Hermenegildo Di Lascio: Arquitetura eclética na Cidade da Parahyba na 1a metade do século XX

Abstract

This research analyses the œuvre and trajectory of Italian architect Hermenegildo Di Lascio (1884-1957), a leading figure in the spread of "eclecticism" at Cidade da Parahyba (now João Pessoa) during the first half of the 20th century. After completing Architecture studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Di Lascio arrives at Cidade da Parahyba in 1916, during the First Republic (1889-1930), and, as a partner in the Cunha & Di Lascio onstruction firm, one of the most sought after at that time, he designs several eclectic buildings that embody a general endeavour to modernise urban aesthetics. Despite Di Lascio’s undeniable relevance to local architectural history, gaps regarding the expression, reception, and diffusion of eclecticism in the city are profuse. This circumstance hinders an overall understanding of the existing eclectic buildings at Cidade da Parahyba and, consequently, of the professionals that designed them. In this sense, efforts are made to fill the istoriographical gap concerning the recognition, recording, and systematisation of the eclectic architecture conceived by Di Lascio. For this purpose, the period from 1916, when he arrives in the city, until the early 1950s, when his last eclectic building was built (as far as it is known), is adopted as the research time framework. As a spatial framework, the area encompassed by the neighbourhoods of Centro, Jaguaribe, Tambiá, Trincheiras and Varadouro, where Di Lascio’s buildings are mostly situated, is considered.Once a portfolio comprising 66 of Di Lascio’s architectural projects is assembled, this research proceeds to digital drawing and then formal analysing the modénature of ten of his most prominent eclectic buildings. By assessing the formal, iconographic, and symbolic references associated with the morphological elements that coverthe building façades, a critical examination of his ‘architectural task’ and the stylistic features related to different phases of Di Lascio’s careeris undertaken. His background as a ‘practicing architect’, sensitive to adapting and assimilating innovations, capturing new discourses and trends, and navigating between formal elements, concepts, and styles, allows him not to be confined to the dictates of eclecticism but rather to contextually apply them. By gradually incorporating neocolonial and art déco elements into the traditional eclectic modénatures, Di Lascio demonstrates ability to subjectively interpret known models, consciously integrating them into building façades in order to renew architectural language and to modernise Cidade da Parahyba.