Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (Bologna, 1657 - 1743)
Prospective Painting with Banquet Scene, 1721
tempera on canvas; inv. P 1
provenance: Palazzo Comunale (city hall), Gonfalonier’s quarters
In all probability, this is the painting the Accademia Clementina commissioned from the renowned architect and scenographer Ferdinando Bibiena in 1721 and presented as a gift to the Bolognese government to celebrate Bibiena’s admission to the Accademia and his return to his native land.
This painting and the Perspective with figures (see no. 13 inv. P 13) by Domenico Schianteschi of San Sepolcro, Bibiena’s student, are pendants. By depicting the grand and solid architectural structures that dominate the painting as if they were seen at an angle, Bibiena made multiple vanishing points and created a scene with grand diverging spaces within a theatrical composition.
Thanks to Bibiena’s activities as a scenographer and painting teacher, the genres of perspective and decorative painting (a minor genre to which Bibiena dedicated his energies in his later years) gained great popularity in Bologna.
