Hankar built this house in the same style as his own house, the Hôtel Hankar in the same street. He bestowed on the studio of the painter Ciamberlani a striking façade that shows echoes of the Quattrocento architecture of northern Italy. It was a tribute to the client, who came from a distinguished Bolognese family. Passers-by would stop and stare at the exotic building, but the critics also indulged themselves with complacent sneers such as "a rather delirium of obsessive originality."
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