Agostino Carracci
(1557 - 1602) |
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Fresco Commissions Art Work
| Name: |
Agostino Carracci |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Bologna, Italy |
| Nationality: |
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| Birth: |
1557 |
| Death: |
1602 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Fresco Commissions |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
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Biography
| Brother of Annibale and cousin of Ludovico,Agostino joined them in co founding the famed Carracci Academy, which they named Accademia degli Incamminati,the Academy of the "Progressives" around 1585. Looking to Venetian Renaissance painters,Veronese, and Titian especially, as well as to Correggio and Federigo Barocci, the Carracci Academy not only broke Bolognese painting free from prevailing mannerist traditions but also laid the foundations for the so called grand manner soon favored in Rome and adopted throughout Europe. The Carracci established Bologna as the leading Italian artistic center that dominated Italian painting until the end of the seventeenth century. Literary, philosophical, and probably the best teacher in the group, Agostino was devoted to empirical knowledge, as his many surviving model studies, sculpted studies, cadaver dissections, and exhaustive drawn preparations testify. More printmaker than painter, Agostino had a career that is difficult to reconstruct owing to the absence of dates and documents. His successive training with Prospero Fontana, Bartolomeo Passarotti known for his model and anatomical studies, Domenico Tibaldi the engraver, and Alessandro Menganti the sculptor, as reported by various contemporary sources, is generally accepted by scholars. His numerous engravings dated from 1574 on trace his interest in various other masters. Around 1580 or so Agostino likely accompanied his brother Annibale to Venice and Parma, and in 1581 he probably made a trip to Rome. In 1582 he was certainly in Venice once more. Agostino's development (and that of the other Carracci) remains a matter of scholarly dispute, although recent publications affirm that their styles were fundamentally formed by the time of their joint collaboration (together with their first crop of students) on the Jason cycle in the Palazzo Fava, Bologna, completed in 1584. Agostino is credited with The Meeting of Jason and Pelias, The Taking of the Golden Fleece, and Jason Giving the Golden Fleece to Pelias. Agostino's careful arrangement of his figures and their gestures, his interest in clearly defined forms, and the evocative potential of landscape (a lesson learned from Titian) which characterizes his later style, are already evident here. In 1585 he was in Venice, from 1586 to 1587 in Parma, and from 1587 to 1589 he was once more in Venice primarily producing engravings. In between trips Bologna remained his residence. Agostino's participation in the fresco decoration of the Story of the Founding of Rome (Bologna, Palazzo Magnani) is arguably smaller than his contribution to the Fava frescoes. Begun in 1588 and completed in 1591, the fresco has only two panels in which Agostino's hand is generally thought to be evident. Yet recent scholarship points to the mature classicism, vibrant brushwork, and sculptural clarity of these pictures. In 1592 Agostino contributed a massive-looking Pluto to the ceiling of the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara (Modena, Galleria Estense). Around the same time, or perhaps a year earlier (1590/92), Agostino began what became his most celebrated easel painting, Last Communion of St. Jerome (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale). Its dignified regularity, massive, and carefully ordered figures, rationally conceived space, and evocative lighting epitomize the grand and serious effects Agostino achieved by brilliantly absorbing the lessons of his beloved Titian, Correggio, and Barocci. Much admired by painters including Rubens* and Poussin* as well as by contemporary theorists, the painting balances systematic rigor with palpable emotion. Domenicnino* honored it when he treated the same subject, while Antonio (Agostino's son) is credited with the copy that is now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. In 1594 Agostino joined Annibale in Rome at the request of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. Agostino contributed to the preliminary planning of the Farnese project, but he was there only briefly. He was back in Bologna that year to complete the overmantels for the ceiling of the Palazzo Sampieri (with the story of Hercules), as well as the overdoors painted for the same palace and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Although the chronology of his pictures up to 1598 is hard to pinpoint, we know he produced the Last Supper (Madrid, Prado) and the Christ and the Adulteress (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera) before then. Combining his love of the evocative poetic effects learned from the Venetians with a palpable sculptural sense, the paintings from this phase in Agostino's career are considered his finest. By 1597 Agostino was in Parma, working for Ranuccio Farnese. His portrait of the Duke is now lost, but his gifts in that vein can be gleaned from Portrait ofGiovanna Parolini Guicciardini (signed and dated 1598, Berlin, Dahlem Museum, GemSldegalerie). Direct, forthright, and uncompromising in its honesty, this likeness is extraordinary for its presence and is particularly unusual for its powerful presentation of a woman. Early in 1598 Agostino was back in Rome to assist Annibale, who had embarked on the fresco for the grand gallery. Collaborating on the overall design, Agostino is also credited with painting Cephalus and Aurora as well as Galatea on his own. Here his response to Raphael and classicism are evident. Biographers tell us the two artists soon disagreed. Agostino left in 1599 and was once more employed by the Farnese Duke, painting a hall in the Palazzo del Giardino, a project abruptly halted by his sudden death in 1602. His hand has been found in such elements as the three Amorini, Venus and Mars. Agostino's death has been credited to the ill effects suffered from being caught in the crush of people at a theater performance in Parma. During the funeral oration, Agostino's knowledge of music, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy was praised and his excellent memory was celebrated. Agostino's assistants included his son Antonio, as well as Lanfranco* and Sisto Badalocchio* who moved on to work with Annibale in Rome after Agostino's death. |
Samples of Work
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