Francesco bartolomeo rastrelli biography

(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 g