Carracci. Family of Bolognese painters, the chief members of which were the brothers Agostino (bapt. Bologna, 16 Aug. 1557; d Parma, 23 Feb. 1602) and Annibale (bapt. Bologna, 3 Nov. 1560; d Rome, 15 July 1609) and their cousin Ludovico (bapt. Bologna, 21 Apr. 1555; d Bologna, 13/14 Nov. 1619). These three were major figures in the transition from Mannerism to Baroque and were largely responsible for establishing Bologna (previously something of an artistic backwater) as the centre of the most distinctive tradition in 17th-century Italian painting. In reaction against the artificiality of Mannerism, they revived the solidity and grandeur of the High Renaissance, to which they added a vigour and warmth reflecting their admiration for Venetian painting. They often worked together early in their careers, and it is not easy to distinguish their individual shares in, for example, the cycle of frescos on the history of the founding of Rome in the Palazzo Magnani, Bologna (c.1589–90).

In the early 1580s the Carracci opened a private academy in Ludovico's studio, and it soon became a centre for progressive art. It is uncertain how it operated in its early days, but by about 1590 it had become a teaching institution. Originally it was called the Accademia dei Desiderosi (‘Desiderosi’ meaning ‘desirous of fame and learning’), but it later changed its name to Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives). In their teaching the Carracci put particular emphasis on drawing from the life, and vigorous draughtsmanship became a quality particularly associated with artists of the Bolognese School, notably Domenichino and Reni, two of the leading members of the following generation who trained at the academy. All three Carracci were themselves outstanding draughtsmen, and Malvasia writes that even when eating they had ‘bread in one hand and a pencil or charcoal in the other’. Their naturalistic outlook was in tune with the reforming ideals of the Counter-Reformation Church; in 1582 the Bishop of Bologna, Gabriele Paleotti, published a treatise on religious art in which he spoke out against ‘obscure and ambiguous paintings’ and praised the kind of artist who ‘knows how to explain his ideas clearly…and to render them intelligible and plain to see’.

By the mid-1590s Annibale had emerged as the greatest artist of the family. His early work included landscapes, portraits, and genre pictures, but his reputation was mainly based on a succession of large altarpieces for churches in Bologna and other cities in north Italy, in which he showed a growing mastery of composition and expression. In 1594 he was called to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to discuss decorations for his family palace, and after returning to Bologna to finish various commissions he had in hand, he settled in Rome in 1595 and embarked on the work in the Palazzo Farnese from which his fame is inseparable. He first decorated a small room called the Camerino (the cardinal's private study) with mythological scenes, mainly involving Hercules, then in 1597 began his masterpiece—the decoration of the Farnese Gallery. The gallery is one of the most imposing rooms in the palace and at this time was used to display choice pieces from the celebrated family collection of ancient sculpture. Annibale's paintings complemented these sculptures by evoking the world of classical antiquity, the overall theme of his frescos being the loves of the gods, or, as Bellori described it, ‘human love governed by celestial love’.

The ceiling was completed in 1600 or 1601, and the decoration of the walls, which is of much less importance, was done over the next two or three years, mainly by assistants, including Domenichino, who was part of a flow of Bolognese artists who followed Annibale to Rome and capitalized on his success. His contemporaries regarded the Farnese Ceiling as the successor to the great Vatican frescos of Michelangelo and Raphael, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries it ranked almost as high in critical esteem. There are obvious similarities with Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, notably in the majesty of the nude figures, but Annibale's ceiling is entirely different in spirit, conveying a wonderful feeling of movement and exuberance. It was enormously influential, not only as a pattern book of heroic figure design, but also as a model of technical procedure; Annibale made hundreds of drawings for the ceiling, and until the age of Romanticism such elaborate preparatory work became accepted as a fundamental part of composing any really large and ambitious work. In this sense, Annibale exercised a more profound influence than his great contemporary Caravaggio, for the latter never worked in fresco, which was still regarded as the greatest test of a painter's mettle and the most suitable vehicle for painting in the Grand Manner.

