Bartolomeo Rastrelli

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700 to 1771) was an Italian architect who worked mainly in Russia and gave the Russian court its most recognisable version of Late Baroque, rich and majestic in its ornament. Born in Paris, he trained in the workshop of his father, the Florentine sculptor and architect Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, and moved with him to Saint Petersburg in 1716. He became senior court architect in 1730 and kept the post under the Empresses Anna and Elizabeth. His principal works are the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, and his last and most ambitious project was the Smolny Convent. After Catherine II turned against Baroque taste he retired to Courland.