Ludovico Carracci

Ludovico Carracci

Portrait, Emilian School
Born (1555-04-21)21 April 1555
Bologna
Died 13 November 1619(1619-11-13) (aged 64)
Nationality Italian
Field Painting
Training Prospero Fontana
Movement Baroque
Influenced by Annibale Carracci
Influenced Giacomo Cavedone

Ludovico (or Lodovico) Carracci (21 April 1555 – 13 November 1619) was an Italian, early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker born in Bologna.

Lamentation of Christ (ca. 1582)[1]

Ludovico apprenticed under Prospero Fontana in Bologna and traveled to Florence, Parma, and Venice, before returning to his hometown. Along with his cousins Annibale and Agostino Carracci, Ludovico in 1585 was a founder and director (caposindaco) of the so-called Eclectic 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 School of the late 16th century, which included Albani, Guercino, Sacchi, Reni, Lanfranco and Domenichino. The Carracci had their apprentices draw studies focused on observation of nature and natural poses, and use a bold scale in drawing figures. One of Ludovico's main pupils was Giacomo Cavedone and Francesco Camullo.

The Carracci are credited with reinvigorating Italian art, especially fresco art, which was subsumed with formalistic Mannerism.

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

  1. ^ Oil on canvas, 95 x 173 cm
    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

External links

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