“Le foglie dell’Albertolli”. Il disegno come esercizio della mente agli albori della cultura politecnica italiana.

For over 40 years Camillo Boito taught Architecture at the Brera Academy and at the Istituto Tecnico Superiore (today Politecnico di Milano). Because of his work as a teacher, practitioner and theorist, his name was associated to the Restoration, but by numerous theoretical and critical writings he showed a keen interest in Drawing, which is considered one of the first disciplines in the formation of the architect. The argument originates from teaching and it widens in reference to the minor arts in the newly born manufacturing industry, which was the focus on the magazine that Boito edited from 1892 to 1911, namely Arte italiana decorativa e industriale. The book "The principles of design and styles of ornament" (1882) has the form of a personal correspondence with a young friend recently tasked with the teaching of elementary matter. The speech gets its cue from contemporary practice, based on the uncritical copying of the academic models, to suggest a program of work, which could stimulate the fundamental relationship between the hand, the eye and the reason characterizing the design as an essential tool of the project. It outlines an approach that is still relevant today and topically elaborates the concept expressed by the Renaissance literature. He claims the intellectual prerogative of the free-hand drawing, pursuing good design rather than the beautiful drawing that identifies in the Albertolli’s leaves. As a matter of fact, they were only “calligraphy, not design". The argument takes on a new interest in the light of the development of generative design.