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Antonio Bernasconi (Antonio Bernaskoni; Russian: Антонио Бернаскони; 1726–1805) was aRussianstuccoist born inSwitzerland.[1] He worked on decorations in many palaces and other buildings in and aroundSaint Petersburg, particularly under the architectAntonio Rinaldi.
Bernasconi was born in 1726 inCastel San Pietro, a settlement nearLugano in Switzerland's Italian-speakingTicino canton.[2] The area, and theBernasconi family in particular, had produced numerous artists and architects, active across Europe, in England, Spain, Italy and Germany, as well as several distant cousins who had also come to work in Russia.[3] Antonio was a descendant of the prominent stuccoistPietro Magno, who decorated many palaces and ecclesiastical buildings in central Germany.[4]
Bernasconi trained under his uncle Francesco Pozzi and in 1751 went to work inRieti, inLatium,Italy. He then followed many other Italian and Swiss-Italian artisans of the day in going to work in theRussian Empire, where he first worked on the palace of theUkrainian HetmanKirill Razumovsky, in a team led by the architectAntonio Rinaldi, with whom he would continue to work on several projects in and around the Russian capital Saint Petersburg. Here he was awarded a five-year contract in 1777 to decorate the state chambers at theTsarskoye Selo palaces, specifying that he "make all the ornaments in plaster, as well as the stuccos in imitation marble for the decoration of the living areas", being paid the sum of 850 rubles and assigned five assistants.[5]
He later worked at thePavlovsk Palaces, but in 1785, was forced to resign from his position due to ill health occasioned by the damp conditions by the Gulf of Finland. He recommended his countryman Felice Lamoni ofMuzzano for his replacement, and returned to his homeland, accompanied by his wife Elisabetta Fritz and sonGiuseppe Bernasconi (born 1778). Giuseppe would later return to Saint Petersburg as an architect. Bernasconi died in 1805.[6]
Antonov V.:I Bernasconi a Pietroburgo, in "Bollettino Storico della Svizzera Italiana", Fasc. III, 1990