Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli

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Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (* 1700 in Paris , France , † 1771 in Saint Petersburg , Russia ) was a Russian architect and builder of Italian origin.

Many Baroque buildings in Saint Petersburg come from Rastrelli , including the Stroganov Palace , the Vorontsov Palace, the Smolny Monastery and, in some cases , the Anitschkow Palace (later rebuilt in a classical style) and the Gostiny Dvor (floor plan). The best known are probably the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo , the Grand Palace of Peterhof and the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg ( Hermitage ).

Life

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli was born in Paris as the son of the sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli , who was later raised to the hereditary count by the Pope . In 1716 he went to Russia with his father , where he worked as an architect and sculptor for Peter the Great . At first Rastrelli was a student of his father. At the age of 17 he planned his first independent work: the gardens for the summer residence in Strelna . Two stays abroad followed later; Rastrelli visited Italy , France and Prussia .

Court architect under Elisabeth I.

After 1730 Rastrelli returned to Russia and was appointed court architect. He carried out numerous projects for Empress Anna Ivanovna , of which hardly anything has survived (Annenhof in Moscow , Summer Palace in Saint Petersburg). Rastrelli also accepted orders from private individuals during this time; for Ernst Johann von Biron, for example, he built a summer palace in Rundāle (Ruhenthal) and a representative residence in the Kurland capital Mitau ( Jelgava in Latvia ) .

Rastrelli was then used intensively by Tsarina Elizabeth I in the design of Saint Petersburg. In addition, the architect had to plan the numerous festive events of the court: fireworks, illuminations, banquets, wine fountains, triumphal procession, etc. Rastrelli designed the coronation of the Empress in Moscow in a particularly splendid way . There he also had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the old Russian church architecture. For the first time since Peter the Great, Rastrelli created the traditional Russian five- domed churches (e.g. the Resurrection Cathedral of the Smolnyj-Stift).

It was also Rastrelli who built the famous Amber Room in the Tsarina's Winter Palace in 1743 , adding a few elements to it and adding it again in 1755, when Elisabeth ordered the room furnishings to be moved to a larger room in her recently converted summer residence in Tsarskoe Selo.

Rastrelli's work was enormous. Since he could not cope with the workload on his own, he trained numerous students, all of whom worked in his construction office.

Rastrelli was married to a native Countess of Wales. The couple had several daughters, but only one reached adulthood and married in Warsaw . That is why a large part of Rastrelli's drawings are now in the Polish National Library .

Jordan stairs in the Winter Palace

Rastrelli's last work in Russia is the expansion of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg from 1754: Rastrelli combined several existing buildings into one large palace complex. It has become his best, his main work. Rastrelli could no longer complete the interior of the palace; He was only able to finish the throne room, the parade staircase-Jordan staircase and the castle church. Then the client Elisabeth died. Your successor, Peter III. awarded Rastrelli the Order of Annen , but a short time later fell victim to a palace revolution .

End of Rastrelli's employment

After Catherine II took office , Rastrelli did not receive any more commissions from the court, as the latter turned to the incipient classicism . After Rastrelli had sat idle for a year, he asked to be allowed to retire. Rastrelli went to Italy for a year, then returned to Mitau to complete and expand the castles of his youth. His wife, whom he loved dearly, died there, and Rastrelli himself now thought of dying: he was an old and sick man. In 1771 Rastrelli was appointed to the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. But he died at the end of this year. It is not known where his grave is located.

literature

  • Cornelia Skodock: Baroque in Russia. On the oeuvre of the court architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (= publications of the Eastern European Institute Munich . History series . Volume 70). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05304-6 , doi: 10.15457 / vom_70 (full text; also: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2000/2001).
  • Ulrich Thieme: Rastelli, Bartolomeo Carlo Graf . In: General encyclopedia of visual artists from antiquity to the present. Seemann, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-363-00729-9 . Volume 28, p. 26.

Web links

Commons : Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ VM Popova: Amber Room. In: T. Ju. Suvorova (ed.): Калининградский Музей Янтаря / Kaliningrad Amber Museum . Kaliningrad 2008, ISBN 978-5-903920-07-5 , pp. 73-80 (Russian, English).