Boito, Camillo

Boito, Camillo (1836–1914). Italian architect, nationalist, and theorist, much influenced by Viollet-le-Duc. Among his early works, the best is the cemetery at Gallarate, north of Milan (1865), of brick with stone dressings, in a round-arched style, and a hospital six years later which is rather harsh and acidic. More ebullient is his Palazzo delle Debite, Padua (1872–4), in a medieval Venetian round-arched style that, with its richness and modelling, heralded the Stile Boito, the Italian equivalent of High Victorian architecture. Also round-arched is the Municipal Museum, Padua (1879), but in Milan he built the Gothic Casa Riposo per i Musicisti, or Casa Verdi (1899–1913), which includes the colourful tomb-chamber of the composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), whose librettist Arrigo (1862–1918), was Boito's brother. The mixing of elements from several periods and the use of constructional colour point to influences in the Floreale style. Boito was also responsible for the restoration of the great Church of Sant'Antonio, Padua (1892–6). In his many writings he urged that historical truth should underpin all interventions in historic buildings, and that restoration projects should be fully documented to aid future generations. Among his publications Questioni practiche di belle arti (1893), I principii del disegno e gli stili dell'ornamento (1882), and Architettura del Medio Evo in Italia (1880) may be cited.

Bibliography

Boito (1880, 1882); F. Borsi (1966);
Dizionario biografico degli italiani, xi (1969), 237–41;
Meeks (1966);
Middleton & and Watkin (1987);
Restauro, xv (1975), 5–88, and xliii (1980), 5–76;
Zucconi (1997)