Carlo Maciachini He was born in Induno Olona, near Varese, on 2 Apr. 1818 to Augustine and Rosa Cagnola.
The economic conditions of the family forced him, still a teenager, to work as a carpenter in some shops in Induno Olona and Varese, where he immediately demonstrated a strong ability in carving. He moved to Milan in 1838 and worked in the cabinetmaker Carlo Invernizzi’s workshop, attending evening courses in ornamentation and architecture at the Brera Academy.
During this period he followed the debate on the architectural restoration and theories of Pietro Selvatico, developing his passion for architecture.
In 1842 M. married Maria Rosa Riva from whom he had a son, Augustus, who, having become a valid engineer, supported him along the intense professional path. During his stay in Milan he opened a workshop in Terraggio, near Porta Vercelli, succeeding, with his own cabinet-maker activity, to acquire a certain reputation in the cultural environment of the city.
The M. distinguished himself in the architectural field from 1859 when he won the competition for the construction of the new Serbian-Orthodox church of S. Spiridione (also known as the Schiavoni) in Trieste. The project, then realized, included a Greek cross building in neo-Byzantine style surmounted by five domes, according to Eastern tradition, enriched by a personal use of colored marbles and golden mosaics: already this work reveals the ability of M. in combining different architectural languages, which will remain a constant of his production.
In 1860, together with the architect Giovanni Brocca, he drafted a project with which he took part in the first competition for the completion of the facade of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence.
On 17 November of the same year a competition was launched for the new Monumental Cemetery in Milan; among the twenty-eight projects presented in 1863, it was unanimously chosen that of M. which included, among other things, the use of existing structures. Construction began in January 1865 and the following year the inauguration, even if the works continued for a long time and the M. followed them until 1887.
In the beginning he attempted, as in the case of St. Spiridione, to propose typically oriental ways and aspects; but during the execution he abandoned this intent by preferring central plan patterns in which Gothic and fifteenth-century elements merged. Stylistic reflections that are clearly manifest in hunger. Located at the center of the cemetery, this temple of the illustrious Milanese has a Greek cross plan with wide ramps of access and dominates, with the vast bichrome front, the pinnacles and the side porches, the entrance square.
Between 1867 and 1868 he built his own Milanese home, which was destroyed during World War II, located between today's Via Turati and Via dei Giardini. The building was characterized by pseudo-medieval architectural elements and references to religious building.
In those same years the M., now considered a prominent exponent of the eclectic culture of the end of the century, for the imaginative ability to rework styles and correctly interpret the ancient elements, received the title of knight of the Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus, conferred on him 11 Feb. 1866, and the appointment as honorary partner of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, 31 March 1868.
Beginning in the eighth decade of the nineteenth century, the M. began to deal with architectural restorations and, mainly, the completion of the facades, with sometimes questionable results.
Often for the termination of the fronts of the factories it drew inspiration from the architectural and decorative composition of the sides of the building or from a few surviving elements; but in the substance it replaced, often, removed or lost parts with bold personal interpretations. In any case in the field of restoration, constantly concerned to pursue a stylistically unitary vision, he showed himself in the more cautious practice of other colleagues.
The most famous interventions were the archaeological remains of the facades of S. Simpliciano (1870) and S. Marco (1872) in Milan. In these circumstances, while paying particular attention to the surviving original parts, he intervened with extensive completions the gaps, although with significant rethinkings in progress. An act that shows common characters to the practice widespread in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century and which is undoubtedly influenced by the French theories prevailing at that time. The M. also took advantage of the restorations of the facades of the cathedral and the collegiate of S. Lorenzo in Voghera (1874-75), always with the intention to pursue that formal unity derived from the survivors passages of the figurative apparatus of the monument. The realization of the front of S. Maria del Carmine ended, in 1880, the cycle of restorations of the Milanese facades.
In the years 1882-85 he performed the project for the dome of the cathedral of Pavia and, in 1893, he was also in charge of the project of the new façade, whose marble covering was only partially realized. This commission constitutes the final act of the long and fruitful work carried out by M. as an architect.
The M. died on 10 June 1899 in Varese in his neo-renaissance house in Via Aguggiari (not more existing); his remains are kept in the Monumental Cemetery of Milan.
(Portrait by Carmelo Gulli – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Treccani, Volume 67, 2006)
