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Italian Baroque Annibale Carracci

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Annibale Carracci

born: Bologna, 1 November 1560
died: Rome, 15 July 1609

Annibale was probably taught by his elder cousin Ludovico Carracci. He may have studied in Bologna with Bartolomeo Passarotti.

Around 1582 Annibale and his two brothers, Agostino and Antonio, established a private academy for the study of art later called the Accademia degli Incamminati, the Academy of the Progressives, which reasserted the naturalistic tradition of northern Italy and laid the foundations of the seventeenth-century Bolognese school of painting.

The Crucifixion with Saints, dated 1583 (Santa Maria della Carita, Bologna), and the frescoes in the Palazzo Fava, Bologna, which were painted with Ludovico and Agostino Carracci (1583-84), constitute Annibale's earliest documented works.

Dead Christ
about 1584
Staatsgalerie
Stuttgart, Germany

St Francis
in Meditation
1586
Galleria dell'Accademia
Venice, Italy

Several paintings, among them The Butcher's Shop (another version is in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, US) and The Bean Eater, were important in the development of Italian genre painting.

The Butcher's Shop
about 1585
Christ Church Picture Gallery
Oxford, England

The Bean Eater
about 1585
Galleria Colonna
Rome, Italy

A Man with a Monkey
oil/canvas; 68×58 cm
Uffizi, Florence, Italy

River Landscape
1589-90
National Gallery of Art
Washington DC, US

Assumption of
the Virgin
about 1590
Prado, Madrid, Spain

Self-Portrait
on a Easel
1595
Hermitage
St Petersburg, Russia

Hercules at
the Crossroads
about 1596
Museo di Capodimonte
Naples, Italy

Jacob Asleep
[drawing]

Coronation of
St Stephen
about 1597
M. H. Wiener Collection
New York, NY, US

St. Margaret
about 1598
Chiesa di
Santa Caterina dei Funari
Rome, Italy

Temptations
of St Anthony,
the Abbot
about 1598
National Gallery
London, England

Penitent Mary Magdalene
and Landscape
about 1598
Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge, England

In 1594 Annibale was invited to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. He wanted to decorate his Camerino, or private study (1595-97). Then he employed Annibale to decorate the Galleria (ceiling 1597-1601; walls completed c. 1604) of the Palazzo Farnese. The Galleria vault combines incorporates images from antiquity in a complex system of quadri riportati (fake easel paintings done in fresco) with supporting Atlantes (see above) and putti and the images themselves. The ceiling fresco of the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne is a masterpiece.

Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne
[ceiling fresco]

[detail]

1601
Galleria, Palazzo Farnese
Rome, Italy

Annibale's elevated style is apparent in the altarpiece of The Assumption of the Virgin created for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, where it contrasts with the dramatic naturalism of Caravaggio's two lateral paintings. Cerasi basically created a competition between the two greatest painters in Rome. Others tried the same thing later, but no one could get both the painters to cooperate. They both probably hated the idea of comparison as well as each other. Annibale certainly didn't like Caravaggio's realism, nor his personality. Caravaggio is on record as saying Annibale was a great painter — but that was in court where he was being attacked for lible by another painter; so it is not clear his answer was completely genuine — a characteristic all too common in court proceedings, then and now.

Ceiling
[plaster detail]	Coronation of the Virgin (ceiling fresco)	Atlante sketch about 1600 Louvre, Paris, France
Caravaggio: Crucifixion of St. Peter	Assumption of the Virgin	Caravaggio: Conversion of St. Paul

1600-01
The Cerasi Chapel
Santa Maria del Popolo
Rome, Italy

In 1605, Annibale became seriously depressed, and perhaps ill. He was virtually unable to paint thereafter. Annibale's classical style replaced the contemporary mannerist tradition and was to prove enormously influential during the next two centuries; although he was discounted until art historians in the 20th century reevaluated his work and began to reappreciate his worth.

Sleeping Venus about 1602 Musée Conté Chantilly, Fraance	"Domine Quo Vatis?" Christ appears to St. Peter on the Appian Way 1602 The National Gallery London, England	Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1603 Galleria Doria Pamphili Rome, Italy
Rest on the Flight into Egypt about 1604 Hermitage Museum St Petersburg, Russia	The Cyclops: Polyphemus 1605 Palazzo Farnese Rome, Italy	Birth of the Virgin about 1606 Louvre, Paris, France

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2004-12-25

Italian Baroque Annibale Carracci

Annibale Carracci

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Italian Baroque
Annibale Carracci