Giacomo Antonio Quarenghi was born on September 20, 1744 near the Italian city of Bergamo. Quarenghi was sent to Rome, which at that time was considered the center of the artistic life of Italy. The first serious work of the 25-year-old architect was the restructuring of the old church in Subiaco. Despite the recognition of the talent of Giacomo Quarenghi's permanent work, he did not have until the age of 30. At the same time, Catherine II was disappointed in French architects and decided to invite an Italian master to Russia. They became Giacomo Quarenghi. Having signed the contract, the Italian with his family arrived in St. Petersburg by the end of 1779. Catherine II, he was appointed court architect.
The first work of the architect in Russia was the palace in the English Park of Peterhof. Then he built a hospital in Pavlovsk. The first St. Petersburg work of the architect was the development of a project for the Exchange building on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island. Quarenghi began construction of the building of the Academy of Sciences (1783-1789), the Assignation Bank (1783-1790), the bell tower of the Vladimir Cathedral (1783-1791), the Hermitage Theater (1783-1787). In the Hermitage Theater, Quarenghi was given a permanent box, and an apartment was also equipped. Here he lived until the end of his days.
AT last years XVIII century, the architect worked on the mansion of the merchant Groten on the Field of Mars (1784-1788), the building of the Silver Rows (1784-1787), was engaged in the restructuring of the palace of Prince Yusupov on the Fontanka (1789 - 1793), the construction of the Round Market (1785-1790), warehouses in the northern part of the spit of Vasilevsky Island (1795-1797), the house of Prince Gagarin on the Palace Embankment (1798), the Small Gostiny Dvor (1790s). At the beginning of the 19th century, Giacomo Quarenghi built shopping malls opposite the Anichkov Palace (1803-1805), the buildings of the Catherine (1803-1807) and Smolny (1806-1808) institutes, the Horse Guards Manege (1804-1807), Novobirzhevoy Gostiny Dvor. In 1796 he was elected a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts. Russian Academy science architect was recognized much later - in 1805.
- interesting places 4 ,
- museums 1 ,
- theaters 1 ,
- palaces 1
37 km, 379 m
The Academy building is an architectural monument of strict classicism
The site to the west of the Kunstkamera was transferred to the Academy of Sciences in 1783. At the same time, the architect D. Quarenghi created a corresponding project, the house was built by 1787. The building of the Academy of Sciences has become a symbol of the classical style in the architecture of St. Petersburg. The internal arrangement of the building of the Academy of Sciences was completed only by the centenary of this scientific institution, that is, by 1824. By this time, a conference hall, board committee rooms, a physical office, apartments for academicians and employees of the academy, a newspaper expedition and other services were located here.
The length of its building facade is 100.97 meters. The activities of such scientists as P. L. Chebyshev, M. V. Ostrogradsky, A. M. Butlerov, I. P. Pavlov, A. P. Karpinsky, A. N. Krylov were associated with this building. In 1826, a development project for the quarter behind the building on the embankment was approved. Here, by 1831, a museum wing of the Academy of Sciences was built (Birzhevoy proezd, house No. 2). In 1828, the Physics Cabinet was transferred from the Kunstkamera to the building of the Academy of Sciences, which was transformed at the beginning of the 20th century into the Physics Laboratory. On the basis of this laboratory, the Mathematical Cabinet and the Seismic Commission, the Institute of Physics and Mathematics was formed in 1921. He was transferred to Moscow in 1934 following the Academy of Sciences. Gradually, changes were made to the appearance of the building of the Academy of Sciences. In 1881, the wooden fence between the columns of the portico and on the descents of the main staircase, made according to Quarenghi's drawing, was replaced by a metal grill. The small conference hall of the building of the Academy of Sciences is associated with the activities of V. I. Lenin. Here, in the spring and autumn sessions of 1891, he took exams at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Several rooms in 1913-1922 were occupied by "Pushkin House". In preparation for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Academy of Sciences in 1925, a mosaic painting "The Battle of Poltava", created by Lomonosov in 1764, was placed on the top platform of the main staircase. In 1934, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was transferred to Moscow, where they left the archive and library, the Leningrad science Center Research Institute of the USSR. In the building on the banks of the Neva in the 1930s, the Institute of Language and Thinking named after N. Ya. Marr worked. From 1937 to 1945, the apartment of the mathematician and shipbuilder A. N. Krylov was located here.
For a long time, the building of the Academy of Sciences housed the Administrative and Economic Department of the Leningrad Institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked in the Museum Wing in the 1950s and 1960s. Currently, the Nauka publishing house, the Research Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology, and a polyclinic work here. A marble plaque was fixed on the base of the building, showing the rise in the water level in the Neva during the flood of 1924.
One of the oldest theaters in St. Petersburg and in Russia
The Hermitage Theater was built by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi by order of Catherine II in 1783-1789. in place of the former Winter Palace Peter I. Auditorium The theater is arranged like an ancient one: semicircular rows of benches rise from the stage like an amphitheatre. The theater hall has retained its original appearance. For more than 20 years, the Russian Ballet Theater, founded in 1990 by a family of professional artists and soloists of the Mariinsky Theater, has been organizing and conducting performances on the stage of the Hermitage Theatre.
