The Inventive Genius of Annibale Carracci
Diane De Grazia   page 2 of 6

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fig. 1.  Bean Eater, Galleria Colonna, Rome In 1580 Annibale set out on a study trip, identified later as the studioso corso,4 encouraged by his cousin Ludovico, who had earlier undertaken a similar study voyage to Florence and elsewhere. Annibale ventured first to Parma to study and copy Correggio's frescoes, and then to Venice to join his brother Agostino to experience the paintings of Titian firsthand.5 It was, and still is, important for an artist's training to copy the works of the masters to understand their styles and methods. In addition, young artists often made a living by making copies of famous artists' masterpieces either on commission or on speculation. While in Parma, Annibale copied parts of Correggio's ceiling fresco in the cupola of the Duomo for a friend of the family.6 At this age the young artist admired Correggio's work over anything else, even Raphael's, and his drawings and paintings of the mid-1580s attest to this devotion. It was not just the color, the grace, the tenderness, the clarity, the purity, the lack of artificiality, and the "reality" of Correggio's forms that attracted Annibale (although he lovingly noted these characteristics), but that his "thoughts were his own, his conceptions as well, that one can see he got from his own head, and invented by himself, contenting himself only with original work: the others all rely on something not of their doing, either models, statues, or paper [drawings]."7 If Annibale copied works by Correggio on commission and looked to his hero for inspiration, he certainly understood at this stage of his career that invention and originality were more important than reliance on another artist's ideas. In fact, both A Man Weighing Meat and the Boy Taking off a Sock depend on Correggio only for the manner of draftsmanship: the singular hatching, rubbing of the chalk, and the softly rendered contours that suggest a hazy atmosphere are based on Correggio's manner. The models themselves could not be farther from Correggio's vision. Instead of angelic, purified forms, these figures come from nature; they are solely Annibale's invention. His originality here lay in his portrayal of his subjects in everyday attitudes in the performance of everyday tasks.

fig. 2.  Boy Eating, Uffizi, Florence The contribution of Annibale's earliest known works to the history of art comes directly from this portrayal of everyday life. At a time when the church was seeking institutional reform and attempting to bring its teachings to its wayward and illiterate members, artists were seeking a way to make art more understandable to their audiences. Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, the Bolognese bishop who wrote the Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane as a guide for artists to educate the masses, may have had an influence on Annibale's interest in making his art credible.8 The Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, a friend of Annibale's brother Agostino,9 compiled an encyclopedia of natural history and believed in observation and experiment in the study of nature. In his direct imitation of nature, Annibale could not have been immune to Aldrovandi's studies nor to those of other scientists at the University of Bologna, one of the oldest and most active universities in Europe. One can imagine the lively discussions on nature and art that must have taken place in the rooms of the fledgling Accademia degli Incamminati, established by the Carracci in 1582.

Annibale's early paintings, such as the Butcher Shop (Oxford, Christ Church), the Bean Eater (fig. 1), and the Crucifixion with Saints (Bologna, Santa Maria della Carità), are uncompromising in their search for the natural and believable.10 His drawings of these years reveal also the intense study Annibale made of his fellow man at work and at play either in preparation for his paintings or simply as experimentation and practice. The drawing of the Boy Eating (fig. 2) and the various painted versions of the Boy Drinking by Annibale and members of his academy11 indicate the intense interest in experimentation of scientific principles to record nature in its true form. In the drawing of the Boy Eating, the artist played with different perspective views of his subject. The boy's face is seen convincingly from below as his head tilts back, and the plates, pitcher, and glass are seen slightly from above as if the viewer is seated across the table. These early genre drawings and pictures reflect Annibale's connection with the Bolognese and Cremonese artists who were experimenting with similar subject matter, which had originated in the Netherlands in the mid-sixteenth century. Vincenzo Campi in Cremona and Bartolommeo Passarotti in Bologna were masters of the low-life genre scene, made popular in both northern and southern Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century. (Annibale may even have trained under Passarotti.) Their purpose, however, differed from that of Annibale. Whereas they imposed a point of view on the content of their compositions, exaggerating the burlesque qualities of their subjects, Annibale presented people as he saw them, without any moralizing comment.12 The boy eating from his bowl and the man stopping to stare as he eats his beans do so while engaging in normal, everyday activities with the artist as an objective outside observer. If anything, Annibale used these figures as scientific subjects in his search for truth in nature. Drawings from the 1580s reproduced in Le arti di Bologna (the trades of Bologna), mostly lost, were also meant to be accurate records of the metier of the workmen of Bologna and not personal observations on their characters.13

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4. Malvasia 1678 (1841), 1: 268, first related this famous trip, which must have taken Annibale also to Florence and the Marches, where Federico Barocci's art made a deep impression.

5. Annibale's and Agostino's trips are documented by letters, first published by Malvasia in 1678 (1841), 1: 268-270, later believed to be false (Voss 1924, 482-483), and now accepted by most critics as authentic. See Perini 1990, 150-154. For an English translation see De Grazia Bohlin in Washington 1979, 508-511.

6. As stated in his letter of 28 April 1580 to his cousin Ludovico (De Grazia Bohlin in Washington 1979, 510).

7. Letter of 28 April 1580 (De Grazia Bohlin in Washington 1979, 510).

8. On Paleotti, see Prodi 1959-1967. On the suggested influence and/or parallels of Paleotti's teachings and Annibale's art, see Boschloo 1974, 142-155. See also De Grazia Bohlin in Washington 1979, 28 and nn. 7 - 8.

9. For a portrait of Aldrovandi by Agostino, see De Grazia Bohlin in Washington 1979, no. 207.

10. For reproductions, see Posner 1971, 2: pls. 4a, 6a.

11. On the Boy Drinking, see Christiansen 1990, 135-145.

12. This was already observed by Posner 1971, 1: 13.

13. Le arti di Bologna is a collection of eighty prints by Simon Guillain published in 1646. Not all the drawings appear to have been made by Annibale, and recently these drawings have been questioned by Ann Sutherland Harris.

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