Karl Blank (architect)

Karl Ivanovich Blank ( Russian Карл Иванович Бланк * 1728 in St. Petersburg , † January 24 ^{. Jul} / 4. February  1793 ^greg. In Moscow ) was a Russian architect of the Baroque .

Life

Blank came from a French Huguenot family who had fled to Germany. Blank's grandfather Jakob Blank came to St. Petersburg and worked as a blacksmith in one of the Olonezki smelting works of Peters I. Blank's father Johann Friedrich Blank began as a translator for recruited German architects and became an architect himself, who in connection with the execution of Pyotr Mikhailovich Jeropkins with his Family was exiled to Siberia . In Tobolsk , Karl Blank met Alexander Filippowitsch Kokorinow , who was of the same age , who became a pupil of Johann Friedrich Blanks and who traveled to Moscow with the Blank family after the banishment after Elizabeth came to power.

Soon after their return, the father died, so that Karl Blank and Alexander Filippowitsch Kokorinow continued the construction work for Ivan Kusmitsch Korobow and P. Obuchow that had been taken over by their father . 1749 Blank put the architects join exam at Bartolomeo Rastrelli and was as an assistant to Alexei Petrovich Jewlaschew sent. On Rastrelli's initiative, Blank developed his first project for the construction of the Church of the Resurrection in the New Jerusalem Monastery , but it was never realized. It was not until 1756–1759 that Blank personally led the renovation of the New Jerusalem monastery. These early works by Blank, as well as those for the Annenhof Palace in Lefortowo, have not survived.

A great success for Blank was the furnishing of the city of Moscow for the coronation of Catherine II in 1762. In Moscow, Blank lived on the estates of Count Ivan Illarionowitsch Voronzow (brother Michael Illarionowitsch Voronzows ) on the Ulitsa Roshdestvenka, and as his house architect he built for him two churches. In Moscow, Blank built four more churches, two of which were demolished in the 1930s.

Blank's most important project was the construction of the Moscow orphanage 1764–1781 for 8,000 orphans, which marked the transition from baroque to classicism . To this end, he was invited by the major construction authorities to projects for the Moscow Catherine Palace and the Senate Palace in the Moscow Kremlin . However, after the planning work for the Senate Palace began, the contract was withdrawn from him and the project was transferred to the architect Matwei Fyodorowitsch Kazakow .

Blank continued to receive private contracts. In particular, he advised Pyotr Borissowitsch Sheremetew on the construction of the Kuskovo Palace and built the orangery , the Hermitage and the Dutch House there .

Blank was married to Ekaterina Petrovna Bunina, whose sister was the poet Anna Petrovna Bunina . Blank left five children. Pyotr (1758-1811) was councilor (6th class ) and grandfather of the geographer Pyotr Petrovich Semjonow-Tjan-Schanski . Sofja (1760–1810) married Samjatnin. Ekaterina (1763-1815) married Basargin and became the mother of the Decembrist Nikolai Vasiljewitsch Basargin . Boris (1769–1826) became a poet and playwright . The youngest son Pavel was born in 1771.

Works

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  Church of the Miracle Worker Nikolai (1760–1781), Roshdestvenka Ulitsa, Moscow

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  Church of the Abgar Image (1763), Vorontsov country estate Voronowo near Moscow

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  Dutch house, Voronovo

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  Church of St. Cyrus and Johannes (1764–1768, demolished in 1933), Solyanka Street. Moscow

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  Moscow Orphanage (1764–1781)

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  Catherine's Church (1766–1775), Bolshaya Ordynka Street, Moscow

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  Trinity Church (1781), Serebrjanitscheski Pereulok, Moscow

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  Trinity Church, Golitsyn Manor, Troitskoye Kainardschi near Balashikha

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  Transfiguration Church (1777–1783 together with Vasily Iwanowitsch Baschenow ), Balaschicha

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Union List of Artist Names: Blank, Karl (accessed July 19, 2018).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} А. Ф. Крашенинников: К. БЛАНК (accessed July 19, 2018).