Ludovico De Luigi was born in Venice on November 11, 1933, to a family of painters sensitive to cultural issues and the influence of modern art. His natural vocation for art, however, developed in various stages. He initially trained in the studio of his father Mario, a famous abstract painter, but left in 1950 to live in Turin, then in Rome, and finally in France. During these years he passionately devoted himself to drawing and copying the Old Masters, but still gradually developing a personal visual language. He also became very interested in the natural sciences, particularly entomology, traces of which would later appear in his work.

In the spring of 1959, De Luigi started an in-depth study of Canaletto’s work at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica at Palazzo Corsini, Rome, and quickly assimilated the great Venetian artist's skill in merging technique and expression. His studies culminated in a copy of a painting of St. Mark's Square on view in Palazzo Corsini. The work demonstrated De Luigi’s extraordinary virtuosity and served as the starting point for a thorough investigation of artistic techniques that would intensify from 1966 onwards. That same year the artist painted a dystopian scene which depicted Venice ridden with insects.

Along with his wife, the American painter Janice Lefton, De Luigi traveled to the United States in 1967. The same year he held an exhibition at the Drake Gallery in Chicago. Encouraged by his private and public success, he continued to carry out his artistic research. He combined traditional, time-honored subjects and techniques with surreal re-elaborations, envisioning apocalyptic scenarios taking place in the city of Venice. He was later drawn to sculpture and made a series of equestrian works in bronze, loaded with symbolic and allegorical meanings. With the arrival of the digital age, the artist started using computers to produce his work. De Luigi’s work belongs to many private and public collections. He currently lives and works in Venice.