Italian sculptor, architect, carver, representative of the Baroque. He probably studied under Giovanni Battista Foggini in Florence (e.g. a marble statue of Mary Magdalene, 1705; Florence, Museo San Marco) and later worked in Rome. At the beginning of the 18th century, in Paris where he served at the court of Louis XIV and executed several funerary monuments (destroyed). After the death of the Sun King in 1715, Rastrelli left Paris with his son and arrived the following year in St. Petersburg at the invitation of Peter the Great and embarked on the planning project of the Vasilievsky Island and Strelna Park. In Russia, together with other foreign artists, he participated many large projects. His son, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was a successful architect, also active in Russia. He defined the high Baroque style in Russia under the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth Petrovna. //