Although his work in the Farnese Palace occupied most of his time, Annibale carried out other important commissions in Rome and made momentous contributions in other branches of painting. Most tellingly, he was the inventor of ideal landscape, in which Claude and Poussin were his greatest followers; the Flight into Egypt (c.1604, Gal. Doria Pamphili, Rome) is Annibale's masterpiece in this genre (see Aldobrandini). His altarpieces and devotional pictures are amongst the finest of the time and have an important place in the tradition of history painting; Poussin was influenced by the force, economy, and precision of composition and gesture seen in paintings such as Domine, Quo Vadis? (c.1602, NG, London), in which Annibale was at his most severely classical, whereas other artists, for example Rubens, responded to the muscular energy of his work.

In his final years Annibale was overcome by a debilitating illness and after 1606 he virtually abandoned painting (according to Bellori he sank into depression after being meagrely rewarded by Cardinal Farnese for his work in the Palazzo Farnese, but his sickness probably had physical as well as mental causes). When he died he was buried according to his wishes near Raphael in the Pantheon. It is a measure of his achievement that artists as important and diverse as Bernini (who referred to Annibale's ‘great big brain’), Poussin, and Rubens found so much to admire and praise in his work. They were aware mainly of the public face of his art, but it also had a less formal side that comes out in his caricatures (he is generally credited with inventing the form) and in his early genre paintings, which are remarkable for their lively observation and free handling (The Butcher's Shop, c.1582, Christ Church, Oxford).

Agostino was Annibale's principal assistant in the Farnese Gallery from 1597 until 1599, when they quarrelled and Agostino moved to Parma. Although they had originally been so close artistically, the brothers were very different in character: Agostino was socially ambitious and inclined to put on airs, whereas Annibale was, in Bellori's words, ‘amiable and modest’. In Parma, Agostino began his own ‘Farnese Ceiling’, decorating a vault in the Palazzo del Giardino with mythological scenes for Duke Ranuccio Farnese, but it was unfinished at his death. Among his paintings the most famous is probably the Last Communion of St Jerome (c.1592, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna), which inspired Domenichino's celebrated picture of the same subject. However, his contemporary reputation was based mainly on his engravings, of which he produced more than 200. They include original compositions as well as reproductions of the paintings of other artists (notably Tintoretto).

Ludovico left Bologna only for brief periods (although he received many invitations from distinguished patrons to work elsewhere), and after his cousins had gone to Rome, he directed the Carracci academy by himself, regarding teaching as a central part of his life. Early in his career he painted some portraits, but most of his paintings are on religious subjects. His work is uneven in quality, but at his best he was an artist of power and originality. He was less classical in style than his cousins—often emotional or even mystical in feeling. In his later years, the suave style of Guido Reni made Ludovico's work look old-fashioned, but he continued on his own path, sometimes producing pictures of an almost Expressionist force (Christ Crucified above Figures in Limbo, 1614, S. Francesca Romana, Ferrara).

The Carracci fell from grace in the 19th century along with all the other Bolognese painters, who were one of Ruskin's pet hates and whom he considered (1847) had ‘no single virtue, no colour, no drawing, no character, no history, no thought’. They were saddled with the label ‘eclectic’ and thought to be ponderous and lacking in originality. Their full rehabilitation did not come until the second half of the 20th century (the great Carracci exhibition held in Bologna in 1956 was a notable landmark), but Annibale has now regained his place as one of the giants of Italian painting.

Three other members of the Carracci family became artists: Paolo (1568–1625), who was Ludovico's younger brother; Francesco (1595–1622), the nephew of Agostino and Annibale; and Antonio (c.1583–1618), Agostino's illegitimate son (the only offspring of the three major figures). Paolo and Francesco were undistinguished, but Antonio had a considerable reputation in his day. However, after his early death he was virtually forgotten, and it is only recently that his work has been rediscovered. He mainly painted religious works, in a graceful style influenced by Reni.

