(Two brothers, Agostino and Annibale, their cousin Ludovico and Agostino's natural son, Antonio)

At work in their homeland and in Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century and in the first decade of the eighteenth century. The Carracci are known for having wanted to make up for the exhausted formulary of the last mannerism going back to the great maestros of the sixteenth century's classicism, giving life, in the painting ambit, to the current that, in contraposition to the open-minded realism of Caravaggio, is usually defined as “classicizing”. To act their purpose, the Carracci founded (1582) in Bologna the Accademia dei Desiderosi (“ Academy of the Eager ” - later called of the Incamminati; “ the ones who have set off on their way ”), Ludovico undertook the direction of the same, while in it Annibale taught drawing and painting and Agostino, anatomy, perspective and architecture. The institutional ends of the Academy and the very work of the Carracci as painters for a long time were interpreted as a manifestation of eclecticism; actually this interpretation cannot be accepted, because the adhesion of the Carracci to a classicist poetic never resulted in a scholastic and academic imitation of the manners of the great maestros of the sixteenth century, from Raffaello to Michelangelo, from Tiziano to Correggio, nor did it do without a direct and fond observation of the world of nature. What's more: their classicism awakened by a cordial and sincere approach to reality, pointed at the expression of a world, ancient in its subjects and pretexts, but completely new in the spirit which animated it, a world capable of manifesting in its fullness the reality of past history as well as that of contemporary civilization and of interpreting its aspirations with a courtly and pompous decoration not oblivious of the ideals of beauty and dignity that had been typical of the Renaissance. In this sense the Carracci , or at least the most gifted among them and that is Annibale, stand against mannerism with a vigor equal to Caravaggio's, although in ways well different from his, and give way to two of the most significant artistic currents of the European seventeenth century: one, personified by Domenichino, Guido Reni, Albani, Poussin and Claude Lorrain, which developed their classical idealism; the other one, inspired to a magnificent decorative eloquence, that, through Lafranco and Pietro da Cortona would meet in Rubens. Nor the collaboration between the three older Carracci (Antonio, it's obvious, belongs to another generation), was limited to the activity unfolded in the ambit of the Academy; at least until Agostino and Annibale's departure for Rome, the three artists worked together, for instance in the fresco decoration of the Palazzi Fava (1584) and Magnani (1588-90) in Bologna. Yet, this community of attempts and works did not exhaust their activity, therefore an examination of their production allows us to express a different judgment on regards of the greater or lesser validity of the artistic personality of each of them.

Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 – Parma 1609) Works: storie di Ercole e Ulisse, decorative cycle organized in panels that illustrate mythological episodes among which the Trionfo di Bacco Arianna stands out. Palazzo Farnese, Rome ( iter 5 ). The canvas Ercole al bivio (Museo di Capo di Monte, Naples ) was also part of this decoration; Assunzione , cappella Cerasi di Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome (iter 7) . Decoration of the lunette in the chapel of Palazzo Aldobrandini (1603 – 1604) with Storie della Vergine , among which Fuga in Egitto , Rome , Galleria Doria Pamphili ( iter 1 – 7 ).

Agostino Carracci (Bologna 1557 – Parma 1602) At first he assisted P. Fontana's school, then B. Passerotti's, finally his cousin Ludovico's; he was started to engraving by D. Tibaldi and by the Flemish C. Cort. In 1581 he was in Parma , then in Venice where he engraved works by Paolo Veronese and Tintoretto; to the years 1589-90 belong the engravings for the Gerusalemme Liberata . In 1584, in partnership with his brother and his cousin, he directed the fresco decoration of Palazzo Fava with the Storie degli Argonauti , followed some years later by the Storie dell'Eneide , in the same palazzo, and of the fresco work in Palazzo Magnani with episodes of Romulus and Remus' legend. Of the three Carracci, Agostino was the least gifted, but by his very relatives he was recognized to be the most learned among them; it is therefore likely that the conceiving of the Storie degli Argonauti is to be credited to him, of these the Consegna del vello d'oro, Giasone che uccide il drago and a few others, are thought to be of his making. A series of altarpieces can be dated back to these years ( Comunione di S. Gerolamo e l'Assunzione della Vergine, both in Bologna , which are his most famous paintings; l' Ultima Cena , Prado; Cristo e l'adultera , Brera) in which it's easy to perceive a Venetian influence. In 1596 or 1597 he had to join Annibale for the works in Palazzo Farnese ( iter 5 ), where the panels with Galatea , Aurora and Cefalo are ascribed to him; yet in 1599 he was already back in Bologna, from where he was called to Parma (1600) for his last enterprise, that is the decoration of a small room in Palazzo del Giardino.