The auditorium is designed and located in such a way that, with its capacity (250 people) and sufficient space for artists, it does not require the use of binoculars; everything that happens on the stage is visible from any point. In addition, the layout of the hall allows sound and light to diffuse intelligently, without distortion.
The oldest public hospital in the city
In 1802, the widow of Paul I, Maria Fedorovna, gave her son Emperor Alexander I the idea of building a hospital for the poor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the capital. The court architect Giacomo Quarenghi was commissioned to develop the project. May 28, 1803 - the foundation of the hospital was marked by the laying of a stone at the foundation of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle with the inscription: “This stone was laid at the foundation of St. Church in the Name of the First-High Apostle Paul, with a hospital being built from the Orphanage for the poor, supported and treated without money ... ".
A two-story hospital building with a church in the middle, a central corridor with side chambers was completed in the spring of 1805, but the opening of the hospital was postponed until St. Alexander's Day - August 3, that is. until the name day of the young emperor.
The building of the hospital is marked by noble simplicity and graceful austerity of architectural proportions. The interior layout of the hospital was also carefully thought out. The wards and rooms were separated from each other by thick walls so that the patients would be less disturbed by each other. The largest ward contained no more than 15 beds. The principle of the corridor layout, created according to the European type, has not become outdated to this day.
There are 15 buildings on the territory of the hospital, in which there are 18 clinical and 20 auxiliary units.
The current University of Economics and Finance
In the 18th century, the Sea Market was located on this site. It burned down in the 1780s. Russia in the 18th century conducted hostilities almost without interruption. Metal money and silver coins were used to provide their financial support. They were valued in Europe and were considered a means of international settlements. However, over time, the Russian treasury began to lack silver, in addition, the appeal a large number metallic money in itself brought a lot of inconvenience. Following the example of Germany, it was decided to establish the issue of paper money - banknotes. For these purposes, the Assignation Bank was founded in 1769. In 1782, Empress Catherine II ordered the construction of a special building for the Assignation Bank. Giacomo Quarenghi became its architect; on May 5, 1783, his project was approved. Work on the Assignation Bank building was the first for Quarenghi in St. Petersburg. The building was built from 1783 to 1790. For him, the entire vacated area between Sadovaya Street, Ekaterininsky Canal and transverse lanes was allocated. The main central building was intended for the direct operation of the bank. Single storey open galleries connected it with the side buildings-pantries for storing money. Later, the galleries were built on and glazed. Coins were brought to the pantries on barges along Catherine's Canal from the Mint Peter and Paul Fortress. An artistic cast-iron fence from Sadovaya Street was installed in 1791. It was made in Petrozavodsk according to Quarenghi's drawing. From 1799 to 1805, the Bank Mint was located here. Until 1817, banknotes were issued in the bank building, in 1843 the bank was closed as unnecessary, since state credit notes were introduced into use. In 1849 the State Russian bank. On June 3, 1930, the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute (later the University of Economics and Finance, FINEK, now the St. Petersburg State the University of Economics, St. Petersburg State University of Economics). In 1967, a bust of Giacomo Quarenghi by M. N. Meisel and L. L. Lazarev was erected in the courtyard from Sadovaya Street.
One of the first city hospitals in Russia
Currently, in its buildings in St. Petersburg there is a clinic for naval and general therapy, as well as a clinic for maxillofacial surgery. Military Medical Academy named after S. M. Kirov. In 1779, the first city public hospital was opened on the embankment of the Fontanka River, which was called Obukhovskaya. Initially, the hospital had 60 beds and was located in several wooden rooms on the territory of the former estate of A.P. Volynsky, who was executed under Empress Anna Ioannovna. The first stone building, in which the building of the men's department was located, was erected by architects J. Quarenghi and L. Ruska in 1784 from the Fontanka. Then, in 1836-1839, P. S. Plavov built a building for the women’s department on the side of Zagorodny Prospekt. And in 1866, the architect I.V. Shtrom erected two more buildings along the Vvedensky Canal, one of which was named "Prince's" in honor of Prince P.G. Oldenburg. In 1828, the psychiatric department moved to the Peterhof road and received the name Joy Hospital of All Who Sorrow. On July 22 (August 3), 1828, the church at the hospital was consecrated in the name of the image Mother of God all those who mourn joy. In 1829, the first medical assistant's school was opened at the Obukhov hospital. In the period from 1885 to 1922, through the efforts of the chief physician Alexander Afanasyevich Nechaev, the hospital turned into a large scientific and clinical institution. In 1922, after the death of the head physician, the hospital became known as the Obukhov Hospital named after Professor A. A. Nechaev in memory of January 9, 1905. In the 1920s and 30s, the hospital was the clinical base of medical institutes and the Institute of Experimental Medicine, and in 1932 the Higher medical courses. In 1940, on the basis of the Obukhov Hospital and the Medical Institute, the Naval medical Academy. On December 28, 1925, the body of the poet Sergei Yesenin was delivered to the Obukhov hospital. On December 29, an autopsy took place there.
