Guerino Antonelli, Villino Antonelliano / Small villa of Antonelli

this image and the next two (November 2022) are screenprints 
from Google Streetview

 

The decorated house in above image is located in Botticino, a community of some 11.000 inhabitants in the Lombardy region in the north of Italy. 

Life and works 

This villino (small villa) is a creation of Guerino Antonelli (1925-1995), who was a mason, decorator and painter by profession. He was married and dreamed of moving with his wife Edvige into a self-built accommodation. 

He would have preferred to build a ship, but it became a a self-designed house with two floors and a basement, which he not only constructed himself, but which he also lavishly decorated.

Antonelli completed the project in a relatively short time, working on it from 1958 to 1963.

Behind the self-designed fence along the street, the house rises with a decorated front from top to bottom. On the roof, the top of the chimney is kind of a castle and elsewhere on the roof there is a concrete sculpture depicting a ship. 

The part of the top floor overlooking the street has a narrow balcony that is shielded by a low

copper-colored iron fence.

The frontside  of the house has a special architecture with exuberant windows and is completely covered with frescoes and mosaics, that depict a variety of different scenes, such as a person looking out at a lake with sailboats or two farmers near a farm.

Even the glassware in the windows conveys certain scenes and in the image below one can see that the center piece of the window includes sculptures in high relief;

In the outdoor area behind the house there is a large stone wood-fired oven, which is topped by a sculpture of a bear that resembles the character in movies and comic books Yogi Bear. Walls of the house that are not visible from the street are sometimes decorated with colorful surfaces or life-size portraits, such as a mother and a child,  as can be seen on the website Costruttori di Babele.

Almost thirty years after Antonelli's death, the decorations he made are still largely in good condition, although the colors have faded somewhat.

Documentation

* Entry on the website Costruttori di Babele, with a variety of pictures

* Article about Antonelli's creation in the publication of the Follies Fellowship entitled Outsider Art in Italy, contributed by Pieter and Rita Boogaart

* Article by Giada Carraro on the website Spaces archives

Guerino Antonelli

Villino Antonelliano

Via Carini 104

25082 Botticino, dept Brescia, region Lombardy, Italy

can be seen from the road

Google Streetview