QUARENGHI, GIACOMO – Architect, b. 1744 in Valle Imagna (Bergamo), d. 1817 in St. Petersburg. His father and grandfather were painters. Initially he studied painting and in Rome was a pupil of Raffaello Mengs. He turned to architecture under the strong influence of Palladio. He devoted himself to the study of classical antiquity and came to develop a style of his own, sober yet powerful.
In 1771 Q. rebuilt the church of S. Scolastica in Subiaco. In 1779 he went to Russia at the service of Catherine II, becoming her official architect. He never thereafter left that court. Later he worked for Paul I and for Alexander I. His activity was especially exercised in St. Petersburg, where his principal works were the English Palace, the Hermitage Theatre (1782–85), inspired by that of Vicenza, the Academy of Sciences, the State Bank (1783–88), the Bourse, the chapel of the Knights of Malta (1798–1800), the Smol’ny Institute Palace (1806–1808). At Tsarskoye Selo he built the Alexander Palace (1792–96). He also constructed many private palaces.
In his buildings Q. adopted the fundamental principles of Palladian art both in the solution of the plans and in the clear distribution of balanced masses, in exteriors as in interiors. An excellent draftsman and colorist, he carved a deep furrow in Russian architecture and civilization, helping to instill in Russian architects a taste for the nobility of their own traditions, for the austere and refined conception of style.