Brenna, Vikenti

(also Vincenzo Brenna). Born 1745 in Florence; died May 17, 1820, in Dresden. Artist, decorator, and architect. Italian by descent.

Brenna worked in Poland (1780-83) and in Russia (1783-1802). In the 1790’s he added galleries to and designed the interiors of the palace in Pavlovsk, and he also partially reconstructed palaces in Gatchina and St. Petersburg (the Kamenoostrovskii Palace), refinishing their interiors. In the splendid buildings that Brenna designed the classical composition of the interior is overburdened by heavy ornamentation. Brenna’s best work is the Rumiantsev Obelisk with its severe and distinct lines (1798-99, originally in the Field of Mars, presently near the building of the Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad). During 1797-1800 he worked on the construction of V. I. Bazhenov’s Mikhailovskii (Engineering) Castle in St. Petersburg.