Carracci Family of Bolognese painters, the brothers Agostino (1557–1602) and Annibale (1560–1609) and their cousin Ludovico (1555–1619). They were major figures in the transition from Mannerism to Baroque and were largely responsible for establishing Bologna (previously something of an artistic backwater) as the centre of the most distinctive tradition in 17th-century Italian painting. In reaction against the artificiality of Mannerism, they revived the solidity and grandeur of the High Renaissance, to which they added a vigour and warmth reflecting their admiration for Venetian painting. They often worked together early in their careers, and it is not easy to distinguish their individual shares in, for example, the cycle of frescos on the History of the Founding of Rome in the Palazzo Magnani, Bologna (c.1589–90). In the early 1580s they opened a private academy in Ludovico's studio, and it soon became a centre for progressive art. It is uncertain how it operated in its early days, but by about 1590 it had become a teaching institution. Originally it was called the Accademia dei Desiderosi (‘Desiderosi’ meaning ‘desirous of fame and learning’), but it later changed its name to Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives). In their teaching the Carracci stressed drawing from life, and vigorous draughtsmanship became a quality particularly associated with artists of the Bolognese School, notably Domenichino and Reni, two of the leading members of the following generation who trained at the academy. All three Carracci were themselves outstanding draughtsmen, and Malvasia writes that even when eating they had ‘bread in one hand and a pencil or charcoal in the other’. Their naturalistic outlook was in tune with the reforming ideals of the Counter-Reformation Church; in 1582 the Bishop of Bologna, Gabriele Paleotti, published a treatise on religious art in which he spoke out against ‘obscure and ambiguous paintings’ and praised the kind of artist who ‘knows how to explain his ideas clearly !…! and to render them intelligible and plain to see’.

By the mid-1590s Annibale had emerged as the greatest artist of the family. His early work included landscapes, portraits, and genre pictures, but his reputation was mainly based on a succession of large altarpieces for churches in Bologna and other cities in north Italy, in which he showed a growing mastery of composition and expression. In 1594 he was called to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to discuss decorations for his family palace, and after returning to Bologna to finish various commissions he had in hand, he settled in Rome in 1595 and embarked on the work in the Palazzo Farnese from which his fame is inseparable. He first decorated a small room called the Camerino (the cardinal's private study) with mythological scenes, mainly involving Hercules, then in 1597 began his masterpiece—the decoration of the Farnese Gallery. The gallery is one of the most imposing rooms in the palace and at this time was used to display choice pieces from the celebrated family collection of ancient sculpture. Annibale's paintings complemented these sculptures by evoking the world of classical antiquity, the overall theme of his frescos being the loves of the Gods, or, as Bellori described it, ‘human love governed by celestial love’. The ceiling was completed in 1600 or 1601, and the decoration of the walls, which is of much less importance, was done over the next two or three years, mainly by assistants, including Domenichino, who was part of a flow of Bolognese artists who followed Annibale to Rome and capitalized on his success. His contemporaries regarded the Farnese Ceiling as the successor to the great Vatican frescos of Michelangelo and Raphael, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries it ranked almost as high in critical esteem. There are obvious similarities with Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, notably in the majesty of the nude figures, but Annibale's ceiling is entirely different in spirit, conveying a wonderful feeling of movement and exuberance. It was enormously influential, not only as a pattern book of heroic figure design, but also as a model of technical procedure; Annibale made hundreds of drawings for the ceiling, and until the age of Romanticism such elaborate preparatory work became accepted as a fundamental part of composing any really large and ambitious work. In this sense, Annibale exercised a more profound influence than his great contemporary Caravaggio, for the latter never worked in fresco, which was still regarded as the greatest test of a painter's mettle and the most suitable vehicle for painting in the Grand Manner.

Although his work in the Farnese Palace occupied most of his time, Annibale carried out other important commissions in Rome and made momentous contributions in other branches of painting. Most tellingly, he was the inventor of ideal landscape, in which Claude and Poussin were his greatest followers; the Flight into Egypt (c.1604, Gal. Doria Pamphili Rome) is Annibale's masterpiece in this genre. His altarpieces and devotional pictures are amongst the finest of the time and have an important place in the tradition of history painting; Poussin was influenced by the force, economy, and precision of composition and gesture seen in paintings such as ‘Domine, Quo Vadis?’ (c.1602, NG, London), in which Annibale was at his most severely classical, whereas other artists, for example Rubens, responded to the muscular energy of his work. In his final years Annibale was overcome by a debilitating illness and after 1606 he virtually abandoned painting (according to Bellori he sank into depression after being meagrely rewarded by Cardinal Farnese for his work in the Palazzo Farnese, but his sickness probably had physical as well as mental causes). When he died he was buried according to his wishes near Raphael in the Pantheon. It is a measure of his achievement that artists as important and diverse as Bernini (who referred to Annibale's ‘great big brain’), Poussin, and Rubens found so much to admire and praise in his work. They were aware mainly of the public face of his art, but it also had a less formal side that comes out in his caricatures (he is generally credited with inventing the form) and in his early genre paintings, which are remarkable for their lively observation and handling (The Butcher's Shop, c.1582, Christ Church, Oxford).