Transport accessibility is provided by Nevsky and Voznesensky prospects. Along the Griboyedov Canal and the Moika River, you can get to the center by a walking tram. The infrastructure is represented by numerous historical and cultural buildings, which are more than one hundred years old. The Quarenghi Palace business center is adjacent to the Kazan Cathedral, the Mariinsky Palace and other significant objects - witnesses of the greatness of Russia.
Technical features of Quarenghi Palace Business Center Quarenghi Palace
The Quarenghi Palace business center is a restored old building. High ceilings and large window openings allow you to bring into the room maximum amount natural light. The building belongs to class "B". Security alarm provides security. Comfort for the staff is provided by passenger elevators, backup power supply, and air conditioning.
Information on renting an office in a business center
Office rental "Quarenghi Palace" is a sufficient number of warehouse and office space with a total area of more than 2000 m3. The building houses the reception, conference hall and meeting rooms. It is possible to rent a fully furnished office. Renting the Quarenghi Palace premises is convenient. Equipped parking will allow you to place vehicles staff and guests. Renting an office at Quarenghi Palace is safe, comfortable and cost-effective.
On September 20, 1744, the second son, named after the father of Giacomo Antonio, was born to representatives of two famous Italian families Giacomo Antonio Quarenghi and Maria Ursula Rota. This happened in the picturesque small village of Capiatone, in the district of Rota d'Imagna, which is part of the province of the northern Italian city of Bergamo.
Elementary education Giacomo received in the most significant and famous college in Bergamo "Mercy". His father insisted that he study philosophy and jurisprudence.
Seeing his son's passion for fine arts, Quarenghi's father decided to give his son the opportunity to learn drawing from the best artists in the city of Bergamo - Paolo Bonomini and Giovanni Raggi. However, Quarenghi was dissatisfied with their leadership, considering their manner outdated.
Quarenghi left for Rome. There, during the first four or five years, he repeatedly changed creative workshops and did not receive systematic knowledge of either painting or architecture, however, as can be understood from his words, architectural workshops were convenient place for drawing. It was the drawing that was main area his work, which Quarenghi constantly developed.
Full of doubts about the correctness of the methods of studying architectural art, presented by his Roman teachers, Quarenghi once came across the famous treatise of the architect Andrea Palladio "Four Books on Architecture". He found a method of creativity and disclosure of the tectonics of architecture that was close and consonant with his worldview.
In the late 1760s, from the Irish sculptor Christopher Huxton, who improved in Rome, Giacomo received an order to design two mansions "for the English gentlemen" and completed the assignment with success "to the pleasure of the said gentlemen." After that, he designed designs for fireplaces, as well as such utilitarian buildings as warehouses, also for the British. Soon Quarenghi received recognition from Italian customers.
“…Thanks to diligent study and work, I coped with the matter and built a new church inside the old one according to the plan,” he wrote.
A rather long list of Quarenghi's architectural works speaks of his recognition as an architect by customers - compatriots and foreigners. He worked for both Rome and Bergamo, his designs were sent to England, Sweden; in the late 1770s he was a member of the Roman nobility. The opportunity to travel was ensured by his sufficient well-being, which was strengthened after marriage. Both Quarenghi himself and his wife were representatives of influential and wealthy families in northern Italy.
When he was offered to enter the service in Russia, Quarenghi agreed almost immediately. Here he hoped to make extensive use of his knowledge and abilities. In January 1780, the architect arrived in Moscow.
According to his official position as "architect of Her Majesty's court" Quarenghi was obliged to fulfill, first of all, the orders of Catherine II. The first work of the architect in Moscow was the restructuring of the imperial, so-called Catherine Palace on Yauza. By this time, Catherine II had already managed to appreciate the outstanding abilities of the architect, and in February 1782 she entrusted him with the development of the project of the entire interior decoration Moscow Palace, "as well as the facade, colic can be corrected."
The architect had to develop his proposals without seeing the Moscow building with his own eyes, and only after studying the old project located in St. Petersburg, which had already been basically implemented. Under these conditions, for Quarenghi, it was only possible to “comb” the finished building in a new way.
The architect with honor came out of this difficult situation. He proposed to accentuate the central parts of the longitudinal facades with long colonnades of a large order. He continued the entablature of this order along the perimeter of the entire palace and completed it with a balustrade along the edge of the roof. With laconic techniques, Quarenghi achieved an emphatically horizontal system of architectural design.
In the 1780s, Quarenghi worked tirelessly. The architect himself informed Marchesi that by 1785 he had already built five churches - "one in Slavyanka, one in Pulkovo, one in Fedorovsky Posad, one at the Sofia cemetery for burial ...". Quarenghi considered Lansky's mausoleum to be the fifth church.
One of Quarenghi's most significant buildings is the simple but majestic building of the Academy of Sciences on the Neva embankment. Its construction was caused by the lack of a residence befitting the prestige of an institution that personified Russian science and culture. Work began in 1783.
The building with an eight-column portico of the Ionic order and a pediment, decorated with statues in the project, is raised to the ground floor. It was placed on the very edge of the Nevsky, then not yet cultivated, the river bank, which forced the architect to deploy the outer main staircase along the front in two steps. This temple of science still amazes with the clarity of its image and the strong plasticity of the main façade, no doubt designed to be perceived from the other side of the river from the Senate Square.
