Francesco bartolomeo rastrelli biography of christopher

After the death of the Sun King in , the elder Rastrelli left Paris with his son and arrived the following year in St. 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 and the accession of Anne 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.

Despite the treacherous court politics of the period, Rastrelli not only remained in favor after the death of Anne , but gained still greater power during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna — , for whom he built some of the most lavish palaces in Europe.

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was the last great baroque architect to work in St. Petersburg, and he lived to see the sumptuously ornate style that he championed fall out of favour with the .

Rastrelli's major projects for Elizabeth included a new Summer Palace — ; not extant , the Stroganov Palace — , the final version of the Winter Palace — , and the Smolny Convent with its Resurrection Cathedral — In addition, Rastrelli greatly enlarged the existing imperial palaces at Peterhof — and Tsarskoe Selo — 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 , 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 in St. See also: anna ivanovna; architecture; catherine ii ; elizabeth; winter palace.

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (Russian: Франче́ско Бартоломе́о (Варфоломе́й Варфоломе́евич) Растре́лли; – 29 April ) was an Italian architect who worked mainly in Russia.

Brumfield, William Craft. A History of Russian Architecture. New York : Cambridge University Press. Orloff, Alexander, and Shvidkovsky, Dmitri.