Galli Da Bibiena Family - Sons and Daughter

Sons and Daughter

Maria Oriana Galli-Bibiena (1656-1749), Italian portrait painter, born at Bologna, was daughter of Giovanni Maria Galli. Maria studied with Carlo Cignani and Marcantonio Franceschini, and she specialized in portraits and history pictures. She married the younger landscape painter Gioacchino Pizzoli (1661–1773), and later, their son Domenico Pizzoli (1687–1720) also became a painter. Maria, at age 93, had outlived her famous brothers and died in Bologna in 1749.

Main article: Ferdinando Galli Bibiena

Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (18 August 1656 - 3 January 1743), born at Bologna, was the first son of Giovanni Maria Galli. He studied painting from Carlo Cignani and architecture from Giulio Troili. He worked for the duke of Parma 30 years, on the villa and garden of Colorno, but also worked for the theatre. In 1708, at Barcelona, he arranged decorations for wedding festivities of the prince, future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor; Ferdinando went to Vienna and worked on designs of scenery and decorations for court festivities and the opera. Returning to Bologna in 1717, he was elected a member of the Clementine Academy. Beginning in 1731, he built the Mantua royal theatre (which burned in 1781). He wrote several books, including: L'Architettura civile (1711; "Civil Architecture" and various titles) and Varie opere di prospettiva (1703–1708; "Various Works of Perspective").

Francesco Galli Bibiena (12 December 1659 - 20 January 1739), Italian architect and designer, was born at Bologna as the second son of Giovanni Maria Galli. He studied under both Lorenzo Pasinelli and Carlo Cignani. After working at Piacenza, Parma, and Rome, he then became the ducal architect at Mantua. After living in Genoa and Naples, Francesco Galli Bibiena was called by Emperor Leopold I to the Vienna Hofburg, where in 1700, he built the large theatre Große Komödiensaal ("Grand Hall of Comedies"), which became the Court Theater (Burgtheater). After a short stay in Italy and in Lorraine, he was invited by Emperor Joseph I, back to the Hofburg, to work as the "First Theatrical Engineer" and as a scene-painter/decorator from 1709-1712. Francesco was architect of the great theatre in Nancy, France; of the Teatro Filarmonico at Verona (Verona Philharmonic Theatre, which some have called the finest theatre in Italy); and of the Teatro Alibert in Rome. In 1726, Francesco returned to Bologna, where he directed the Clementine Academy.