Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov

Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov (born 1738, Moscow, Russia—died Oct. 25 [Nov. 7, New Style], 1812, Ryazan, Russia) was one of the first Russian architects of Neoclassicism, often called the “master of the rotunda” because of his use of that architectural feature.

At age 13 Kazakov began to study under the architect Dmitry Ukhtomsky, a devotee of the Baroque, and from 1768 he served as an assistant to the early Neoclassicist architect Vasily Bazhenov. In 1775 Kazakov began working independently. He built the Petrovsky Palace (1775–82) in a pseudo-Gothic style on what was at the time the outskirts of Moscow. The tsars would stop at this palace before entering the city. The emperor Napoleon stayed there in 1812 during his retreat from Moscow.

In 1776 Kazakov began the construction of the Senate in the Moscow Kremlin. The building’s plan was determined by the shape of the allocated plot of land: Kazakov built a pentagonal interior structure within the triangular exterior structure. At the apex of the triangle he made a ceremonial round chamber, with an unusually large spherical cupola of about 80 feet (25 metres) in diameter.

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Architecture: The Built World

In 1777 Kazakov began construction in Moscow of the Church of Metropolitan Filipp. Its Neoclassical rotunda was the first such structure in Russia. He also built a half rotunda atop the building that housed Moscow University (the building burned during Napoleon’s invasion but was later rebuilt).

In 1784, during the conversion of the private residence of Moscow’s governor general into the Nobles Assembly, Kazakov made the inner courtyard into a gigantic chamber (of 1,000 cubic metres [more than 35,000 cubic feet]) and girded it with 32 Ionic columns. A large extension was added to the building and covered with a rotunda and a cupola. From 1796 to 1807 Kazakov built both public buildings (the Golitsynskaya and Pavlovskaya hospitals) and a series of excellent classical private residences, of which the houses of some of the great families of Russia—Gubin, Baryshnikov, and Demidov—have survived.

During the 1780s Kazakov was head of the architectural school at the Kremlin Building Office, which trained a series of noteworthy architects. Kazakov headed a commission (1800–04) that drew up a map of Moscow showing the facades of its buildings. During Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow, Kazakov went to Ryazan, where he died, aware of the destruction of many of his buildings in the burning of Moscow.