan (1796)

Leopoldo Pollack (1751 – 13 March 1806) was an Austrian-born Italian architect who was active in Milan where he became one of the leading proponents of Neoclassical architecture.

Career[edit]

In Vienna, Pollack was trained by Paul Ulrich Trientl before attending courses at the Academy under Vinzenz Fischer. After arriving in Milan in 1775, he became a pupil of Giuseppe Piermarini with whom he also collaborated.[1] His most famous work is the Royal Villa or Villa Belgiojoso (1790–1796), one of Milan's most important Neoclassical buildings. Clearly influenced by Palladianism and French trends, it has a rusticated base, a giant order of columns and is topped with a series of statues. Pollack also designed the English garden behind the mansion.[2] His elevations are inspired by Ange-Jacques Gabriel's Place de la Concorde although he used Ionic rather than Corinthian columns.[3]

Pollack also collaborated with Piermarini on designing what is now the physics laboratory at the University of Pavia, completed in 1787, which includes a series of Ionic semi-columns and niches with statues of Galileo Galilei and Bonaventura Cavalieri.[4] For the Institute, he has designed the historic Volta Hall (The Physics Theatre) and the Scarpa Hall (Anatomy Theatre).[5]

Other works include the Villa Casati in Muggiò and the Villa Rocca-Saporti (also known as the Rotonda) in Via Borgo Vico, Como, both completed in the 1790s,[3] and the Villa Amalia in Erba.[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Gli architetti", LombardiBeniCulturali. (in Italian) Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Galleria d'arte moderna du Milano", GAM Milano. (in Italian) Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Leopoldo Pollack", Oxford Dictionary of Architecture & Landscaping. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  4. ^ "Historical Halls" Archived 2012-10-09 at the Wayback Machine, Universitá di Pavia. Retrieved 10 September 2012
  5. ^ "Università, Pavia, localita, Edificio Monumentale", Touring Club. (in Italian).
  6. ^ "Villa Amalia (Erba - CO)", Alta Brianz.org. (in Italian) Retrieved 10 September 2012.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Micaela Pisaroni, Il neoclassicismo - Itinerari di Milano e Provincia, 1999, Como, NodoLibri, p. 27 et seq. (in Italian)