(b Florence, 27 July 1720). Italian gem-engraver. At the age of 14 he was invited to study drawing under Francesco Bombicci and modelling under Giovacchino Fortini at the Accademia del Disegno in Florence. He was taught gem-engraving by Francesco Ghinghi in his workshop. Bernabé’s excellent drawing skills were evident in such early intaglios as the Hecatomb (untraced), which he executed in 1744. While still young he attracted commissions from eminent Florentines, including the Minister of Tuscany, Conte Emanuelle de Richecourt. Giulianelli considered Bernabé to be the most important Florentine gem-engraver of his age and he was held in similarly high regard by other contemporary collectors and craftsmen. He is noted for a portrait of Alexander the Great on a cornelian, and for copies of the Venus de’ Medici (original, Florence, Uffizi; copy c. 1753; untraced), Cupid and Psyche (Rome, Mus. Capitolino) in chalcedony, the Farnese Hercules (Naples, Mus. N.), busts of Homer and Antinous, a portrait of the Marchese Manfredi Malaspina, one of his patrons, and a Triumph of Bacchus (all untraced). The collector Baron Philipp von Stosch sent to him from Rome a fragment of an antique cameo representing Achilles Weeping at the Death of Patroclus, which he adapted on a cornelian, adding two women and a soldier to form a larger group of figures (untraced). He also engraved armorial seals. He signed his name in Greek characters, sometimes using his first name only, a fact that has on occasion caused his work to be confused with Felix, a Roman engraver of the Augustan period. Some of his gems are reproduced in the collections of James Tassie (examples in Edinburgh, N.P.G.) and Tommaso Cades (examples in Rome, Dt. Archäol. Inst.).

• Bernabé, Felix
  • Gem-engraving, §I, 11(i): Western, 1701–50
  • Ghinghi, Francesco