2 - Carracci

1. Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio

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2. Annibale Carracci as the new Raphael

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3. Caravaggio as the new Michelangelo

3

4. The Carracci Academy, notable pupils

Guido Reni
Guercino
Domenichino
Giovanni Lanfranco
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5. Bologna

Bologna, a walled medieval city, that was
part of the Papal States and governed by a
Senate with close political ties to Rome
5

6. Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597), Archbishop of Bologna

•“Everyday one sees, especially in the churches,
pictures so obscure and ambiguous that while they
should, by illuminating the intellect, encourage
devotion and touch the heart, their obscurity
confounds the mind, distracting it in a thousand
ways, and keeping it occupied in trying to decide
which figure is what”.
https://books.google.it/books/about/Discorso_i
ntorno_alle_imagini_sacre_et_p.html?id=EiNW
SFWRfjgC&redir_esc=y
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7. Demand for Clarity: Display of artifice, distortion and virtuosity was blamed

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8.

https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=7Hc08dgjLr
M
8

9.

Unclear subjects
Non-naturalistic poses
Artificial colors
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10. Michelangelo, The Last Judgement, Sistine Chapel (1535-1541)

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11. Giovanni Andrea Gilio (1564)

1564: Michelangelo died
In 1564 Gilio published his treatise.
Gilio’s Two Dialogues was one of
the first substantial texts on the arts
to spell out what the Decrees of the
Council of Trent might mean in
practice.
11

12. Giovanni Andrea Gilio (1564)

For Gilio:
This kind of painting was not mere ornament or diversion, but an
instrument for making the truth visible.
It had to be clear, easy to understand by both the learned and the unlearned
and could not deviate in any particular form from authoritative texts or
established pictorial conventions (decorum).
Michelangelo erred greatly, according to Gilio, by incorporating such
figures as Minos and Charon, inventions that came from the poets Dante
and Virgil, rather than from scriptural sources.
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13. Decorum and the Demand for Clarity

To paint subjects derived from Holy Scriptures simply and purely
Charon
Minos
13

14. Giovanni Andrea Gilio (1564)

According to Gilio
Michelangelo emphasized the display of his art (artistic
freedom) over scriptural truth, leading him to
unacceptable innovations, for example, showing Christ
beardless and angels without wings.
Angels must have wings! saints must have halos and
their particular attributes (or have their names written
below)!
Particularly scandalous were the nudities of all the
figures, which evoked the sensuality of Pagan art.
14

15. Daniele da Volterra «the braghettone or the breeches maker” (1564)

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16. Demand for Clarity: Display of artifice, distortion and virtuosity was blamed

In the introduction of his volume, Gilio
asserted that:
“Modern painters today, when they have
to make some work, have, as their first
intent, to twist the heads, the arms, or the
legs of their figures”. Such artists, he
worried, “think little about the subject of
their story, if they consider it at all”.
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17. Demand for Clarity: Display of artifice, distortion and virtuosity was blamed

The variety of poses were judged
suitable for laborers in the marketplace
or for performers at a fairground, but
NOT for the protagonists of sacred
history and not for such dignified setting
(for instance Michelangelo’s Sistine
Chapel, or Bronzino’s fresco for the
Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence,
1565-69)
17

18. Paolo Veronese, The Last Supper (formerly), 1573, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia

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19. The Last Supper

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20. Paolo Veronese, The Last Supper, 1573, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia

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21. Paolo Veronese, The Last Supper, 1573, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia

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22. Paolo Veronese, The Last Supper, 1573, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia

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23.

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24. Gabriele Paleotti, 1582

•“Everyday one sees, especially in the churches,
pictures so obscure and ambiguous that while they
should, by illuminating the intellect, encourage
devotion and touch the heart, their obscurity
confounds the mind, distracting it in a thousand
ways, and keeping it occupied in trying to decide
which figure is what”.
Paleotti summed up the duties of a good Catholic
artist in three Latin words:
Docère (to teach)
Delectare (to delight)
Movère (to move)
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25. St Jerome

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26. St Mary Magdalene

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27. St Sebastian

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28. Bologna

Bologna, a walled medieval city, that was
part of the Papal States and governed by a
Senate with close political ties to Rome
28