In connection with the redevelopment of the Winter Palace, the theater with tiers of boxes, which was surrounded by the palace chambers, became inconvenient, and on September 3, 1783, a decree appeared on the start of construction "at the Hermitage of a stone theater ... according to the plans and under the supervision of the architect Gvarengy."
The architect was given a difficult task - to place the theater in a very cramped place - in the courtyard of the Small Hermitage, above the stable building. This circumstance predetermined the relatively small size of the structure and, perhaps, its configuration.
In 1787, a luxurious edition appeared in St. Petersburg with engraved drawings of the newly built Hermitage Theater and with a description on French by Quarenghi himself. He wrote that “he tried to give the theater an antique look, at the same time coordinating it with modern requirements ... All seats are equally honorable, and everyone can sit where he pleases ... I stopped at the semicircular form of the theater for two reasons: firstly, it is the most it is visually convenient and, secondly, each of the spectators from his place can see everyone around him, which, with a full hall, gives a very pleasant spectacle. I tried to give the architecture of the theater a noble and austere character. Therefore, I used the most suitable decorations for each other and for the idea of the building. The columns and walls are made of fake marble. Instead of curls, I placed stage masks in Corinthian capitals, following the patterns of various ancient capitals ... "
In the late 1780s, Quarenghi participated in a small closed competition announced by Count N. P. Sheremetev. The house on Nikolskaya was not built. The count decided to limit himself to the restructuring of his country residence in Ostankino. To participate in this work, he invited several architects, including Quarenghi. Design home theater Sheremetev was especially pleased for Quarenghi, because he was personally acquainted with P. I. Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, the leading actress of this group, in the past a serf, and then the wife of Count Sheremetev.
The process of designing the famous Alexander Palace and searching for its final solution took Quarenghi only one year, since already on August 5, 1792, bidding for the building was started.
The impossibility, due to the area allotted for the palace, to obtain the necessary front for the open composition forced Quarenghi to abandon the creation of a wide spatial ensemble. He placed the service kitchen U-shaped building asymmetrically, closer to the street from the side facade, out of compositional connection with the palace.
The Alexander Palace - an open structure standing free in the park, compositionally united with the regular part of the New Garden - appeared as an antithesis to the closed ensemble of Rastrelli's Catherine's Palace. The ensembles of the Catherine and Alexander palaces have become a vivid embodiment of two architectural worldviews: baroque - with closed ensembles and classicism - with open ensembles that form the surrounding space.
As Quarenghi himself wrote, Catherine II often interfered in his work: “Her Majesty sometimes takes the trouble to sketch out her plans and handwritten sketches to me and at the same time wants me to have complete freedom and the opportunity to involve all those artists that I need as performers. Such interference sometimes put the architect in a difficult position, but his indisputable authority, won by him from the Empress by diligence and the brilliant embodiment of all her requirements and his own plans, allowed him to bypass sharp corners and introduce all the plans given to him into the correct architectural framework. Quarenghi managed to maintain high authority with the successor of Empress Paul I, and then with Emperor Alexander I, which was greatly facilitated by the successful completion of the new palace in Tsarskoye Selo.
After the construction of the Hermitage Theater was completed, the architect asked for permission "in view of ... a large family and troubles caused by diseases" to settle in one of the rooms of this building, facing the Neva. Permission has been granted. There he lived until the end of his days.
Until 1793, Maria Fortunata remained Quarenghi's life partner. Their first-born daughter Theodolinda remained in Italy and was brought up in one of the Milanese monasteries. Of the children born in St. Petersburg, two girls died during the epidemic of 1788. AT next year the son Federico was born, and a year later - Giulio, who, like his father, became an architect and played important role in promoting his works.
In 1793, a tragedy occurred in the Quarenghi family: his wife died during childbirth, leaving a newborn girl and four other young children in the arms of a helpless father. To care for them, according to him, Quarenghi "was completely unsuited." The condolences of friends, acquaintances, work colleagues and even the Empress herself did little to alleviate the fate of the widowed Quarenghi. He decided to go to Bergamo with his children in order to be closer to his relatives and the Mazzoleni family. In the winter of 1793-1794, the architect left St. Petersburg.
In the autumn of 1796, Quarenghi returned. He entered into a second marriage with Anna Katerina Konradi. Anna Conradi was a Lutheran, and therefore relatives in Italy reacted negatively to this marriage. Quarenghi never went to Italy with his new wife.
By that time, Quarenghi's fame as an outstanding architect of the court of Catherine II had gone beyond Russia. This was reflected in the fact that on January 26, 1796 he was elected a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts. The high election was carried out not without the participation of his Swedish friends - the sculpture of T. Sergel and the architects F. M. Piper and F. Blom. Quarenghi often sent them his drawings and drawings, thereby keeping them informed of his work.
The official recognition of the architect by the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, oddly enough, happened much later. Only on September 1, 1805, at an extraordinary meeting of the Academy, Quarenghi was elected to the "honorary free fellows."
In the first years of the new century, Quarenghi designed and built almost simultaneously two significant educational buildings. One of them - the Catherine Institute - still exists today. It was built in 1804–1807 on the Fontanka embankment. The construction of another began in 1806, and two years later finishing work was already underway. This is the well-known building of the Smolny Institute.
