RASTRELLI, BARTOLOMEO

(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.

See also: anna ivanovna; architecture; catherine ii; elizabeth; winter palace

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