In the Baroque period, architecture, painting, and scenic design were not such separate disciplines as today. Four generations of the Galli-Bibiena family moved freely between them, bringing a rich visual creativity to the courts of Europe.
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The Galli-Bibiena family (Q21769) was a family of Italian artists of the 17th and 18th centuries. Using the highly ornate style of late baroque sculpture and architecture, the members produced as painters, architects and designers a series of theatrical and other designs that are exceptional for their intricate splendour and spacious proportions achieved by detailed perspective.
From about 1690 to 1787, working for many of the courts of Europe, eight Bibienas designed and painted intricate settings for operas, weddings and funerals. In four generations they developed and spread their knowledge regarding theatrical development in the family:
- father, Giovanni Maria Galli da Bibiena (1625–1665)
- daughter Maria Oriana Galli Bibiena (1656–1749), painter
- son Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1656–1743), architect/designer
- son Francesco Galli Bibiena (1659–1739), architect
- grandson, Alessandro Galli Bibiena (1686–1748), architect/painter
- grandson, Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1696–1757), designer
- grandson, Antonio Galli Bibiena (1697–1774), architect
- grandson, Giovanni Carlo Galli-Bibiena (1717–1760), architect/designer
- great-grandson, Carlo Galli Bibiena (1728–1787), designer, son of Giuseppe Galli Bibiena.
The Galli-Bibiena worked for the main European courts, from Lisbon to Saint Petersburg, where they achieved fame and international recognition. They were originally from the Tuscan city of Bibbiena, having settled in Bologna in 1628. The Galli Bibiena generated through the different generations a particular common style. The collective output was very large; and with an undoubted family resemblance: the drawings of some of them are so similar that it is not easy to determine their author.
The creator of the inheritance is Giovanni Maria, but it was his children who established the artistic reputation of the family. His older brother Francesco Galli Bibiena (Q20592) stands out for stage design and, thanks to his knowledge of architecture, for the design of several theatres. Among them are the Vienna Hofburg (Q8389) that influenced theatre design in Germany and Austria at the time, and the Teatro Filarmonico at Verona (Q8347).
The other brother, Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (Q565), was also an architect, designer and painter. Together with Francesco, he carried out, among other works, the reform of the Ducal Theatre of Parma. Ferdinando was the one who obtained the most reputation in relation to scenic decoration thanks to his innovative designs, becoming one of the greatest Italian scene painters. Ferdinando worked in Parma, Modena, Genova, Torino, Venezia, Rome and Milan, and later for Philip V of Spain in Napoli. He left behind two published treatises, and a huge number of projects and sketches.
His greatest innovation was the introduction of two-point perspective into the set designs he was making for the theatre and festivities at the court of Vienna, where he had been the Emperor’s architect since 1717. Two-point perspective uses two vanishing points, and is generally employed to give a diagonal view of a building or rectilinear space. It had been a well-established architectural drawing technique since the early 16th century, and Sabbatini had illustrated its use for stage designs in his 1638 treatise, Pratica di fabricar scene e machine ne’ teatri (Q24). Ferdinando’s great innovation was not a new way of seeing or drawing, but in the practical application of the principle of two-point perspective to scenic design.
This innovation, called scena per angolo, provided a way of creating, using two-dimensional scenic elements placed parallel with the proscenium, the sense of a three-dimensional architectural environment, with the illusion of an infinite continuation beyond what can be seen on stage.
The Galli–Bibiena are known as one of the most important families of architects and set designers of the 18th century. Their decorative works for court functions were necessarily temporary, and their theatrical scenery was not executed in durable material, so few of their creations have survived. However, the richness and splendour of their works can be judged from drawings made at the time, which have been preserved in great numbers and are found in many collections all over the world.