Sergey Klimenko
Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), Russia
In the development of Russian architecture of the post-Petrine era the reign of Empress Anna Ivanovna, covering the 1730s, is usually regarded as a transitional stage from Petrine time to the reign of Elizabeth. In historical and architectural studies this decade is described as the beginning of formation of unified Russian Baroque, which reached its heyday in the 1740–1750s. In this respect, the 1730s are usually counterposed to diverse, stylistically mixed first quarter of the 18th century. However, the emergence in the early 1730s of the first baroque buildings and the early works of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in particular was only a part of a more complex process of the formation of the style at the time.
The aim of the report is to identify key mechanisms of formation of style in the 1730s and sources of specific architectural forms. We consider creative activity of Peter’s pensioners who studied in the Netherlands, in particular Ivan Korobov, whose works show one of adoption mechanisms of architectural forms of Dutch Classicism and Flemish Baroque in Russian practice. Careful attention to the work of Rastrelli overshadowed the role of other artists whose works played an equally important role in the formation of the Baroque. The paper offers an attempt to analyze the projects and buildings by Iohann Schumacher, which are considered in the context of European school and their apparent connection with the German-Austrian version of Baroque style.
Unexplored stylistic features of many monuments, the difficulty in characterizing even such well-known works of the 1730s as St. Petersburg Admiralty, demonstrates the need for a comprehensive study of Russian architecture of the era of Anna Ivanovna.