29. Ulisse Aldrovandi

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30. Ulisse Aldrovandi

https://amshistorica.unibo.it/aldrovandimanoscritti
https://amshistorica.unibo.it/ulissealdrovandiopereastampa
30

31. Annibale Carracci (Bologna1560- Rome 1609)

Giulio Mancini wrote about Annibale Carracci:
"He was a universal painter, sacred and profane,
ridiculous and serious ... a real painter".
•Annibale was probably pupil of Bartolomeo
Passerotti.
•Scholars maintain that Annibale soon reacted
against his master Bartolomeo Passerotti and his
Mannerism, developing an unmannered,
naturalistic style establishing a radical,
independent workshop and academy together
with his cousin Ludovico and his brother
Agostino.
31

32. The Carracci Academy, Bologna ca. 1582

•The three Carracci founded an Academy in ca.
1582
•The Carracci enterprise was unusual in Bologna
in being a family workshop formed not by
fathers and sons, but by three men very close in
age.
From left to right, Annibale, Ludovico and
Agostino Carracci
•The Academy viewed learning as the artist's
lifelong pursuit. The name of the Carracci
Academy was that of the “Accademia degli
Incamminati”, which means the “Academy of
Those who are Making Progress” or the
“Academy of the Journeying”.
•One perhaps surprising feature of the Academy
is that so many of its members came not as
young boys, but as adults, and many had already
been trained under other artists.
32

33. The Carracci Academy, Bologna ca. 1582

CONTENTIONE PERFECTUS (perfected through striving)
The Ursa Maior: The constellation that never sets; forever pointing
towards the polestar; the travellers’ beacon (point of reference)
Ursa Maior: Gran Carro: Carracci
33

34. The Carracci Academy, Bologna 1582 ca

The Carracci led their pupils in the study of
experimental drawing, caricature, landscape
painting, imitation, anatomy, perspective, and
artistic theory.
34

35. Annibale Carracci’s models

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36. Michelangelo

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37. The Carracci Academy, Bologna 1582 ca

According to biographer Carlo Cesare
Malvasia, the Academy of the Carracci was
filled with lively conversation and was eagerly
visited by aristocrats and learned men because
“there was always so much joking, wit, gossip,
and lively exchange that the difficulties of the
discipline seemed lightened by the constant
merriment”.
Annibale is considered as “the most
distinguished pictorial humorist of the late
Cinquecento, capable of caricature, satire, and
earthy wit.
In his drawing with a laughing sun, he turns the
very stuff of his practice, the light and shadow,
into a humorous, caricatured, personification.
37

38. Pier Francesco Mola

38

39. Gian Lorenzo Bernini

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40. Caricature

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41. Caricature

41

42.

Annibale Carracci, Annunciation, Windsor Castel, Royal
Library, 1580-1609
42

43.

Annibale Carracci, Annunciation, Windsor Castel, Royal
Library, 1580-1609
A compositional study in which the
angel of the Annunciation flies
through a window and is partly
hidden by the wall of the house; only
the pointing hand and the legs are
visible.
43

44.

Annibale Carracci, Annunciation, Windsor Castel, Royal
Library, 1580-1609
This apparently extravagant idea probably derives from
Tintoretto's Annunciation, in the lower hall of the Scuola di
San Rocco. Joseph works at the carpenter's bench outside
the house, while on the right, Mary is seen reacting to the
sudden presence as she sits within.
44

45. New Genres

It was in northern Europe that artists first began
to specialize in landscape. Their so-called world
landscapes (Weltlandschaft or Paesaggio del
mondo), which offered a God’s-eye view of the
earth—wide in scope and complete in detail—
were popular with Italian audiences.
Although northern landscapes prompted artists
such as Raphael to focus greater attention on
their own background settings, it was not until
the end of the sixteenth century that Italian
landscape came into its own. This was due, in
part, to the influence of the Carracci and their
renewed emphasis on the careful observation of
nature. Annibale Carracci’s river scene is among
the very first Italian landscape paintings.
45

46. Annibale Carracci’s Landscapes

Great emphasis was placed on the
study of nature, and students were
encouraged to practice drawing from
life.
46

47. Annibale Carracci’s Landscapes

Great emphasis was placed on the
study of nature, and students were
encouraged to practice drawing
from life.
47

48. Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, NGA, Washington D.C.