The site where the building of the Catherine Institute was supposed to be located was occupied by a vast garden belonging to the so-called Italian Palace. Having at his disposal a large space of a neglected garden and a dilapidated palace, Quarenghi designed a vast closed ensemble of four buildings, covering a square courtyard, in the center of which he placed a round domed church connected by covered passages with two side buildings.
The project turned out to be prohibitively expensive, and the architect presented new version in the form of a single building placed along the embankment. On the axis of the building in the garden, Quarenghi provided a low domed rotunda of the church and two one-story household buildings. Then the architect made another version of the main facade, enriched by a gable portico of eight half-columns of the Corinthian order, raised to the arcade of the first rusticated floor. Unlike the previous options, the project, approved in June 1804, did not include a church.
Quarenghi developed the project for the building of the Smolny Institute in late 1805 - early 1806, and in May of this year a solemn laying ceremony took place. Understanding the need to enter with his building into the ensemble with the Rastrelli Smolny Monastery and the Felten Alexander Institute, located on the other side of the monastery, Quarenghi made a fairly accurate drawing of the existing buildings, and harmoniously introduced the designed building of the institute into their ensemble. The main facade of Smolny is turned to the west - in the same direction as the entrance to the monastery and the main facade of the Alexander Institute were facing.
The building has a clear layout and simple in composition, but elegant in form, the architecture of the main facade with a perfect colonnade of the composite style; it is proudly raised to the high arcade of the portico. The solemn nature of the architecture of the Smolny Institute and its solution in an ensemble with the architecture of neighboring buildings and the banks of the Neva allow us to see in it a phenomenon of high classicism and put in a row the best works of this style, erected in St. Petersburg.
In those same years, Quarenghi created a magnificent monumental building of the Horse Guards arena in the most important place in the center of St. Petersburg. The building was included in the barracks complex of the Horse Guards Regiment and the end facade with a deep portico closed the distant perspective to the west from the emerging square in front of the Winter Palace. The construction of the arena in 1804-1807 was important link in the radical transformation of the center of the capital.
It is known that Quarenghi was an honest, benevolent and sympathetic person. In one of his letters, he writes about his overly hot temper, from which he, above all, himself suffered: “For all my temper, I am quick-tempered and cannot even offend a fly. And if there is an opportunity to provide any benefits to those who work with me, I never miss it.
In another letter, he wrote: “There are quite a lot of people here who were in a difficult situation, and pulled out of extreme poverty by me. But these same people are ready to tear me apart and present me as I am not. But I don't really pay attention to the antics of these people. On the contrary, I take revenge on them only by doing good when I have the opportunity.
Quarenghi's second marriage lasted about ten years. In 1811, Quarenghi again came to Italy for a short time to settle business with real estate and attend the wedding of Katina's beloved daughter. In the same summer, he entered into a third marriage with Maria Laura Bianca Sottokas. He was then sixty-seven years old. A. Mazzi in the biography of the architect writes that “Sottokasa did not marry the beautiful appearance of Quarenghi. One can think that she decided to take this step, hoping to live in the same palace where the royal family of the largest state in Europe lived, and enjoy the same benefits. After the marriage, Quarenghi returned to St. Petersburg and soon "realized that he was mistaken and did not follow the advice of his friends in time not to enter into this rash marriage." The marriage on the part of the wife was arranged.
Quarenghi began to lose faith even in close people. In the same letter, he also complains about the Petersburg environment: “Despite all the kindness of E.V. to me, his whole entourage thinks otherwise, and envy leads to the fact that they serve me everywhere in a bad service, and so far I have not found anyone who would dare to tell e. and. in. about my state of affairs… One must be prepared for all sorts of troubles from all sorts of exalted people.” Pessimism was explained, on the one hand, by the fact that the aged architect, indeed, was increasingly giving way to creative life capital to the architects of the new generation, and on the other hand, the dramatic events that took place in Italy and touched him personally.
When in 1812 preparations were made for Napoleon's campaign against Russia, italian king ordered all Italians to return to Italy. Quarenghi firmly refused. For this, he was sentenced by the king to death and confiscation of all property. Italy as a homeland he did not have. The new homeland - Russia - accepted him among her glorious sons.
But with what youthful enthusiasm, with what talent, the aged Quarenghi erected the Triumphal Narva Gates for the victorious Russian army, returning from France in 1814! With what enthusiasm and skill he drafted the "Temple in memory of 1812" to be built in Moscow!
But death prevented him from building. On March 2, 1817, he died in St. Petersburg and was buried at the Volkovo Cemetery. In 1967, the remains were reburied in the 18th-century necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In the same year, a monument was erected in his honor in front of the Assignation Bank building.
An important part of Quarenghi's legacy was tinted watercolor drawings with views of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as projects for furniture and utensils.
Based on the book by D. Samin "100 Great Architects".
In creating the unique appearance of two Russian capitals, Moscow and especially St. Petersburg, architects of Italian origin made a significant contribution. The work of Giacomo Quarenghi is a bright page in the history of European and Russian architecture of the era of classicism.
