Tuesday 28 March 2023

Annibale Carracci - part 6

"Neither clean nor well-dressed, with his collar askew, his hat jammed on any old way and his unkempt beard, Annibale Carracci seemed to be like an ancient philosopher, absent-minded and alone," wrote an early biographer. A tailor's son, Carracci considered himself a craftsman, not a courtier, but the Romans buried him in the Pantheon beside Raphael.

Along with his older brother Agostino and his cousin Lodovico, Annibale founded the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives) in Bologna, which focused on naturalism and rejected Mannerism. There they revived the practice of working from life, focusing on the craft of art rather than the elegant life of court painters. The Carracci were tireless observers. Scholars credit Annibale with teaching caricature and helping to revive the process of creating extensive preparatory drawings for paintings.

Between 1597 and 1601, Carracci worked on the gallery ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, his most important legacy. Conceiving the ceiling as open to the sky, he painted its mythological love scenes as framed easel pictures within an illusionistic framework. After receiving a paltry five hundred lire for this extensive decoration, he suffered a breakdown. A prolific draftsman, Carracci derived his heroic figure style from antique sculpture and Michelangelo and Raphael's art, but he added a richness and buoyancy from his copious studies from life. He originated the "ideal landscape," with figures, buildings, and nature in perfect balance, a nature tamed and ennobled by man's presence.

J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles


This is part 6 of a 6-part series on the works of Annibale Carracci.


Note: The remainder of works in this series are not dated but are all before 1609:


Portrait of a bearded Man
oil on paper, laid down on panel
(size not given, auction house)

Portrait of a Man, bust-length, in a ruff
oil on canvas 43.2 x 35.9 cm
(auction house)

Portrait of a young Girl
oil on paper, laid down on canvas 37.5 x 27.5 cm
(auction house)

Portrait of a Young Man in profile
red chalk on paper 32.3 x 26.3 cm
(auction house)

River Landscape
 brown ink on cream antique laid paper 12.4 x 18.9 cm
Harvard Art Museums-Fogg Museum, MA
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Saint Francis in a Swoon
oil on wood panel 48.5 x 35 cm
Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK

Saint Roch and the Angel
oil on canvas 81.3 x 62.2 cm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

Self-Portrait?
pen and brown ink, in a double inscribed oval 12 x 9 cm
(auction house)

Sketch of a Man carrying a Bell
details not given (ink on paper?)
The Royal Collection Trust, UK

St. Catherine of Alexandria
pen and brown ink and grey wash, squared in black chalk
14 x 8.9 cm
(auction house)

Study of the legs of a reclining Putto
red chalk on paper 10.8 x 19.7 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

Study of a Monk
red chalk on paper slightly toned with pink-red chalk
 19.7 x 14.4 cm
(auction house)

Study of a Man in a Cloak
pen and iron-gall ink and wash over black chalk with later grey wash 32 x 14 cm (sheet)
 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Study of a Head
black chalk heightened with white chalk on grey paper
20.1 x 27.5 cm
(auction house)

Study for the figures of Mars and Venus
details not given (pen, ink and wash?)
The Royal Collection Trust, UK

Study for Apostles at the Tomb
black chalk on blue antique laid paper 34.5 x 23.5 cm
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, MA
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Study for an Ignudo
black and white chalk on grey-blue paper
(size not given, auction house)

Study after etching of the Pietà (the 'Christ of Caprarola')
pen and brown ink on paper 14.2 x 15.1 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

Studies of a Boy and a Girl
red chalk, highlighted with white chalk, on beige paper
22.9 x 32.1 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

St. Jerome writing (attributed to Carracci)
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on tan laid paper
15.8 x 21.9 cm
Princeton University Art Museum, NJ

Susanna and the Elders
pen and brown ink, with brown wash on paper 15.5 x 21.8 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

Susanna and the Old Men
engraving, line etching on paper (size not given)
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki

The Adoration of the Shepherds
oil on canvas 103 x 85 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, France
 

The Head of a Boy
red chalk on tan antique laid paper 27.1 x 20.7 cm
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, MA Photo
© President and Fellows of Harvard College

The Head of a Woman
black and white chalk on blue paper 36.2 x 26.3 cm
(auction house)

The Infant Hercules
oil on copper 20.3 x 15.6 cm
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, UK

The Return from the Flight into Egypt
oil on canvas 66 x 88.6 cm
(auction house)

The Return from the Presentation in the Temple
 pen and brown ink with grey-brown wash on paper
 40.4 x 28 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

The Virgin and Child resting outside a City Gate
pen and brown ink, brush with traces of brown wash, on light brown beige paper 18.8 x 21.6 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Vision of Saint Eustace
oil on canvas 86 x 113 cm
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Two Children Teasing a Cat
oil on canvas 66 x 88.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Entombment of Christ
oil? on wood panel 45 x 35 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

A Girl with a Unicorn
etching 4,6 x 18.8 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 20.5 x 15.4 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 20.5 x 15.5 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 20.7 x 15.7 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 20.9 x 15.8 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 25.4 x 13.1 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 26.1 x 13.2 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 26.3 x 13.5 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 26.7 x 14.1 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 27.7 x 16 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 27.8 x 14.4 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 28.5 x 15.3 cm cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

Design for Domenichino
etching 28.8 x 15.1 cm (image)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA


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