Agostino was Annibale's principal assistant in the Farnese Gallery from 1597 until 1599, when they quarrelled and Agostino moved to Parma. Although they had originally been so close artistically, the brothers were very different in character: Agostino was socially ambitious and inclined to put on airs, whereas Annibale was, in Bellori's words, ‘amiable and modest’. In Parma, Agostino began his own ‘Farnese Ceiling’, decorating a vault in the Palazzo del Giardino with mythological scenes for Duke Ranuccio Farnese, but it was unfinished at his death. Among his paintings the most famous is probably the Last Communion of St Jerome (c.1592, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna), which inspired Domenichino's celebrated picture of the same subject. However, his contemporary reputation was based mainly on his engravings, of which he produced more than 200. They include original compositions as well as reproductions of the paintings of other artists (notably several by Tintoretto).

Ludovico left Bologna only for brief periods (although he received many invitations from distinguished patrons to work elsewhere), and after his cousins had gone to Rome, he directed the Carracci academy by himself, regarding teaching as a central part of his life. Early in his career he painted some portraits, but most of his paintings are on religious subjects. His work is uneven in quality, but at his best he was an artist of power and originality. He was less classical in style than his cousins—often emotional or even mystical in feeling. In his later years, the suave style of Guido Reni made Ludovico's work look old-fashioned, but he continued on his own path, sometimes producing pictures of an almost Expressionist force (Christ Crucified above Figures in Limbo, 1614, S. Francesca Romana, Ferrara).

The Carracci fell from grace in the 19th century along with all the other Bolognese painters, who were one of Ruskin's pet hates and whom he considered (1847) had ‘no single virtue, no colour, no drawing, no character, no history, no thought’. They were saddled with the label ‘eclectic’ and thought to be ponderous and lacking in originality. Their full rehabilitation did not come until the second half of the 20th century (the great Carracci exhibition held in Bologna in 1956 was a notable landmark), but Annibale has now regained his place as one of the giants of Italian painting.

In addition to the three celebrated Carracci, three other members of the family became artists: Paolo (1568–1625), who was Ludovico's younger brother; Francesco (1595–1622), the nephew of Agostino and Annibale; and Antonio (c.1583–1618), Agostino's illegitimate son. Paolo and Francesco were undistinguished, but Antonio had a considerable reputation in his day. However, after his early death he was virtually forgotten, and it is only recently that his work has been rediscovered. He mainly painted religious works, in a graceful style influenced by Reni.

Carracci

The Italian painters and engravers Ludovico (1555-1619), Agostino (1557-1602), and Annibale (1560-1609) Carracci opposed the style of late mannerist painting and sought instead classically inspired realism. The style they created is called baroque classicism.

What the Carracci urged was a change from the artificial, antinaturalistic style then in vogue and a return to the realism, the richness, and in some cases the monumentality of the High Renaissance. This meant turning to examples of the work not only of Raphael, as is sometimes supposed, but of Titian, Correggio, and Michelangelo as well.

The movement began in Bologna. There is no doubt that Ludovico was the leader in the beginning. For a time he shared a studio with his cousins, the brothers Agostino and Annibale. Together they founded an art school or academy (the Accademia degli Incamminati) where their artistic principles were so convincing and their example so persuasive that they determined the course of Bolognese art throughout the following century.

Ludovico Carracci

Ludovico, who was baptized in Bologna on April 21, 1555, and remained there all his life, is most closely related to the northern Italian tradition. His Madonna of the Scalzi (ca. 1593), generally considered his masterpiece, takes both St. Jerome and the Christ Child from Correggio's Madonna of St. Jerome and the facial type of the Virgin from Veronese. In the interrelationship of the figures, however, we find a new intimacy that will come to be associated with the baroque. This intimacy is still more marked in the Holy Family with St. Francis (1591), where passages of deep color and white highlights in the Venetian manner are used in combination with unexpectedly deep shadows to create an effect that is still closer to pure baroque. Ludovico died in Bologna on Nov. 3, 1619.