In addition to projects of buildings of various scales and purposes, among which there are many embodied ones, his legacy includes graphic sheets with real views cities (veduts) and fantasy architectural compositions. According to them, several generations of architects studied the craft.
southern homeland
Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817), who considered himself a truly Russian architect, was born into the family of a member of the city court of the northern Italian city of Bergamo. Tendency to fine arts was hereditary: his grandfather and father were considered skilled painters. His choice of architecture as the main occupation in life was influenced by his acquaintance with Vincenzo Brenna (1745-1820), who later became the court architect of Paul I, and with G. B. Piranesi (1720-1778), a great master of architectural graphics.
The stylistic preferences of Giacomo Quarenghi were formed upon acquaintance with the famous treatise (1508-1580) "Four Books on Architecture". In this work, the schemes of traditional orders used in ancient architecture were identified and a system was developed for applying classical techniques for planning buildings and developing facade solutions. Palladianism for a long time became the mainstream of the classical style.
Mastering the classical heritage
Samples for study order systems became for Giacomo Quarenghi the sights of many Italian cities - Rome, Florence, Verona, Venice. They were not only full of ancient monuments, but also were real centers of Renaissance culture.
The Renaissance was the time when the principles of high harmony developed in Ancient Greece and in Ancient Rome, were picked up by masters in different areas of European culture. Buildings measured and sketched by Giacomo Quarenghi the best craftsmen of that time - Alberti, Bramante and, of course, Palladio - became an example for the young architect of the creative development of ancient traditions in architecture. He also showed interest in the buildings that were built by the masters of the early classicism of England and France.
The beginning of the creative path
The first major order for Quarenghi was the reconstruction of the Church of Santa Scolastico, located in the town of Subiaco near the Italian capital. In the interior of the church he uses classical elements: niches, pilasters and columns Skillfully organized lighting helped to achieve light and spectacular impression from interior decor.
Simplicity and rigor of artistic and compositional solutions become the defining features of his style. The architect Giacomo Quarenghi used these techniques in his work even when he began his work in Russia.
At the court of Catherine the Great
In the autumn of 1779, the service of the 35-year-old Italian architect at the Russian court began. He possessed a lot of knowledge about the Palladian current in classical architecture and sufficient experience in applying them in practice. His arrival was timely, as the taste preferences of the Russian Empress in regard to formal style were changing.
She was no longer satisfied with the heavy traditions of French classicism, the refined Palladian neoclassicism became the ideal. Giacomo Quarenghi, as a faithful student and firm supporter of Palladio, quickly became the head of a new trend in Russian architectural thought. His talent was enriched by the study of the best examples of ancient Russian architecture, communication with recognized domestic architects: I. Starov, N. Lvov, C. Cameron and others.
English Palace in Peterhof
The first significant project in Russian land became a palace located in Peterhof. Giacomo Quarenghi began work on it in 1780. According to his aesthetic views, the Italian architect based the planning and volumetric solutions on a cubic Palladian house with a dominant in the form of an eight-column portico of the Corinthian order. The solemnity and monumentality of proportions were combined with the simplicity and sophistication of the decor.
Creativity, which was designated in this object by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi, the works he created for the country residence in Tsarskoye Selo - four churches and numerous religious buildings - fully corresponded to the tastes of the main customer, Empress Catherine. The title of "architect of the courtyard" was firmly established for the Italian.
A period of prosperity and success
From work on the Concert Pavilion in Tsarskoye Selo, around (1782), the most successful decade for the architect began. During this period, he created the most significant projects for St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the direction of the Empress, he is engaged in updating the interiors of the Winter Palace, erecting many buildings around the main imperial residence.
Giacomo Quarenghi, whose biography is now closely connected with the Russian capital, erects a number of structures that determine the political image of the capital and the entire state. Among them - a complex of administrative buildings of the Academy of Sciences (1783-1785) and the building of the Assignation Bank (1783-1799). He also works a lot on private orders, decorating the capital and its environs with beautiful examples of a Russian classical estate. Among them, the Bezborodko estate on the right bank of the Neva (1783-1784), the Yusupov mansion on the Fontanka (1789-1792), the Fitingof house (1786) and others stand out.
Theater on Palace Embankment
The real masterpiece of this period is the Hermitage Theater of Giacomo Quarenghi (1783-1787). The building with a two-storey rusticated loggia, slightly recessed between two ledges - risalits - and decorated with a large Corinthian order, has become a real decoration of the complex of main government buildings.
A faithful follower of Palladio, Quarenghi, when decorating the theater hall, allowed himself an almost verbatim replica of the building of his great teacher. In the layout of the stage and seats, and in the elements of decor, the Hermitage Theater is very reminiscent of the Olimpico Theater in Vicenza, built according to the design of Andrea Palladio.
Projects for Moscow
One of the most notable objects erected by the Italian architect for the capital is the old Gostiny Dvor. Giacomo Quarenghi began its construction in 1789. The building has come down to the present time significantly changed in the course of alterations and restorations after numerous fires. But according to the preserved arcade with Corinthian columns, one can appreciate the harmonious classical character of the building.
Among the Moscow buildings are the Golovinsky Palace in Lefortovo (1780) and the shopping malls on Red Square (1786). The buildings on the main metropolitan square have not been preserved, and another building - the Sheremetyev Hospice House on Sukharevskaya Square (1803-1807) - is still impressive in scale and harmony.
