beside the easel

Study for an Ignudo, 1599 Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna on November 3, 1560. Having lived a relatively short life, Annibale's contribution to art was nonetheless enormous in that with his brother Agostino and older cousin Ludovico formed a historic school that would change art history and usher in the Baroque movement, the Accademia degli Incamminati . The first of its kind, they sought to combine the Florentine philosophy of line and draftsmanship with the vibrant color of Venice to create a new, unified style that would supersede the convoluted theories of Mannerism with a more hands-on approach where students and teachers alike were considered equals. The goal of the school was an inner drive to bring painting back to its Classical roots but with a fresher approach. Of the three, Annibale was the most talented and ingenious, emphasizing to his students the necessity of rigorous study before every drawing and determining what you are going to represent and what me...

Saint Sebastian, 1625 One of the most famous of the Bolognese, Guido Reni was born on November 4, 1575. Although his father Daniele was at the time a respected musician Guido was kind of a black sheep, preferring the brush to the harpsicord, and in his early twenties he joined the famous Carracci school Accademia degli Incamminati . For three years he absorbed the style of his favourite painter, Raphael with the teachings of the school whereupon he went to Rome with Annibale to help out with the Farnese frescos. A man of physically short stature and unassuming features, Reni would soon become a huge figure in the Baroque that would influence countless artists to come. His Saint Sebastian above, one of many Reni painted depicts the saint as youthful and handsome, an innocent victim rather than a martyr. This is a painter's painting. Study the brushstrokes and see how Reni alternates between blending and rough edges, thick highlights with sof transparent shadows, and his use o...

Joseph's Dream, ca.1790 Gaetano Gandolfi belongs to a family of artists from the 18th century that, although not as well known as the Carracci , their artistic influence cannot be understated. Ubaldo, the elder and Gaetano, both brothers, along with Gaetano's young son Mauro formed the second Bolognese trinity, their difference being that the Baroque was coming to an end and being replaced by Neoclassicism. Between these three, a period of a hundred years would reveal the rise and fall of Napoleon right through to the end of great patronage, leading to the beginnings of Romanticism. Gaetano, born August 31, 1734, would be the most prolific of the three, forming a style synthesized by his strong Venetian influences and his Baroque foundations. The commonality that all three exhibit are an eloquence, a sense of poetry and drama that defines the era they lived in. In Joseph's Dream above, Gaetano uses a cool green palette to create the dream-like mood, emphasizing the...

Self-portrait, ca. 1640-1713 Born either on May 13 or 15, (depending on whether you read the Italian or English entry on Wikipedia) Carlo Maratta—sometimes written as Maratti— was born in 1625. At the age of 11 he entered the studio of Andrea Sacchi where his training was heavily influenced by the Bolognese school and the teachings of Annibale Carracci. Here Maratta also learned the fundamentals of draftsmanship from Sacchi, who was incredibly skilled at drawing figure studies, something that Maratta maintained throughout his life. In fact, this concept of drawing, or disegno encompassed a way of seeing and working in art that involved choice and discretion or "prudence", not merely copying reality as Caravaggio had done but contemplating nature and reworking it to one's artistic ideals. This idea was also carried by Maratta's friend and contemporary Giovanni Pietro Bellori, who would write his own biography of the artists alla Vasari but with this philosophy of ...

Ludovico Carracci, Emilian school ca.1600's It is hard to underestimate the importance of the Carracci family on the Baroque, and the eldest member, Ludovico who was born today in 1555 formed a historic art school along with his cousins Agostino and Annibale, Accademia dei Desiderosi which later became Accademia degli Incamminati to symbolize the arduous path artists must undergo in developing their craft. Ludovico was the first to resist the Mannerist tendency of the late 1500's and return to an appreciation of nature, teaching such innovations as life drawing from the nude model as a regular curriculum, anatomy, and with help from Agostino and Annibale, the return to Humanism with the blending of Florentine and Venetian art. Ludovico wasn't the most talented of the three, but was a highly influential teacher and ran the school alone when Agostino and Annibale headed to work in Rome. Tingere non leccare , tint don't lick literally, meaning paint don't polis...