Morandi, Franz Osipovich

After graduating from high school in the city of Cremona, in 1828 he entered the Imperial Royal Lyceum of St. Alexander in Milan “for improvement in practical architecture, geometry and mathematics”, where he studied with Leopold Lavelli and where he graduated in 1833 ^[2] . In 1838-1839 he studied at the Academy of Arts of Brera (now the district of Milan), where he received the title of Acting Artist of Architecture and Painting. In 1838, on behalf of Professor Ghislandi, he decorated one of the halls in the Milan palace. In 1839, during an epidemic of cholera, he lost his parents, after which he left Italy and moved to Odessa, where for some time he worked as a decorator in a city theater. Then he moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked with Auguste Montferrand and Ludwig Fontana (later, in 1852, he married the daughter of Fontana). In the middle of 1841 he returned to Odessa. Started working with private customers. In 1843 he sent 4 projects to the Petersburg Academy of Arts : reconstruction of the Odessa Theater (1841), two versions of the synagogue (1842, 1843), walls and quarantine towers, retaining wall of Primorsky Boulevard with underground storage facilities. Received from the academy the title of “appointed” to academicians. In 1845 he received the title of non-class artist, and in 1857 - the title of academician of architecture (for the project of the capital post office).

At first, Morandi used in his work stylistic forms of late Empire and Biedermeier , later on - Neo - Renaissance , Neo-Romantic and Neo-Gothic , Neo -Russian and neo- Muslim style.

From 1845 to 1890 he was in the service. At first, he served as the architect of different parts of the city. Since 1861, he served as the architect of the reorganized Construction Committee and the women's charitable society, from 1865 - the architect at the executive committee of the Duma, then at the city government.

Among his creative achievements are a number of projects implemented in Odessa - the project of the building of the main synagogue in 1843 (it was built in 1850-1859 according to his second project of 1846), the project of the Ascension Church in the area of ​​the 9th station of the Big Fountain, house number 10 on Primorsky Boulevard (between the Londonskaya Hotel and the Palace of Culture of Sailors), adjacent palace houses on Yekaterininsky Square , nos. 4 and 6 (built in 1850-1859), house 19 and 66 on Pushkinskaya Street . He also redesigned the city hospital, rebuilt the buildings of the Duma, the cathedral and a number of other religious institutions. Morandi's own house, built by him, was located on Novorybnaya street, at number 28.

Franz Morandi developed a master plan for the development of the city, which was approved by the emperor in 1849. New barracks, the Horse Market, the New Christian and Slobodsky cemeteries, the development of the embankment near Primorsky Boulevard, the construction of the Sennoy row near Privoz , the improvement of Theater Square and Outer Boulevard were outlined in it. In 1867, on the initiative of Morandi, reconstruction of Alexandrovsky Avenue began - the avenue was expanded and side alleys were added. In the early 1870s, Morandi installed cast-iron fencing near the green spaces on the avenue.

In the 1850s, he designed the Empress’s palace and several other buildings in Oreanda near Yalta .

Actively engaged in social activities. Member of the Society of Agriculture of Southern Russia . Member of the Odessa branch of the Russian Technical Society . Member of the Imperial Odessa Society of History and Antiquities (for many years was also its treasurer). He was one of the initiators of the Odessa Society of Fine Arts (with two schools - drawing and music and singing), founded in Odessa in 1865. The President of the Society was elected His Grace Prince Semyon Mikhailovich Vorontsov , the Governor-General Count Kotzebue as the patron of the Society, and the architect-academician Franz Osipovich Morandi as Vice-President. On May 30, 1865, the Odessa School of Painting was opened by the Society. Since the Society was created mainly on enthusiasm and no one could guess how much money could be collected, in the first year the teachers worked for free. Among the volunteer teachers was Franz Osipovich ^[3] . For a long time, the school existed exclusively on voluntary donations and did not have a permanent address. In such conditions, it was extremely difficult to resolve issues of a material and educational-methodical nature. For long 30 years, these problems became the concern of the vice-president of the Society, Franz Osipovich Morandi, who found time and energy to equip the drawing school: he took care of providing teaching staff, books, and visual aids. It is known that the first plaster casts, drawings, prints and mannequins were written to them from the Milan Academy of Arts, with whom he had close contacts. Odessa customs even exempted from import duty plaster casts from abroad. In 1869, it was at the invitation of Morandi that Luigi Dominicovich Iorini , a graduate of the Milan Academy of Arts, arrived in Odessa. He stayed in Odessa, lived and taught drawing and sculpture until his death in 1911 ^[4] . Luigi Iorini became one of the most famous teachers of the school and released many Odessa artists and sculptors, who later became famous.

He enjoyed great respect also abroad. He received the title of professor of the Bologna Academy, was a corresponding member of the Rafael Royal Academy of Arts. The Milan Academy of Arts invited Morandi in 1886 to participate in the jury to evaluate the competition projects of the Cathedral of Milan.

In 1890 he retired. The last months of his life he spent in the Roman suburb of Fium, where he died on October 23, 1894. At the insistence of the relatives of the architect and the Odessa public, he was buried in Odessa.

Odessa

Catherine Square , d. 4 and 6

"Caruso's house" (1848, Lanzheronovskaya , 28)