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49. Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, NGA, Washington D.C.

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art
-object-page.41673.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=aKyyxpzUIYk&t=294s
https://www.nga.gov/content/dam
/ngaweb/research/publications/pdf
s/italian-paintings-17th-and-18thcenturies.pdf
49

50. Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, NGA, Washington D.C.

It might be said that with paintings like this one, Annibale Carracci
invented the landscape as a subject for Italian baroque painting.
Nature here is appreciated first and foremost for herself and not as the
backdrop for a story. A mellow sunlight dapples the land and picks out
the ripples disturbing the surface of the river. The gold in the treetops
suggests a day in early autumn. Brightly clad in red and white, a
boatman poles his craft through the shallow water.
In the company of his brother Agostino and his cousin Lodovico
Carracci, Annibale made excursions into the country in order to sketch
the landscape. From these quick studies made on the spot he worked
up his paintings in the studio. The resulting composition is an artful
balancing of forms.
50

51. Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, NGA, Washington D.C.

The repoussoir device of the dark foreground plane defined by trees
enframes the scenes, which then recede in depth by means of
diminishing tonal gradations in zigzag patterns: brown and
yellowgreen earth tones in the foreground subside to lighter blues and
whites for the distant hills and plains.
In Bolognese palaces of the late sixteenth century landscapes appear
as decorative elements placed high on the walls; Posner has since
suggested that the River Landscape was intended as an overdoor.
51

52. New Genres

The late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the emergence of new types of painting in
Italy. For the first time since antiquity, landscape, still life, and genre pictures all became
established as independent subjects worthy of attention by the finest artists. Elements of
these had always been present in other kinds of pictures: landscape backdrops were
prominent, for example, in depictions of the Flight into Egypt and other religious subjects.
52

53. Lunette Aldobrandini

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54. Ludovico Carracci, Annunciation, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1584

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55. Ludovico Carracci, Annunciation, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1584

G. Mazzola Bedoli, Annunciation, Milano,
Ambrosiana, 1540
Ludovico Carracci, Annunciation, Bologna,
Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1584
55

56. Ludovico Carracci, Flagellation, Douai, Museo della Certosa, 1584-90

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57. Ludovico Carracci, Flagellation, Douai, Museo della Certosa, 1584-90

Denis Calvaert,
Flagellation, Bologna,
Pinacoteca Nazionale,
1575-80
Ludovico Carracci,
Flagellation, Douai, Museo
della Certosa, 1584-90
57

58. The Origins of the Carracci Family.

•The three Carracci did not come from
an artistic background. Antonio, the
father of Annibale and Agostino was a
tailor, while Vincenzo, Ludovico's
father, was a butcher.
Annibale appears to have remained
conscious of his relatively humble roots,
which perhaps explain the notable
empathy in his genre pictures and the
gentle humor of his depictions of
Bolognese street vendors.
58

59. The Butcher’s Shop, ca.1583, Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)

The Butcher’s Shop, ca.1583, Oxford, Christ
Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)
•The Butcher's shop is
unprecedentedly large for a
genre work.
• A Genre Painting is a
painting that shows scenes
of everyday life such as
markets, domestic settings,
interiors, parties, inn
scenes, and street scenes
59

60. The Butcher’s Shop by Pieter Aertsen; Vincenzo Campi; and Bartolomeo Passerotti

The butcher shop was unfrequently depicted.
It does exist in Flemish and northern Italian
painting of the latter half of the sixteenth
century.
60

61. Market scenes

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62. Market scenes

But why would an artist depict meat in
combination with a religious scene,
inverting the traditional hierarchies ?
This may be a comment on the arduous
nature of spirituality: those who truly seek
enlightenment must look hard, and turn
their attention away from the things of this
world.
62

63. Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca., Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)

Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca.,
Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)
•The coarse open
brushwork and the rich use
of red emphasizes the
carnal abundance of the
animal flesh on display.
•The butchers concentrate
on all aspects of their daily
trade from the slaughter of
animal to the hanging and
cutting up of meat, which is
then weighted for
customers.
63

64. Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca., Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)

Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca.,
Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)
64

65. Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca., Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)

Annibale Carracci, The Butcher’s Shop, 1580 ca.,
Oxford, Christ Church, 185 × 266 cm (73 × 105 in)
65

