Ferdinando & Giuseppe Bibiena were the most prominent members of a celebrated family of artists and architects who flourished under royal patronage during the 17th and 18th centuries in Italy. They wrote extensively on architecture and executed elaborately detailed architectural views. They are best known, however, for their magnificent theatrical designs, soaring arches, spiraling staircases, symmetrical columns, and vistas that lead the eye back into the setting with vanishing point perspective.