BIBIENA, FAMIGLIA. – Architects and theatrical decorators, bearing the surname Galli and originating from Bibbiena. The founder of the family was GIOVANNI MARIA; apprenticed in Albani’s workshop around 1642, he worked until 1665. His sons FRANCESCO and FERDINANDO were the most significant artists of the family. The former (1659–1739) built the Alibert Theatre in Rome (1720) and the Filarmonico in Verona, and worked at foreign courts, where his stage designs were much sought after. The latter (1657–1743) worked for 28 years in the duchy of Parma, where he built and decorated civil and religious buildings (the church of S. Antonio abate) and designed numerous stage sets. In 1708 he was summoned to Barcelona by King Carlo III, whom he subsequently followed to Vienna when he was elected emperor of Germany. F. B.’s codification of perspectives is contained in his treatises on perspective theory; fundamental to eighteenth-century scenographic architecture is the Architettura civile preparata sulla geometria e ridotta alla prospettiva (1711), in which the method, devised by F., of the «veduta d’angolo» is extensively demonstrated.
Ferdinando’s sons continued the family tradition: ANTONIO (1700–74) was in Vienna, St Petersburg, and Belgrade (his funeral decorations in Vienna and Presburg, for the obsequies of Carlo VI [1740], were celebrated). He also carried out intense activity in Italy: in Siena he worked in the church of S. Agostino (after 1753); he executed the painted decorations of the Greek church in Livorno (c. 1763), those of the cupola of S. Maria della Vita in Bologna, and in the same city he worked in the Fontana Muratori chapel in S. Maria dei Foscheroni. He painted stage sets and built theatres in Siena, Pistoia, Pavia, etc. Ferdinando’s other son, GIUSEPPE (1696–1757), worked for a long time in Vienna, where he arranged wedding celebrations, triumphs, scenes, sacred performances (those of the Passion were celebrated), and funerary machines. His son CARLO (1728–80), the last of the family, worked for a long time in Munich and was sought after in Holland, France, and England.
The B., endowed with lively decorative talent and rich in imagination, were the most skilful creators of perspectival illusions; through their work, of which only numerous drawings scattered throughout the cities of Europe remain, they expressed the most spontaneous manifestation of scenography and Baroque taste.