66. Annibale Carracci vs. Bartolomeo Passerotti

66

67. Bartolomeo Passerotti

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68. Annibale Carracci, The Bean Eater, ca. 1583-85, Rome, Galleria Colonna

Annibale Carracci, The Bean Eater, ca. 158385, Rome, Galleria Colonna
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69. Bartolomeo Pisanelli, Trattato della natura de cibi et del bere (Venice1584)

https://books.google.it/books?id=s2PxZ2npeeIC
&printsec=frontcover&dq=pisanelli+trattato+de
lla+natura&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil4PO
A3qrtAhWE26QKHQKuAg4Q6AEwAHoECA
IQAg#v=onepage&q=pisanelli%20trattato%20
della%20natura&f=false
About the appropriate food to be given to
different level of people in society
69

70. Annibale Carracci, The Bean Eater, ca. 1583-85, Rome, Galleria Colonna

Annibale Carracci, The Bean Eater, ca. 158385, Rome, Galleria Colonna
70

71. Annibale Carracci, The Bean Eater, ca. 1583-85, Rome, Galleria Colonna (left); Vincenzo Campi (right)

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72. Annibale Carracci vs. Vincenzo Campi

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73. Annibale Carracci; Vincenzo Campi

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74. Annibale Carracci and Bartolomeo Passerotti

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75. Annibale Carracci, Crucifixion, 1583, Bologna (formerly, San Niccolò), Santa Maria della Carità

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76. Donatello’s Crucifix in Santa Croce, Florence, c. 1408 (left)

76

77. Annibale Carracci vs. Bartolomeo Passerotti

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78. Annibale Carracci

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79. Annibale Carracci, The Baptism of Christ, 1585, Bologna, Church of San Gregorio

•We can see a far more complex composition, with
a deeper sense of space and of the landscape
setting.
•His figure types have changed: they are less stocky
and his approach to color has become more
sophisticated. These changes have been attributed
to the influence of the painter Correggio
79

80. Annibale Carracci, The Baptism of Christ, 1585, Bologna, Church of San Gregorio

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81. Annibale Carracci and the influence of Antonio Allegri il Correggio

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82. Annibale Carracci, The Baptism of Christ, 1585, Bologna, Church of San Gregorio

82

83. Annibale Carracci, The Pietà with Saints, 1585, Parma, Galleria Nazionale

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84. Annibale Carracci; Correggio

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85. Annibale Carracci

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86. Annibale Carracci, St. Roch giving the alms, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, 1595

86

87. Annibale Carracci

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88. Annibale Carracci, St. Roch giving alms, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie (331 x 477 cm), 1595

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89. Annibale Carracci; Domenichino

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90. Annibale Carracci moved to Rome in 1594

• Annibale Carracci was invited to work in Rome
by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese
•“Messer Annibale has only ten scudi di moneta a
month, and portions for himself and a servant and a
little room up in the roof, and he works and pulls a
cart all day like a horse and he does loggias, rooms,
and solons, paintings and altarpieces and works
worth a thousand scudi. He struggles and is worn
out, and he has little taste for such servitude”.
90

91. Il Camerino di Ercole, Palazzo Farnese

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92. Il Camerino di Ercole, Palazzo Farnese

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93. Il Camerino di Ercole, Palazzo Farnese

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94. The Farnese Gallery 1597-1604

•Decoration began with the vault,
which bears the date of 1600,
commemorating the marriage in that
year of Ranuccio Farnese and
Margherita Aldobrandini.
•Shortly afterward the scaffolding was
dismantled and stucco workers began
the ornamentation of the lower walls.
By 1603 Annibale, with the help of his
collaborators (Domenichino and
Lanfranco, trained in the Carracci
Academy) was at work on the frescoes
on the walls.
94

95. The Farnese Gallery 1597-1604

•https://www.gettyimages.it/immagine/
restoration-of-the-gallery-of-thepalacefarnese?mediatype=photography&phra
se=restoration%20of%20the%20galler
y%20of%20the%20palace%20farnese
&sort=mostpopular
95

96. The Farnese Gallery 1597-1604

•https://www.gettyimages.it/immagine/
restoration-of-the-gallery-of-thepalacefarnese?mediatype=photography&phra
se=restoration%20of%20the%20galler
y%20of%20the%20palace%20farnese
&sort=mostpopular
96

97. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

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98. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

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99. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

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100. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

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101. The Sistine Chapel, 1508-12

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102. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

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103. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

The Gallery’s frescoes represents the
culmination of Annibale’s response to the
Roman art of antiquity and that of the High
Renaissance. The structure of the Sistine
Chapel ceiling contributes to the overall
layout of the Gallery, as well as providing
many of the decorative elements, notably
the ignudi, and the bronze medallions.
103

104. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

• The narrative scenes, many set in
heavy gold frames, are surrounded by a
complex decorative system which
draws on the conventions of Roman
traditions.
• The narratives are surrounded by a
lavish ensamble of fictive stone terms,
garlands, shell motifs and feigned
bronze medallions with a bluish-green
patina which contain mythological
narratives.
104

105. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

Michelangelo
Annibale Carracci
Herms
105

106. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

106

107. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

107

108. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

108

109. Raphael, The Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, Rome, Villa Chigi, ante 1519

109

110. Roman sarcophagus

110

111. The Galleria Farnese, 1597-1604

111

112. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

• The techniques of the new optical
illusionism, the study of natural and
artificial effects of light, color,
atmosphere, and the anatomy, all found
their greatest fulfillment.
• Annibale was responsible for the
restoration of Roman painting after a
period of almost unbelievable decline.
• He established new conventions in
painting and with them the creation of
a new style that was to dominate art for
succeeding generations.
112

113. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

• Annibale seamlessly weaves together a number of
different decorative systems: one is the trio of
narratives in the center of the vault. Whose
principal viewpoint is facing the ceremonial
entrance to the Gallery in the center of one of the
long walls.
113

114. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

The friezes on the long and short walls
have their own separate illusionistic
logics and they are intended to be seen
from differing positions.
The friezes of the long walls are
orizontally oriented.
The short walls have vertical
orientation.
The beholder changes direction
continuously. The decoration
encourages great movement.
The central parts of the friezes are
dominated by a single «quadro 114
riportato».

115. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

This kind of illusionism is called
Quadro riportato meaning
“transported picture”.
It is a term used in art to describe
gold-framed easel paintings or framed
paintings that are seen in a normal
perspective and painted into fresco.
The ceiling intended to look as if a
framed painting has been placed
overhead. There is no illusionistic
foreshortening and the figures appear
as if they were to be viewed at normal
eye level.
115

116. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

This kind of illusionism is called Quadro
riportato meaning “transported picture”.
By an ingenious sleight-of-hand Annibale
joints the two frieze systems through the
device of herms embracing across space
which opens out to the sky beyond a
balustrade on which pairs of putti
struggle with each others
116

117. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

By an ingenious sleight-of-hand Annibale
joints the two frieze systems through the
device of herms embracing across space
which opens out to the sky beyond a
balustrade on which pairs of putti
struggle with each others
117

118. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

This kind of illusionism is called
Quadro riportato meaning
“transported picture”.
118

119. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

This kind of illusionism is called
Quadro riportato meaning
“transported picture”.
119

120. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

Annibale’s illusionism is achieved
by convincingly combining
multiple levels of reality.
Unlike Late Mannerism, Annibale
does not draw attention to the
paradoxes of his illusionism.
His deception of the eyes is entirely
believable as well as delightful.
The mood is light with a lot of
visual jokes
120

121. The Galleria Farnese 1597-1604

The mood is light with a lot of visual jokes: stone herms with broken limbs; some are
engaged in conversations. The masks are caricatures and they respond to the events
represented with expression of joy or disbelief.
121

122. Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni

•Annibale’s Galleria opened up a new
chapter in the history of Italian ceiling
decoration.
•It can be seen as the last truly
Renaissance masterpiece for it openly
emulated literary and visual models from
antiquity while transforming them with
the artist’s passionate study of real life
and the finest art of preceding century.
•It has also been called the first Baroque
ceiling decoration: no one in fact
undertook such commissions after 1600
without studying Annibale’s fresco
carefully. And this is the case with Guido
Reni’s fresco of the Aurora in the Casino
Pallavicini in Rome
122

123. Annibale Carracci

123

124. Annibale Carracci

124