Domus: A Journey Into Italy's Most Creative Interiors

by Oberto Gili, Marella Caracciolo Chia (Contributor)

An insider’s tour of the most creative and inspiring rooms belonging to tastemakers—artists, interior designers, craftspeople, collectors, and aristocrats—in Italy today. Italy has been a source of inspiration for generations of artists and lovers of beauty. In this book, Italians Oberto Gili and Marella Caracciolo Chia take us around the country and into the homes of some of its most stylish habitués. From rural estates in Tuscany and spectacular seaside villas to an eighteenth-century palace in Puglia and city residences in Turin, Milan, Venice, Rome, and Naples, the properties reveal the unique personal visions of the owners and the inescapable appeal of Italian style. The diversity of places echoes the wide range of geographical contexts. Each interior acts as a source of surprise and an impetus for creativity, reflecting the individual tastes and talents of those who live and have lived there—designer Carlo Mollino, couturier Stephan Janson, art and literary scholar Mario Praz, and artists Sandro Chia and Alessandro Twombly. In addition to the houses of artists and craftspeople, rooms of visionary interior designers, such as Camilla Guinness, Roberto Peregalli, and Laura Sartori Rimini, are also included. This book—an intimate glimpse into some of the most beautiful and inaccessible dwellings in Italy today—is perfect for aesthetically minded readers with an interest in interior design, Italy, and the art of fine living.

Genres: Interior Design, Art, Architecture, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2016

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoy for the evocative photos of Italian interiors inhabited and staged by lovers of art, architecture, and design. The author and photographer traveled around to houses all around the Italian countryside and some cities to bring to this volume a group of interiors (and a few gardens) epitomizing a variety of Italian ideals of style and decoration, from polished marble surfaces to worn but lovely couches, beds, and chairs, thick walls, domed ceilings, solemn book shelves filled with leather bound books. These are not humble dwellings. They are residences elevated by attention to the details of furnishings, light, color, and surfaces, many having been repaired, primped and polished (a few created new) by ex-pat artists from the U.K. and U.S.A. It looks like most have been staged for the photos, with artwork brought forward, surfaces tidied, and flowers strategically placed. The text describes the inhabitants and their homes. Unfortunately, the text often hints at or waxes on about features relevant to the inhabitants' styles but the pictures don't show those features. There are no captions for the photos so you are sometimes left wondering about artwork shown. Of all of the residences shown, the most bizarre is probably "Il Giardino Dei Tarocchi," home of Niki de Saint Phalle, a cave like dwelling with interiors that sparkle with glassy mosaics and looks like an ice cave. The others are, for the most part, very traditional. All are quite pleasing to the eye!

[Diana]

So at the time I thought it wasn't that big a deal (who cares, etc) but I've been thinking about it all weekend on and off and there are over a dozen odd blank pages in this book. It's just a weird layout. I get that the writing is not at all the point but the various white pages full of nothing in the middle of more than a few sections were unexpected and interesting. I wouldn't really reference any of the pictures that actually made it in but that was a curious choice.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of Rizzoli's coffee table books on the whole, because they're all about the pictures and I'm a writer. But this book combines two delicious things to make up a feast for the eyes -- gorgeous photography and other people's kitchens. Who can resist the chance to peak into the kitchens (and living rooms and studies and bedrooms and parlors, but most often kitchens) of some really quirky, creative, fascinating Italian artists and minor celebs? This book made me want to run out and get some intense orange or peach-colored paint, some pieces of marble, perhaps a half-ruined sculpture or two, a beaker of local olive oil, some copper pots, and a candle, and transform my humble kitchen into something worthy of a Tuscan villa. Sigh.