Agostino Carracci (or Caracci) (16 August 1557 – 22 March 1602) was an Italian

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother,

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of t ...

, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives) in Bologna. This teaching academy promoted the Carracci emphasized drawing from life. It promoted progressive tendencies in art and was a reaction to the Mannerist distortion of anatomy and space.Agostino Carracci
at Getty The academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.

Life

Agostino Carracci was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

as the son of a tailor. He was the elder brother of Annibale Carracci and the cousin of Ludovico Carracci. He initially trained as a goldsmith. He later studied painting, first with

Prospero Fontana Prospero Fontana (1512–1597) was a Bolognese painter of late Renaissance and Mannerist art. He is perhaps best known for his frescoes and architectural detailing. The speed in which he completed paintings earned him commissions where he work ...

, who had been Lodovico's master, and later with

Bartolomeo Passarotti Bartolomeo Passarotti or Passerotti (1529–1592) was an Italian painter of the mannerist period, who worked mainly in his native Bologna. His family name is also spelled Passerotti or Passarotto. Life and work From approximately 1550 to 1555, ...

. He traveled to Parma to study the works of Correggio. Accompanied by his brother Annibale, he spent a long time in Venice, where he trained as an engraver under the renowned

Cornelis Cort Cornelis Cort (c. 1533 – c. 17 March 1578) was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as ''Cornelio Fiammingo''. Biography Born in Hoorn or Edam, Cort may have been a pupil of ...

.Carracci
at the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' Starting from 1574 he worked as a reproductive engraver, copying works of 16th century masters such as Federico Barocci,

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed wit ...

Antonio Campi Antonio Campi (c. 1522 – 1587) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was born in Cremona. His style merges Lombard with Mannerist styles. In Cremona, his extended family was the foundation of the Cremonese school of painting. Gi ...

, Veronese and Correggio. He also produced some original prints, including two etchings. He traveled to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

(1582, 1587–1589) and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

(1586–1587). Together with Annibale and Ludovico he worked in Bologna on 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 in the

Pinacoteca di Bologna The National Art Gallery of Bologna (''Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna'') is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses th ...

and considered his masterwork. In 1620,

Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Biography Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the ho ...

, a pupil of the Carracci, famously accused another Carracci student,

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoem ...

, of plagiarizing this painting. From 1586 is his altarpiece of the ''Madonna with Child and Saints'', in the National Gallery of

. In 1598 Carracci joined his brother Annibale in Rome, to collaborate on the decoration of the Gallery in Palazzo Farnese. From 1598 to 1600 is a ''triple Portrait'', now in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

, an example of genre painting. In 1600 he was called to Parma by Duke Ranuccio I Farnese to begin the decoration of the Palazzo del Giardino, but he died before it was finished. His friend the poet

Claudio Achillini Claudio Achillini (''Latin'' Claudius Achillinus; 18 September 1574 – 1 October 1640) was an Italian philosopher, theologian, mathematician, poet, and jurist. He is a major figure in the history of Italian Baroque poetry. Biography Born in B ...

dedicated to him an

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

after his death, later published by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in the life of the Carracci. Agostino's son Antonio Carracci was also a painter, and attempted to compete with his father's Academy. An engraving by Agostino Carraci after the painting ''Love in the Golden Age'' by the 16th-century Flemish painter Paolo Fiammingo was the inspiration for

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...

's '' Le bonheur de vivre'' (Joy of Life).

Works

''Oil on canvas unless otherwise noted'' * 1573 – ''Pietà'' (

Muscarelle Museum of Art The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a por ...

, Williamsburg, Virginia) * 1586 – '' Madonna and Child with Saints'' ( Galleria nazionale di Parma) * c.1586 – ''Lamentation'' or ''Pietà'' (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) * c.1589–1595 – ''Reciprico Amore'' (engraving, Baltimore Museum of Art) * c.1590 – ''Annunciation'' (Musée du Louvre, Paris) * 1590–1595 – '' Portrait of a Woman as Judith'' (private collection) * c. 1592–1593 – ''Assumption'' (Ss. Salvatore church, Bologna) * 1592–1597 – '' The Last Communion of Saint Jerome'' ( Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna) * c.1595 – ''Head of a Faun in a Concave'' (drawing in roundel, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC) * 1598–1600 – '' Triple Portrait of Arrigo, Pietro and Amon'' ( National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples)

Fresco collaborations with Annibale and Ludovico

*'' Life of Aeneas'' ( Palazzo Fava, Bologna) *''

Lives of Jason and Medea Lives may refer to: * The plural form of a ''life'' * Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * The number of lives in a video game * ''Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous me ...

'' (Palazzo Fava, Bologna) *''

Scenes from the Foundation of Rome Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers * The Scene who recor ...

'' ( Palazzo Magnani, Bologna) *'' Life of Hercules'' ( Palazzo Sampieri Talon, Bologna)

Undated

* ''The Penitent Magdalen'' (private collection) * Carracci's erotic work (prints)

References

External links