Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini

Italian architect and stage designer, active in Austria. He went to Vienna in 1651 as the apprentice of his father, Giovanni Burnacini (d 1655), the Venetian theatre architect who introduced to Vienna the system of stage design developed by Giovanni Battista Aleotti and who produced stage sets in the Florentine-Venetian style of Giulio and Alfonso Parigi and Giacomo Torelli. Lodovico Burnacini was his father's assistant until the latter's death and succeeded him in the office of theatre architect and imperial court engineer to Emperor Leopold I. Although he participated in the construction of various imperial castles in the vicinity of Vienna, Burnacini was mainly engaged in theatre design, developing his father's style of stage settings and becoming the founder of the Viennese style, which had considerable influence on German theatre. Designs for 115 compositions and plays have survived, and many of Burnacini's designs were reproduced as engravings in luxury editions of the libretti. Holograph drawings are preserved (Vienna, ?sterreich. Nbib.). They include religious themes, physiognomic sketches, figurines and grotesques as well as narrative illustrations. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/lodovico-ottavio-burnacini-1#ixzz2emmYCmsT