Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

(b ?Florence, c. 1675; d St Petersburg, 18 Nov 1744). Sculptor. He probably studied under Giovanni Battista Foggini in Florence (e.g. a marble statue of Mary Magdalene, 1705; Florence, Mus. S Marco) and later worked in Rome and, at the beginning of the 18th century, in Paris, where he executed several funerary monuments (destr.). In March 1716 he arrived in Russia.

Part of the Rastrelli family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

(1700 - 1771), Italian architect who defined the high baroque style in Russia under the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth Petrovna.

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli spent his youth in France, where his father, the Florentine sculptor and architect Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, served at the court of Louis XIV. After the death of the Sun King in 1715, the elder Rastrelli left Paris with his son and arrived the following year in St. Petersburg. Recent research suggests that the young architect did not return to Italy for study but remained in Petersburg, where he worked on a number of palaces during the years between the death of Peter (1725) and the accession of Anne (1730). Rastrelli's rise in importance occurred during the reign of Anne, who commissioned him to build a number of palaces in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Despite the treacherous court politics of the period, Rastrelli not only remained in favor after the death of Anne (1740), but gained still greater power during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741 - 1761), for whom he built some of the most lavish palaces in Europe. Rastrelli's major projects for Elizabeth included a new Summer Palace (1741 - 1743; not extant), the Stroganov Palace (1752 - 1754), the final version of the Winter Palace (1754 - 1764), and the Smolny Convent with its Resurrection Cathedral (1748 - 1764). In addition, Rastrelli greatly enlarged the existing imperial palaces at Peterhof (1746 - 1752) and Tsarskoe Selo (1748 - 1756).

With the accession of Catherine II, who disliked the baroque style, Rastrelli's career suffered an irreversible decline. He had received the Order of St. Anne from Peter III and promotion to major general at the beginning of 1762, but after the death of Peter in July, Ivan Betskoi replaced Rastrelli as director of imperial construction and granted him extended leave to visit Italy with his family. Although Rastrelli returned the following year, he had in effect been given a polite dismissal with the grant of a generous pension. He died in 1771 in St. Petersburg.

Bibliography

Brumfield, William Craft. (1993). A History of Russian Architecture. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Orloff, Alexander, and Shvidkovsky, Dmitri. (1996). St. Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars. New York: Abbeville Press.

—WILLIAM CRAFT BRUMFIELD

Portrait of Count Rastrelli painted by Lucas Conrad Pfanzelt (1716-1788).

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (Russian: Франче́ско Бартоломе́о (Варфоломе́й Варфоломе́евич) Растре́лли; Florence, Italy, 1700 - Saint Petersburg, Russia, 29 April 1771) was an Italian architect naturalized Russian. He developed an easily recognizable style of Late Baroque, both sumptuous and majestic. His major works, including the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, are famed for extravagant luxury and opulence of decoration.

Bartolomeo went to Russia in 1715 with his father, Italian sculptor Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675-1744). His ambition was to combine the latest Italian architectural fashion with traditions of the Muscovite baroque style. The first important commission came in 1721 when he was asked to build a palace for Prince Demetre Cantemir, former ruler of Moldavia.

Rastrelli was appointed to the post of senior court architect in 1730. His works found favour with female monarchs of his time, so he retained this post throughout the reigns of Empresses Anna (1730-1740) and Elizabeth (1741-1762).

Rastrelli's last and most ambitious project was the Smolny Convent in St. Petersburg where Empress Elizabeth was to spend the rest of her life. The projected bell-tower was to become the tallest building in St Petersburg and all of Russia. Elizabeth's death in 1762 prevented Rastrelli from completing this grand design.

The new empress, Catherine II, dismissed baroque architecture as an old-fashioned "whipped cream", and the aged architect had to retire to Courland where he supervised the completion and decoration of the ducal palaces.

His last years were spent in obscure commerce with Italian art-dealers. He was elected to the Imperial Academy of Arts several months before his death. A square in front of the Smolny Convent has borne Rastrelli's name since 1923.

Ten extant buildings by Rastrelli

#	Image	Name	Location	Date
1		Rundāle Palace	Pilsrundāle near Bauska  Latvia	1736—1740 1764—1767
2		Jelgava Palace	Jelgava  Latvia	1738—1740 1763—1772
3		Grand Peterhof Palace	Peterhof near St. Petersburg  Russia	1747—1755
—		Peterhof Palace Chapels	Peterhof near St. Petersburg  Russia	1747—1751
4		Saint Andrew's Church	Kiev  Ukraine	1748—1767
5		Smolny Convent	St. Petersburg  Russia	1748—1764
6		Vorontsov Palace	St. Petersburg  Russia	1749—1757
7		Catherine Palace	Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin)  Russia	1752—1756
—		Hermitage Pavilion	Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin)  Russia	1749
8		Marie Palace	Kiev  Ukraine	1752 1870
9		Stroganov Palace	St. Petersburg  Russia	1753—1754
10		Winter Palace	St. Petersburg  Russia	1754—1762

Demolished buildings

#	Image	Name	Notes	Location	Date
1		Annenhof	Built of wood, replaced by Lefortovo Palace	Lefortovo District, Moscow  Russia	1731 displaced 1736 burnt down 1746
2		Anna's Winter Palace	Replaced by Winter Palace	Saint Petersburg  Russia	1732—1735 demolished 1754
3		Summer Palace	Built of wood, replaced by Saint Michael's Castle	Saint Petersburg  Russia	1741—1744 demolished 1797
4		Winter Kremlin Palace	Replaced by Grand Kremlin Palace	Moscow Kremlin  Russia	1747—1756 rebuilt 1798 demolished 1837

External links

• Media related to Bartolomeo Rastrelli at Wikimedia Commons

Persondata
NAME	Rastrelli, Francesco Bartolomeo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Растрелли, Франческо Бартоломео
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Architect
DATE OF BIRTH	1700
PLACE OF BIRTH	Italy
DATE OF DEATH	1771
PLACE OF DEATH

v • d • e Bartolomeo Rastrelli buildings Annenhof (1730) · Anna's Winter Palace (1733) · Rundāle Palace (1736) · Mitava Palace (1738) Summer Palace (1741) · Grand Peterhof Palace (1747) · Winter Kremlin Palace (1747) St. Andrew's Church (1749) · Smolny Convent (1749) · Vorontsov Palace (1749) Catherine Palace (1752) · Marie Palace (1752, 1870) · Stroganov Palace (1753) · Winter Palace (1753)

v • d • e Showplaces in Tsarskoye Selo museum complex (architect), year of open Palaces Alexander Palace · (Giacomo Quarenghi), 1796 • Babolovky Palace · (unknown), 1796 • Catherine Palace · (Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli), 1756 • Zapasnoy Palace · (Adam Menelaws), 1824 Parks Alexander Park  · N. Zhirar, 1740 • Babolovsky Park · (unknown), 1783 • Buferniy Park · (unknown), 1??? • Ekaterininsky Park · (unknown), 1783 • Fermersky Park · (unknown), 1??? • Otdelniy Park · (unknown), 1??? landscape architecture White Tower  · (unknown), 1??? • Ruin Tower · (Yury Felten), 1773 • Schapel · (unknown), 1??? • Kitaisky Theatre · (Antonio Rinaldi), 1779 • Dutch Admiralty · (Vasiliy Neelov), 1773 • Znamenskaya Cruch · (Ivan Blank), 1736

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