Lodoli, Fra Carlo

Lodoli, Fra Carlo (Cristoforo Ignazio An-tonio) (1690–1761). Venetian Franciscan and architectural theorist. His theories had some bearing on Neo-Classicism from the time they were (rather inaccurately) propounded in Algarotti's Saggio sopra l'Architettura (1753). Later, Andrea Memmo (1729–93) published Elementi d'architettura Lodoliana (1786), but it was incomplete until Lucia Mocenigo, Memmo's daughter, organized a fuller edition of Elementi, including other hitherto unpublished texts by Lodoli, in 1833–4. Among other things, Lodoli insisted that ‘proper function and form are the only final, scientific aims of civil architecture’, merged in an ‘indivisible entity’, and that when a fully suitable material is openly used in accordance with its characteristics and the purpose of the building, a strong, well-proportioned, and convenient building will always result. He designed the Pilgrim's Quarters at the Monastery of San Francesco della Vigna, Venice (c.1740), with curiously carved cills and plain utilitarian raking hoods, but its significance is perhaps over-rated, and Lodoli, as an architect, seems to have had little influence (as his one known design was unpublished and unvisited) until C20 when Italian Rationalism rediscovered him and his works, although his writings may have struck chords with Laugier and Piranesi.

Bibliography

Art Bulletin, xlvi/2 (1964), 159–75;
Council of Europe (1972);
L. Grassi (1966);
Herrmann (1962);
E. Kaufmann (1955);
Memmo (1973);
Rykwert (1980);
Torcellan (1963);
Wittkower (1982)