Early life and education Beltrami was born in
Milan, then part of the
Austrian Empire. Milan would pass to Italian control when he was about five. He attended both the
Polytechnic University of Milan and the
Brera Academy, studying as a pupil of
Camillo Boito. He graduated in 1875 and the following year enrolled at the
École des Beaux-Arts,
Paris, where he attended
Jean-Louis Pascal’s atelier, and came into contact with
Charles Garnier,
Gabriel Davioud and
Théodore Ballu. He was involved in work at
Trocadero and at the Palace of the National Exhibitions. He was able to outscore those taking tests from the Ecole Nationale de Beaux Arts, and distinguished himself at the Salon with designs by
aquaforte. He was nominated as the second in command as inspector of the works of reconstruction at the
Hôtel de Ville, Paris. He collaborated with the architect
Théodore Ballu in works on the Palace of Justice at
Charleroi, Belgium. He also cultivated the interest in engraving that he had acquired under the painter
Luigi Conconi and exhibited at the Salon of 1877.
Career In 1880, Beltrami won the competition organised by the municipality of Milan for a monument (unexecuted) to the anti-Austrian uprising of 1848 and was appointed to the chair in Geometry and Descriptive Architecture at the Brera Academy. The following year, he also shared first prize with
Carlo Ferrario in a competition organised by the Brera Academy for a new façade for
Milan Cathedral. Between 1880 and 1886, Beltrami published many studies on 15th-century buildings in
Lombardy and worked on the restoration of several of them, including the
Certosa di Pavia (1891) and
Soncino's Castle (1882–5). In 1886, Beltrami designed and built the completion of the 16th-century
Palazzo Marino, with a new façade overlooking the
Piazza della Scala that reproduced the style of the original building. Here, Beltrami’s approach to restoration, based on scrupulous historical research, was synthesised with his work as an
eclectic architect who, in his civic buildings, with few exceptions, was inspired by Italian 16th-century models. In the period that followed he was mainly concerned with restoration and was in charge of the Ufficio Regionale per la Conservazione dei Monumenti (1892–5). There he sought to implement reforms in conservation policy for which he had campaigned both before and after his election to
Parliament in 1892. During his period in office Beltrami restored or supervised the restoration of many of the most important monuments in Lombardy, including the church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie (1892–5), completed by his pupil Gaetano Moretti (who later succeeded him), the
Sforza Castle (1893–1911, both in Milan), and the
Chiaravalle Abbey (1894). His restoration of the Sforza Castle is the most important example of his method of restoration. While undertaking punctilious historical and iconographical research, he also added much new work, particularly the entrance tower, which was faithful to the style of the original. The building, however, has great urban and monumental value and retains Beltrami’s concentration within it of museums and cultural institutions. Another important project for Beltrami around this time was his participation in the competition (1887) for the
façade of Milan Cathedral. Although this was won by
Giuseppe Brentano, his design was inspired by Beltrami’s proposal in an earlier competition (1881). Beltrami’s research for the competition and his subsequent attempts to get his own scheme built after Brentano’s death, led to the publication by him of several important studies on the cathedral. It was also during this period that he founded the review
Edilizia moderna (1891–1914) and built the
synagogue (1890–92) in the Via Guastalla, Milan, an eclectic building with orientally inspired motifs. In 1896 began a period of even more intense architectural activity. That year Beltrami designed the Palazzo per l’Esposizione Permanente di Belle Arti in Milan (1896), a
Renaissance Revival building with an arched and frescoed loggia; shortly after came the Casa Bosina (1898) at Via Cappuccio 11, new buildings for the Assicurazioni Generali (1898–1900), and the Casa Dario-Biandrà (1902) in the Piazza Cordusio, at the centre of the new axis, the
Via Dante, linking the cathedral and the Sforza Castle. Of these new buildings, the last two were in the Renaissance Revival style. The Casa Dario-Biandrà, in particular, is elegant and decorative but cold and somewhat anonymous. Also in the same style were the offices of the
Corriere della Sera (1904), Milan, and the series of offices built as headquarters for the
Banca Commerciale Italiana at Milan (1907; Piazza della Scala, north side),
Bergamo (1907), Milan (1911; Piazza della Scala, south side), Cagliari (1913),
Ferrara (1913 ),
Marseille (1920) and
Rome (1915–22). Of this bank’s two Milan buildings, the earlier one is in a simple Renaissance Revival style (only the banking hall survives of the original interiors). The latter one was designed to harmonise with the adjacent
Palazzo Marino (by
Galeazzo Alessi, façade restored by Beltrami).
Later life After
World War I, Beltrami’s influence waned, and he appeared old-fashioned. This was symbolised by the opposition of the architect
Pietro Fenoglio, Director General of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, to Beltrami’s project for the bank’s headquarters in Rome and his support instead for the young
Marcello Piacentini. From 1920, Beltrami lived mainly in Rome. His last major commissions came after the election (1927) of his old friend Achille Ratti to the Papacy as
Pius XI. Vatican commissions included the reorganization of the archives and library, work on
Bramante’s
Cortile del Belvedere, and most importantly the restoration (1928–9) of
Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s and the building of the great new Pinacoteca (1929–33). Once again in the Renaissance Revival style, the Pinacoteca, with its exquisitely studied proportions, simple, elegant and cold, was the last great homage to the Italian architecture of the 19th century. in Milan, in 2015 Beltrami died in Milan on 8 August 1933. He is buried at the
Cimitero Monumentale di Milano. Beltrami wrote over 1100 works, recorded in the two-volume
Bibliografia degli scritti di Luca Beltrami (Milan, 1930) and ‘Supplemento alla Bibliografia di Luca Beltrami’,
L’ultimo scritto di Beltrami (Milan, 1934). == Honours ==