Мариан Перетятькович: Архитектор на рубеже стилей

Russian and Ukrainian architect

Marian Marianovich Peretyatkovich (Мариа́н Мариа́нович Перетя́ткович; 23 August 1872 – 22 May 1916) was a Russian and Polish architect. His premature death at the age of 43 limited his career to only eight years of independent practice (1908 1916), however, he managed to excel in a rational (Finnish) variety of late Art Nouveau, Renaissance Revival and Russian Revival in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. He is sometimes compared with Louis Sullivan on account of his insistence on functionality of office buildings.

Peretyatkovich trained at Saint Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers, graduating in 1901, and the Imperial Academy of Arts under Leon Benois (1901 1906). Still at college, Peretyatkovich became famous as a refined draftsman; architect like Gavriil Baranovsky, Roman Klein and Ivan Rerberg hired him for drafting and interior designs. Thus, Peretyatkovich was involved in such high profile jobs as the Hotel Metropol, Elisseeff Emporium, and the Pushkin Museum. Before graduation, Peretyatkovich secured a solid reputation among professionals in both capitals of Russia. In 1907, he travelled over Europe on the Academy study tour, and learned the Finnish version of Art Nouveau practiced by Eliel Saarinen and Lars Sonck, as well as Roman architecture of Southern Europe; both these styles became the trademarks of his short career.

On his return from Europe, Peretyatkovich designed his first major project Solodovnikov's Cheap Apartment Building in Moscow (it was executed by Traugott Bardt), a typical Northern Moderne, Saint Petersburg version of Art Nouveau. His second project the Northern Insurance Buildings in Moscow, was executed in collaboration with Ivan Rerberg and Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky in stern Neoclassical Revival. This buildings are also notable as Ilya Golosov's first employment and for Sergei Rachmaninoff melody written for the chiming clock. Now, they house the Constitutional Court of Russia. Since 1905, his professional bond with another local architect of Polish descent Marian Lalewicz was established. In Saint Petersburg, Peretyatkovich designed various office and residential buildings; the best known, Wawelberg Trade Bank (1911 1912), combines neoclassical composition with Renaissance exterior (in the same period, Ivan Zholtovsky built a similar but far smaller Tarasov House in Moscow). The historicist dimension of Peretiatkovich's work is even more pronounced in his designs for St Petersburg churches. He oversaw the construction of the Saviour Church "on Waters" (Спас на Водах), inspired by the 12th century architecture of Vladimir Suzdal and commemorating Russian sailors who perished during the Russo Japanese War. The church was demolished by the Leningrad authorities in 1932. His other major project was the Roman Catholic church of Notre Dame de Lourdes (1908–09), inspired by Romanesque architecture of Northern Europe and designed in collaboration with Leon Benois. His last work was a memorial chapel for the late Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Russia, modelled after historical Pskov churches.

Peretyatkovich was born in a roman catholic family of Euzebiusz Peretiatkowicz, an impoverished nobleman. During his career in Petersburg, the architect was involved in activity of many local, Polish associations. In 1912 he married Janina Maria, one year later their only son was born. In 1916 Peretyatkovich's relatives in his ancestral estate died due to World War I front operations. The shocking news led Peretyatkovich to fatal heart attack.

Peretyatkovich, as the youngest member of Neoclassical Revival movement after 1915, had a solid influence on Saint Petersburg architects of his period, securing the leading role of this style together with Vladimir Shchuko and Ivan Fomin. His early reputation as a talented graphic artist in college and a very short architectural career that left a lasting influence are reminiscent of another architect, Konstantin Melnikov.