Agostino Carracci

Agostino, who was baptized in Bologna on Aug. 16, 1557, is best known for his engravings. His most famous painting, the Last Communion of St. Jerome (ca. 1592), served as an inspiration for works by Domenichino and Peter Paul Rubens. Agostino was also a theoretician and a fine teacher, and he trained some of the better-known graduates of the Carracci school. He was working on the frescoes in the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma when he died on Feb. 23, 1602.

Annibale Carracci

Annibale, born in Bologna on Nov. 3, 1560, was the genius of the family, but he was slow to develop. His Virgin with St. John and St. Catherine (1593) repeats a whole series of High Renaissance formulas. The Madonna sits on a high throne with a saint on either side; together they form a symmetrical triangle. In the background a central niche and flanking columns provide tectonic stability. The gentle turning of the saints' bodies supplies just enough movement to loosen the composition a little. The pose of the Christ Child comes from Raphael, the relief on the pedestal from Correggio, and the facial types from Veronese. Paintings such as this, which are typical of Annibale's activity in Bologna, tell us much about his classicism but little about his originality.

In Rome, where he moved in 1595, Annibale's works took on a new inventiveness and monumentality. Under the impact of his intensive study of ancient sculpture and Raphael's frescoes his style became harder and tighter. At the same time he brought his figures close to the surface of the painting so as to give them immediacy and largeness of scale. In his Domine, quo vadis? (ca. 1600) Christ appears as a powerful, seminude athlete. With the cross borne lightly on his shoulder, he strides forward past an amazed St. Peter and on toward us as if he were about to break out of the canvas. Annibale's pictures are now filled with classical details, such as columns and temples, and his figures are rich in dignity. But there is also a preference for strong movement and a new sense of drama that belongs to the new age. Works such as this, which fuse two diverse stylistic currents, are apt examples of baroque classicism.

Annibale's masterpiece is in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. He covered the ceiling of the great gallery with frescoes (1597-1604) that imitate framed easel paintings, bronze reliefs, marble statues, entablatures, balustrades, fruits, flowers, ox skulls, shells, masks—all crowding and overlapping one another in a kaleidoscopic display of lavishness that has few, if any, equals. Individual scenes, drawn from Greek and Roman mythology, are filled with the exuberant rhythms of Hellenistic sculpture. Many artists of the high baroque, among them Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Rubens, and Pietro da Cortona, turned for inspiration to this famous monument of 17th-century classicism.

Annibale's classicism is equally apparent in his landscapes. In his Flight into Egypt (ca. 1603) nothing is accidental. The eye is carried back into space along planes parallel to the surface. These are joined by connecting diagonals. A cluster of low stone buildings at the center of the picture intensifies the painting's underlying geometry. This is not ordinary nature but what is called paysage composé, or classical landscape, in which nature is shaped and modified by the hand and mind of man. Annibale's bold new concept of nature underlies the elaborations of Nicolas Poussin, which in turn provided a springboard for Camille Corot and Paul Cézanne.

In the last years of his life Annibale suffered a nervous collapse and, in the words of Bellori (1672), "was compelled to leave aside the brushes that melancholy had taken from his fingers." He must have suffered deeply, for his art was his whole life. "He was never avaricious or mean in regard to money," Bellori wrote. "Indeed, he appreciated it too little and kept it openly in his painting box so that anyone could dig their hand in it at will. He despised ostentation in people as well as in painting and sought the company of plain, ambitionless men. Thus he used to live shut up in his rooms with his pupils, spending hours at painting, which he was wont to call his lady." Annibale died in Rome on July 15, 1609.

Further Reading

Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750 (1958; 2d ed. 1965), and Ellis K. Waterhouse, Italian Baroque Painting (1962), contain excellent studies of the Carracci and their work. See also Giovanni P. Bellori's fundamental work, The Lives of Annibale and Agostino Carracci (1672; trans. 1968). □