Ton, Konstantin Andreyevich
Ton, Konstantin Andreyevich (1794–1881). Russian architect of German extraction. He was a leading figure in the revival of traditional Russian church-architecture, and was closely associated with official Government buildings. His work is variously referred to as ‘Russian Byzantine’ or the ‘Russian style’. His earliest buildings in St Petersburg, including the Main Halls and Chapel of the Academy of Arts (1829–37), were firmly within the Classical tradition, while the monumental Dock in front of the Academy building was an essay in Neo-Classicism. His first building consciously drawing on five-domed C15 and C16 precedents was the Church of St Catherine, St Petersburg (1830–7), followed by several other churches in the ‘National’ style. His designs for centralized five-domed churches based on old Muscovite sources were published, proved influential, and were widely copied. He was also a pioneer in the study of traditional timber vernacular domestic architecture. His most important buildings were the Bolshoi Kremlin Palace (1838–49) and the gigantic Church of Christ the Redeemer (1839–83) in Moscow. The last, like many of his buildings, was destroyed during the Soviet period (1934), but was reconstructed (1994–7). Ton also designed several railway-stations (1844–51) drawing on Renaissance themes.
Bibliography
Slavina (1989);
Jane Turner (1996);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)
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Ton, Konstantin Andreyevich