Annibale Carracci

The Carracci Family
	Agostino Carracci • Annibale Carracci • Antonio Marziale Carracci • Francesco Carracci • Lodovico Carracci

Annibale Carracci (b.Bologna, 3 November, 1560; † Rome, 15 July, 1609) was a painter, etcher and engraver, and brother of Agostino Carracci. The boy's father, after much persuasion by Lodovico Carracci an uncle, was induced to let Annibale study painting instead of learning the trade of tailor, and Lodovico became his first teacher. After a visit to Parma and a study of the masters in that city, Annibale accompanied his brother Agostino to Venice and worked with him there. He returned to Bologna in 1589, and with his uncle and brother opened the Academy of the Incamminati or Desiderosi, called later the "School of the Eclectics" and the "School of the Carracci", whose object was to "revive" art. In 1600 Annibale went to Rome, whither Cardinal Odoardo Farnese had invited him, to decorate the splendid Farnese Palace. This was his greatest achievement, and up to and through Sir Joshua Reynolds's time Annibale was ranked with Raphael. Poussin says of the Farnese decorations, "in them he surpassed every artist who preceded him". Agostino assisted him in this work but left before a year was over, either from Annibale's jealousy, as some assert, or because of the latter's quarrelsome disposition. In any event, Annibale stands as the most distinguished of the five Carracci, and in perfection of drawing, delicacy of colour, and grace in modeling closely approaches the old masters. "The Three Maries" is his finest easel picture, and both in feeling and handling is beautiful and impressive. Although a founder of the Desiderosi, his landscapes possess great charm even as backgrounds, and, what was unusual then, he painted landscapes where figures were but accessories, and also worked in genre. His etchings and engravings, however, are much inferior to his paintings, and, compared with Agostino's work with the graver, conventional and amateurish. When Annibale died, his nephew Antonio, to whom he was benefactor, teacher, and friend, gave him a splendid burial in the Pantheon. Among his principal paintings are:

"The Three Maries" (Castle Howard, England)

"Holy Family" (Berlin); "Portrait of Himself" (Florence)

"La Vierge aux Cerises" (Paris); "Pietà" (St. Petersburg).

Of his engraved and etched plates the best is: "The Dead Christ in the Lap of the Virgin", called the "Caprarola Christ".