Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

Rastrelli was born in 1700 in Paris, where his father, Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675–1744), a Florentine sculptor and architect who had trained in Rome, was active.[2] Nothing is known about Francesco's Parisian years, but it seems certain that the young man trained and worked in his father's workshop.[2] In 1716, Bartolomeo moved to Saint Petersburg, which became a new Russian capital just a four years before, accompanying his father.[1] 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.

He was appointed to the post of senior court architect in 1730. His works found favour with female monarchs of his time, and 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.[1]

The new empress, Catherine II, dismissed Baroque architecture as an old-fashioned "whipped cream", and the aged architect retired 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.[1]

Peter I's daughter was suspicious of all those who served the court of her predecessors. After going through all the architects in St. Petersburg, the Empress was convinced that Francesco Rastrelli is the best. Therefore, Francesco started serving to the Empress only in 1744.

In the period 1744–1760 he built all his famous buildings:

• Summer Palace (destroyed, built up by the Engineering Castle)
• wooden Winter Palace on the Nevsky (destroyed, urban high-rise buildings)
• stone Winter Palace (there is, the main building of the Hermitage Museum)
• Smolny Cathedral and Monastery with four churches and cells
• Palace for Chancellor Vorontsov (Vorontsov Palace in St. Petersburg, rebuilt as a military school)
• Stroganov Palace, (it is a branch of the State Russian Museum now)
• palace in Tsarskoe Selo (restored, Tsarskoe Selo (museum-reserve))
• completion and decoration of the interiors of Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg.

#	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		Peterhof Palace	Peterhof near St. Petersburg  Russia	1747–1755
—		Peterhof Palace chapels	Peterhof near St. Petersburg  Russia	1747–1751
4		Saint Andrew's Church	Kyiv  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		Mariinskyi Palace	Kyiv  Ukraine	1752 1870
9		Stroganov Palace	St. Petersburg  Russia	1753–1754
10		Winter Palace	St. Petersburg  Russia	1754–1762[5]

Boris Vipper has speculated that Rastrelli's last (and unfinished) design was for the Neoclassical Zaļenieki Manor near Mitava.

Rastrelli is a cult figure of the Russian Baroque. His engravings with landscapes of Tsarskoe Selo were spread throughout Europe during Rastrelli's lifetime, and there are some examples in the collections of Ukraine and Germany.

• A bust of Rastrelli was installed in Tsarskoye Selo.
• The second bust of the famous architect was installed on St. Manege Square in St. Petersburg.
• A square in front of the Smolny Convent has borne Rastrelli's name since 1923.
• In 1972, the documentary Architect Rastrelli was made (directed by Maria Kligman, Lennauchfilm, Russia).
• He is the subject of a composition, Rastrelli in Saint Petersburg, written in 2000 by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero.
• A quartet of Russian cellists, including Kirill Kravtsov, Mikhail Degtyarev, Kirill Timofeev, and Sergei Drabkin, is called Rastrelli. The quartet works in Germany and plays music from the Baroque to modern times.

• Media related to Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli at Wikimedia Commons