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(1) Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena
(b Bologna, 18 Aug 1657; d Bologna, 3 Jan 1743). Soon after the death of his father, Giovanni Maria Galli-Bibiena, he was apprenticed to Carlo Cignani, who quickly recognized his talent for architectural design and placed him with a series of specialized teachers. Ferdinando soon showed his precocious genius for stage design and became much in demand for theatrical work in Bologna. Cignani brought him to the attention of Ranuccio II Farnese, 6th Duke of Parma and Piacenza, who in the early 1680s made Ferdinando his chief painter and architect. Ferdinando stayed at the ducal courts of Parma and Piacenza for nearly 30 years, providing the scene decorations for numerous theatrical entertainments, particularly for such celebrations as those for the marriage of Odoardo Farnese in 1690. But he also created more lasting works, such as the Duke’s ravishing villa and garden at Colorno. In Parma he decorated the loggia of the Teatro Farnese, a gallery in the Palazzo del Giardino and a chapel in the Palazzo Ducale (all destr.). An anonymous 18th-century painting of a Performance in the Teatro Farnese (London, N.G.), in which the lavishly decorated proscenium arch frames a tall perspective scene of fantastically elaborate Late Baroque architecture, with further vistas beyond, indicates the character of the style that Ferdinando and his sons were to take to many of the greatest courts in Europe.
Part of the Galli-Bibiena family
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