Alessandro Mazzucotelli (Lodi, 30 september 1865 – Milano,
29 january 1938)
Italian metalworker.
His family were dealers in iron, and
a change of financial circumstances forced him to give up his
studies to work with the blacksmith Defendente Oriani in Milan,
whose business he later took over (1891). He had great success
in the first Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa in
Turin in 1902. In 1903 he travelled throughout Europe with the
cabinetmaker Eugenio Quarti and on his return began teaching in
the crafts school of the Societ? Umanitaria in Milan.
Mazzucotelli's wrought-iron provides the distinguishing
character in many buildings in the Stile Liberty style in Italy,
Germany and Thailand, where he provided ironwork for Annibale
Rigotti's buildings (1907-26) in Bangkok. From 1902 to 1908 he
worked in the firm Mazzucotelli-Engelmann and thereafter
independently. From 1922 he ran the Scuola d'Arte Decorativa di
Monza in Milan. He designed jewellery for Calderoni and fabrics
for the weaving factory at Brembate (exh. 1906, Esposizione
Internazionale del Sempione, Milan), and he exhibited at both
the Exposition Universelle et Internationale in Brussels (1910)
and the Exposition Internationale des Arts D?coratifs et
Industriels Modernes in Paris (1925). He is best-known for his
wrought ironwork, mainly designed as decorative features for
buildings. It is in a vigorous Stile Liberty, with flowing
semi-figurative botanical forms reminiscent of those in the
Victor Horta houses of the early 1890s. It appears in
balustrades and handrails of such buildings as the Palazzo della
Borsa (1907; now Post Office) in Milan by Luigi Broggi, Palazzo
Castiglioni (1900-03), Corso Venezia 47 and Villa Romeo (1908;
now Clinica Columbus), both in Milan and by Guiseppe Sommaruga,
and in the lamps in the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, as part of
Gaetano Moretti's renovations of 1927-8.