The Baptism of Christ is a painting by Annibale Carracci.
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The Baptism of Christ is a painting by Annibale Carracci.
The work was commissioned in 1583 by Giacomo Canobbi, professor of law at the University of Bologna, for his chapel in the Santi Gregorio e Siro. He was licensed in 1585, the date that appears on the canvas. [1]
This is the second public commission obtained by Annibale after the Crucifixion of 1583, now in the Santa Maria della Carità, Bologna.The Baptism is the only altarpiece made by the most famous of the Carracci before his move to Rome to have remained in its original location.
The Baptism is the first important manifestation of the rediscovery of Correggio who, between 1584 and 1587, occupied the artistic interests of Annibale Carracci. [2]
The influence of Correggio is particularly evident in the upper part of the altarpiece, occupied by a choir of angel musicians, supported by material clouds, in the centre of which the Eternal Father appears. This part of the composition derives from Correggio's frescoes painted for the dome of Parma Cathedral. [2]
The lower part of the painting, where the main event takes place, instead, seems to be still linked to the late Mannerist style then dominant among Bolognese painters. This can be seen above all from the artificiality of the poses of some of the characters depicted and especially from that of the catechumen on the left - which shows the Lord taking off his shirt to be baptized in turn - whose twisting is strongly unnatural. [2]
In general, there is a fracture between the two parts of the canvas (also highlighted by the different luministic setting of the two sections) which is probably an indication of the uncertainties and the results of the young Annibale's research still in progress. [2]
In the composition, in addition to the depiction of Baptism, there is a reference to the mystery of the Trinity: the Father, the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, the Son, are aligned on the middle axis of the painting. The Trinitarian allusion is echoed by the gesture of the onlooker's hand on the left (in a red coat) indicating the number three. The Canobbi chapel, in fact, was dedicated to both the Baptist and the Trinity. [1]
Already in this first important example of Carracci's attention to the art of Allegri we can see Hannibal's effort to update the style: the angelic choir at the top, though derived from Correggio, is characterized by its domestic spirit, "almost a concertino staged [...] like a family celebration". [1]
According to Malvasia, for this second public rehearsal, Annibale would have availed himself of the help of his more experienced cousin Ludovico. [1]
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. This teaching academy promoted the Carracci emphasized drawing from life. It promoted progressive tendencies in art and was a reaction to the Mannerist distortion of anatomy and space. The academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.
Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
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Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
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Pietro Faccini or Facini (1562–1602), was an Italian painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was active near his birthplace of Bologna working in a style bridging Mannerism and the nascent Baroque.
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The Madonna della Vallicella is an oil-on-slate painting produced between 1606 and 1608 by Peter Paul Rubens. It is his second confirmed commission in Rome, after his now-lost painting cycle for Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
The Pala della Peste or Pallione del Voto is an oil on silk Baroque-style altarpiece by Guido Reni depicts the Madonna and Child in Glory with the Patron Saints of Bologna: Petronius, Francis, Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Proculus of Bologna, and Florian.
Pietà is a c. 1600 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, the earliest surviving work by him on the subject, which was commissioned by Odoardo Farnese. It moved from Rome to Parma to Naples as part of the Farnese collection and is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. It is one of many 16th century Bolognese paintings dedicated to the theme of the Pietà, and it is counted among Carracci's masterpieces.
The Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci is the altarpiece of the famous Cerasi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. The large panel painting was created in 1600–1601. The artwork is somewhat overshadowed by the two more famous paintings of Caravaggio on the side walls of the chapel: The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus and The Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Both painters were important in the development of Baroque art but the contrast is striking: Carracci's Virgin glows with even light and radiates harmony, while the paintings of Caravaggio are dramatically lit and foreshortened.
Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese or 'Christ in Glory with Odoardo Farnese and Saints Peter, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, Hermenegild and Edward is a painting by Annibale Carracci. Placed in the Eremo di Camldoli either early in its life or straight after its creation, at the end of the 17th century Ferdinando II de' Medici moved it to the Galleria Palatina in Florence, where it still hangs.
An Allegory of Truth and Time is a 1584–85 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now on display in Hampton Court as part of the Royal Collection.
Crucifixion with Saints or Crucifixion with Mourners and Saints Bernardino of Siena, Francis of Assisi and Petronius is a 1583 oil on canvas, now in the church of Santa Maria della Carità in Bologna. The work was originally sited in the Macchiavelli chapel in San Nicolò di San Felice, Bologna, next to Santa Maria della Carità, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. It was then temporarily moved to the Soprintendenza di Bologna and finally to its current home.
Madonna and Child with Saints is a 1588 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. Signed and dated by the artist, it is also known as Madonna and Child with Saints Francis, Matthew and John the Baptist, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Matthew and the St Matthew Madonna.
Madonna and Child with Saints, Madonna and Child Enthroned with the Infant St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist and Saint Catherine of Alexandria or the San Giorgio Madonna is a 1593 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, originally in the Landini chapel in the church of San Giorgio in Poggiale, Bologna. During the 19th century the conservation conditions there worsened and it was moved to the Accademia di Belle Arti for restoration, before being moved to its current home in the then-new Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna.. It is signed and dated "ANNI CARR FE MDXCIII".
Madonna and Child in Glory over the City of Bologna is a c.1593 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, also known as The Virgin and Child in the Clouds or the Madonna of Bologna. It is now in Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford.
Saint Margaret of Antioch is a 1599 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, showing Margaret of Antioch. It hangs in Santa Caterina dei Funari church in Rome.
The Dead Christ Mourned is an oil painting on canvas of c. 1604 by Annibale Carracci. It was in the Orleans Collection before arriving in Great Britain in 1798. In 1913 it was donated to the National Gallery, London, which describes it as "perhaps the most poignant image in [its] collection of the pietà – the lamentation over the dead Christ following his crucifixion – and one of the greatest expressions of grief in Baroque art".
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