Late period of life and creativity
Designed and built by Giacomo Quarenghi, the sights of St. Petersburg related to early XVIII century, - educational, medical and public buildings. (1804-1807) is distinguished by its majestic appearance, which is determined by the eight-column portico. The Mariinsky Hospital on Liteiny (1803-1805) is distinguished by a rational planning solution and strict decor. Quarenghi's favorite brainchild of the late period was (1806-1808).
Harmoniously inscribed in the surroundings, this building has become the embodiment of the most important ideas Palladianism. The expressiveness of the architectural appearance is achieved by combining the smooth length of the walls with a plastically rich accent in the center of the composition. They became a magnificent portico on the base in the form of an arcade.
Giacomo Antonio Quarenghi worked hard not only for capitals, but also for provincial cities Russian Empire. His European buildings are also known. Having connected his fate with Russia, he remained its patriot until the end of his days. When, during the time of Bonaparte, all Italians were ordered to return to their homeland, Quarenghi refused and was sentenced in absentia by the Italian king to death.
The last significant project of the great architect is the majestic Triumphal Gate (1814) erected in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the victorious return of Russian troops after the victory over Napoleon.
Giacomo Quarenghi. short biography
- September 20, 1744 - in the north of Italy, in the vicinity of Bergamo, the future great architect and graphic artist was born into the family of a judge.
- Since 1762, he studied painting in Rome with R. Mengs, architecture with S. Pozzi, A. Deriza, N. Giansomini.
- 1769 - the beginning of architectural activity, projects of religious buildings in the vicinity of Rome and in Lombardy.
- September 1, 1779 - Quarenghi signs a contract with the adviser to the Russian Empress I. Ya. Reifenstein and comes to work in Russia.
- 1780-1817 - designing and managing the construction of public and residential buildings in St. Petersburg, Moscow, in the provinces, in European countries.
- 1811 - refused to leave the Russian service on the orders of the Bonapartist authorities, for which he was sentenced to death by them with confiscation of property.
- March 2, 1817 - Giacomo Quarenghi died in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, he was reburied in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
An outstanding architect, a representative of Russian classicism, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Quarenghi (Quarenghi, Giacomo Antonio Domenico) was born in the village of Rota Fuori (province of Bergamo, Italy) on September 20, 1744. His parents were representatives of two aristocratic families, influential in northern Italy, his father was Giacomo Antonio Quarenghi, his mother was Maria Ursula Rota. The newborn boy, who became the second child in the family, was named after his father - Giacomo Antonio.
Giacomo received his primary education in the most significant and famous college in Bergamo, Mercy. From early childhood, parents prepared for their son a career as a clergyman. But the boy preferred the fine arts. Seeing his son's passion for drawing, Quarenghi's father, as an artist, decided to give him the opportunity to study painting with Paolo Bonomini and Giovanni Raggi, a student of Tiepolo. But the drawing lessons that Quarenghi takes from the best artists of Bergamo do not bring satisfaction. He insists on studying in Rome, where he leaves in 1762 and studies painting with A.R. Mengs and S. Pozzi. A little later, he studies architecture, visiting and painting classical ruins and villas in Venneto. Special interest Quarenghi is showing towards architecture. Full of doubts about the correctness of the methods of studying architectural art, presented by his Roman teachers, Quarenghi once came across the famous treatise of the architect Andrea Palladio "Four Books on Architecture". He found a method of creativity close and consonant with his worldview. It must be said that Quarenghi was familiar with the work of this architect. He grew up among the buildings of Palladio and knew all his creations.
In the late 1760s, Quarenghi creates his first architectural work. First, from the Irish sculptor Christopher Yukston, who worked in Rome, Giacomo received an order for the projects of two mansions "for the English gentlemen" and completed the assignment with success. After that, he designed designs for fireplaces, as well as such utilitarian buildings as warehouses, also for the British. Soon Quarenghi received recognition from Italian customers. In 1770, Quarenghi received an order from the Benedictine monks asking them to update them. old church Santa Scolastica in Subiaco near Rome, provided that not a single stone of the former building was touched, although in the whole church there was not one part that would correspond to another. Quarenghi, who was then 25 years old, had to solve truly one of the most difficult tasks in architecture associated with the reconstruction of an existing medieval building. And he did it skillfully. The first stone was laid on May 3, 1770, and construction was completed in the fall of 1773. The renovated church was transformed from the inside into one of the first neoclassical churches in Italy. Even before his departure from Italy, Quarenghi built an arena in Monaco and a dining room in the house of the Archduchess of Modena in Vienna.
A rather long list of Quarenghi's works speaks of his recognition as an architect by customers - compatriots and foreigners. He worked in Rome and Bergamo, his projects were sent to England, Sweden; in the late 1770s he was a member of the circles of the Roman nobility, had influential friends and patrons. The opportunity to travel was ensured by his sufficient well-being, which was strengthened after marriage.
The glory of Quarenghi also reached Russia. Empress Catherine II saw his drawings and invited him to St. Petersburg. September 1, 1779 Giacomo Quarenghi left for the capital of Russia to the court of Catherine II. When he was offered to enter the service in Russia, Quarenghi agreed almost immediately. He signed a contract for a period of three years, according to which he was entitled to a high salary - 2360 rubles a year and a government apartment. Not expecting much from life in Italy or Western Europe, Quarenghi did not miss the chance given to him by Catherine. In January 1780, the 35-year-old architect moved to Moscow with his family.
