Annibale Carracci Biography | Oil Paintings

Annibale Carracci, the greatest of a talented family which included his brother Agostino Carracci and his cousin Ludovico, Carracci was self-taught to some extent, although he was influenced by Antonio da Correggio and Raphael. The three Carraccis founded an academy of painting in Bologna in 1585 and exerted a tremendous influence on Baroque artists of the next generation, laying the foundations for the birth of Baroque painting.

In 1595 Annibale Carracci went to Rome, where he was employed by Cardinal Farnese in the decoration of his palace with a series of great frescoes whose motifs were derived from classical mythology, an achievement which is surpassed only by Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel. The long and exhausting job of decorating the Galleria Farnese represents the high point in this painter, the leading exponent of the Bologna School and founder of the Accademia Degli Incamminati. The grandiose hallmarks the end of the Italian Renaissance and the triumphant beginning of classicism as one of the main currents in European Baroque

Classicism Popularized with Annibale Carracci.

Carracci also produced many paintings of religious subjects, often placing the Madonna and saints in somewhat idealized classical landscapes. He thus combined the traditions of classicism with the advances in naturalism in the late sixteenth century. Classicism was popularized by the masters from the Emilia region of Italy, beginning with Annibale Carracci. It was then taken up by the French painters, becoming a major current in seventeenth-century painting. The classical style also gained ground thanks to the academies, where aspiring painters received a well-rounded education, acquiring specific technical knowledge as well as an eclectic cultural background. Annibale Carracci was one of the first Italian painters to paint a canvas wherein landscape took priority over figures.

Art Movement History: Baroque, Neoclassical.
Artists Influencing Carracci: Titian, Raphael, Correggio.
Painters Annibale Carracci Influenced: Domenichino, Francesco Albani, Giovanni Lanfranco, Domenico Viola, Guido Reni, Sisto Badalocchio, Claude Lorrain.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist.