Biography

Italian sculptor, nephew and pupil of the sculptor Giuseppe Torretti. Later he took his uncle's surname and inherited his workshop on Torretti's death. (He is known also as Torretto.) He continued to work in Venice though most of his commissions were in other towns in the Veneto and Friuli regions. His major work in Venice is a cycle of Apostles and Evangelists for Santa Maria della Fava (c. 1766). Although he worked along the lines taught him by his uncle and was perhaps influenced by Marchiori, and possibly even Gai, he developed his own distinctive style.

Bernardi is also known for being the first master of Antonio Canova to whom he transmitted the refined vibration of surfaces.