Agostino Carracci
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Pen and brown ink on laid paper
National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
Agostino Carracci (or Caracci) (August 16, 1557 - March 22, 1602) was an Italian painter and graphical artist. He was the brother of the more famous Annibale and cousin of Lodovico Carracci.
He posited the ideal in nature, and was the founder of the competing school to the more gritty (for lack of a better term) view of nature as expressed by Caravaggio. He was, along with his brothers, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati, which helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
[edit] Life
Agostino Carracci was born in Bologna, and trained at the workshop of the architect Domenico Tibaldi. Starting from 1574 he worked as engraver, copying works from 16th century masters such as Federico Barocci, Tintoretto, Antonio Campi, Veronese and Correggio.
He travelled to Venice (1582, 1587-1589) and Parma (1586-1587). Together with Annibale and Ludovico he worked in Bologna at the fresco cycles in Palazzo Fava (Histories of Jason and Medea, 1584) and Palazzo Magnani (Histories of Romulus, 1590-1592). In 1592 he also painted the Communion of St. Jerome, now housed in the Pinacoteca di Bologna and considered his masterwork. From 1586 is altarpiece with Madonna with Child and Saints, in the National Gallery of Parma.
In 1598 Carracci joined his brother Annibale in Rome, to collaborate at the decoration of the Gallery in Palazzo Farnese. From 1598-1600 is a triple Portrait, now in Naples, an example of genre painting.
In 1600 he was called to Parma by Duke Ranuccio I Farnese to began the decoration of the Palazzo del Giardino, but he died before it was finished.
Agostino's son Antonio Carracci was also a painter, and attempted to compete with his father's Academy.
[edit] Works
- Head of a Faun in a Concave (drawing in roundel, c. 1595, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)
- The Penitent Magdalen (Private collection)
- The Annunciation , Musée du Louvre, Paris [1]
- The Lamentation , Hermitage, St. Petersburg[2]
- Erotic work