Quarenghi left Italy as a supporter of strict and majestic architecture, based on ancient culture, enriched by the achievements of the great masters of the Renaissance. The beliefs underlying his work were widely deployed in a foreign country for him. According to his official position as "architect of Her Majesty's court" Quarenghi was obliged to carry out, first of all, the orders of Catherine II. The first work of the architect in Moscow was the restructuring of the imperial, the so-called Catherine's Palace on the Yauza (not preserved). By this time, Catherine II had already managed to appreciate the abilities of the architect, and in February 1782 she entrusted him with the development of a project for the entire interior decoration of the Moscow palace.Then Quarenghi began to live mainly in St. Petersburg. He was struck by the scope of the Russian capital. He worked selflessly, coped with a huge number of assignments, willingly choosing Russian architects, artists, sculptors as assistants. However, there were not enough highly qualified performers in St. Petersburg, and Quarenghi different time invited experts from Italy. Among the most significant buildings erected according to his projects are English palace in Peterhof (1781-1794, completely destroyed in 1942), the Academy of Sciences (1783-1785), the Assignment Bank on Sadovaya Street (1783-1799), the Hermitage Theater (1783-1787), the Catherine Institute on the Fontanka (1804; now part of the Public library), Horse Guards Manege (1804-1807), Smolny Institute (1806-1808), wooden Narva triumphal gates (1814; rebuilt in stone and metal by V.P. Stasov) in St. Petersburg, pavilion "Concert Hall" (1782-1786) and the Alexander Palace (1792-1796) in Tsarskoye Selo, the shopping malls on Red Square (1786, not preserved), the Old Gostiny Dvor (1790-1805) and the Hospice House (1794-1807; now the Sklifosovsky Institute) in Moscow. Under his leadership, many projects were created for estates and provincial towns (for example, Denisyev's house in Kursk, 1790; Sibiryakov's house in Irkutsk, 1800-1804).
In 1793, a tragedy occurred in the Quarenghi family: his wife died during childbirth, leaving a newborn girl and four more young children. In the autumn of 1796 he entered into a second marriage. By that time, Quarenghi's fame as an outstanding architect of the court of Catherine II had spread throughout Europe. In January 1796 he was elected a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts. The official recognition of the architect by the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, oddly enough, happened much later. Only on September 1, 1805, at an extraordinary meeting of the Academy, Quarenghi was elected an honorary member. His career in Russia was very successful. Soon after he arrived in Russia, he found that he was more appreciated here than in Europe. In many ways, Quarenghi, along with Charles Cameron, set the standard for St. Petersburg architecture. Although this architecture later became quintessentially Russian, in his time Quarenghi's architecture was considered Italian in nature and style. Quarenghi saw that the reason for the exclusivity of his creations was his Italian origin, but despite this he divided the glory between Russia and his native Italy. Each time Quarenghi returned to Italy, he continued to study and create, returning each time with new inspiration.As Quarenghi wrote, Catherine II often interfered in his work. However, the conquered position allowed him to introduce all the highest plans into the architectural framework. Quarenghi managed to maintain high authority with the successor of the queen Paul I, and then with Emperor Alexander I. Giacomo Quarenghi lived and worked in Russia for 37 years and became one of the best Russian architects, along with V.I. Bazhenov, I.E. Starov, N.A. Lvov and M.F. Kazakov. In 1814, Quarenghi received hereditary Russian nobility and the Order of St. Vladimir 1st degree.
Quarenghi's relations with Italy did not always go well. In 1801 he visited his homeland, where he was greeted with triumph. When in 1812 preparations were underway for Napoleon's campaign against Russia, the Italian king ordered all Italians to return to Italy. Quarenghi firmly refused. For this, he was sentenced by the king to death and confiscation of all property. Italy as a homeland he did not have. The new homeland - Russia - accepted him among her glorious sons. But with what youthful enthusiasm, with what talent, the aged Quarenghi erected the Triumphal Narva Gates for the victorious Russian army, returning from France in 1814! With what enthusiasm and skill he drafted a church "in memory of 1812" to be built in Moscow! But death prevented him from building.
Upon completion of the construction of the Hermitage Theater (1787), the architect received permission to settle in one of the premises of this building, facing the Neva. There he lived until the end of his days. Quarenghi died in St. Petersburg on February 18 (March 2), 1817. He was buried at the Volkovsky Lutheran cemetery, where the place of his grave was considered long lost.In 1967, when the 150th anniversary of Quarenghi's death was celebrated, Leningrad historians tried to find the burial place of the great architect. As a result of special archival research and archaeological excavations, the remains of D. Quarenghi were discovered and transferred to the 18th-century museum Necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. A new monument on his grave - a semi-column with an urn on a pedestal - was erected by the Museum of Urban Sculpture.
Quarenghi found his second home in Russia, and his work, like the work of a number of other architects, foreigners by origin, under the influence of Russian culture, creatively developing national traditions, became a valuable contribution to the history of Russian architecture.
