Annibale Carracci

Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna in 1560. He founded the Academia degli Incamminati, with Agostino and Ludovico (his brother and cousin). His first works are very realistic paintings of subjects such as “Bottega del macellaio” (the butcher’s) and the “Mangia fagioli” (the bean-eater). He also executed the Portrait of a Musician in the Naples National Gallery and two self-portraits, (now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Brera Picture Gallery).
His first works, executed between 1583 and 1586, when he travelled to Tuscany and Venice, include: Baptism of Christ (where the influence of Correggio’s painting is clear), Madonna and Saints, Wedding of St Catherine, Assumption of the Virgin. All these works have high chromatic qualities.
Between 1588 and 1590Annibale Carracci worked with Agostino and Ludovico on the frescos of palazzo Magnani in Bologna. In 1595 he was summoned to Rome by Odoardo Farnese for the decoration of the chamber in Palazzo Farnese with the stories of Hercules and Ulysses. The decoration is divided into separate paintings with mythological stories; the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne is the best. Part of the decoration was the canvas Hercules at the crossroads, now in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. He worked on the chamber from 1597 to 1602; at the same time he also executed the Nativity of the Virgin (now in the Louvre), the Pietà (Museum Nazionale of Naples), Assumption (in the Cerasi chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome).Between 1603 the 1604 he decorated the lunettes in the chapel of palazzo Aldobrandini with Stories of the Virgin, including the beautiful Flight into Egypt, where the main subject is the landscape. The painting is currently in Rome, in the Doria Pamphili Gallery. Other important works are: the Madonna (known as Madonna of Silence) painted between 1598 and 1600 (now in London), St John in the desert, painted between 1598 and 1601 (London National Gallery), the Samaritan Woman at the well and the Pietà, dated approximately to 1603 (Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum), the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian (dated approximately to 1604, Luovre, Paris).
Annibale Carracci died in Rome in 1609.