Ludovico (or
Lodovico)
Carracci (21 April 1555 – 13 November 1619) was an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, early-
BaroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
painter, etcher, and printmaker born in
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
.
Ludovico himself apprenticed under
Prospero FontanaProspero Fontana was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance.-Biography:Fontana was born in Bologna, and became a pupil of Innocenzo da Imola. He afterwards worked for Perin del Vaga in the Palazzo Doria in Genoa. Towards 1550, it is reported that Michelangelo introduced him to Pope Julius III...
in
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
and traveled to
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
,
ParmaParma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it. It is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, and
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
, before returning to his hometown. Along with his cousins
AnnibaleAnnibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
and
Agostino CarracciAgostino Carracci was an Italian painter and printmaker. He was the brother of the more famous Annibale and cousin of Lodovico Carracci....
, Ludovico in 1585 was a founder and director (
caposindaco) of the so-called
EclecticEclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style...
Academy of painting (also called the
Accademia degli Incamminati), which in reality was a studio with apprenticed assistants. This studio however propelled a number of Emilian artists to pre-eminence in Rome and elsewhere, and singularly helped encourage the so-called
Bolognese SchoolThe Bolognese School or the School of Bologna of painting flourished in Bologna, the capital of Emilia Romagna, between the 16th and 17th centuries in Italy, and rivalled Florence and Rome as the center of painting. Its most important representatives include the Carracci family, including Ludovico...
) of the late 16th century, which included
AlbaniFrancesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early years in Bologna:...
, Guercino,
SacchiAndrea Sacchi was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptors Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy, and the contemporary biographer Giovanni...
,
ReniGuido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
,
LanfrancoGiovanni Lanfranco 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 household of Count Orazio Scotti...
and
DomenichinoDomenico Zampieri was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School, or Carracci School, of painters.-Life:...
. The Carracci had their apprentice draw studies focused on observation of nature and natural poses, and use a bold scale in drawing figures. Ludovico specifically helped train
Giacomo CavedoneGiacomo Cavedone , was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School.He belonged to the generation of Carracci-inspired or trained painters that included Giovanni Andrea Donducci ; Alessandro Tiarini, Lucio Massari, Leonello Spada and Lorenzo Garbieri...
. The Carracci are credited with reinvigorating Italian art, specially fresco art, which was subsumed with formalistic
MannerismMannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
.
Carracci's own works are characterized by a strong mood invoked by broad gestures and flickering light that create spiritual emotion.
Ludovico Carracci died in Bologna in 1619.
Further reading
- Babette Bohn Ludovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing Brepols 2004
- Allessandro Brogi Ludovico Carracci Bologna 2001
- Andrea Emiliani (ed.) Ludovico Carracci exh. cat. Bologna-FortWorth 1994 (with Essay and catalogue by Gail Feigenbaum)
External links