_Annibale Carracci_ (Eclectic-Bologna: 1560-1609).
Annibale, younger brother of Agostino and cousin of Lodovico
Carracci, was one of the three masters of the Eclectic School
at Bologna, the characteristics of which have been discussed in
the chapter on the Later Italian Schools. Annibale, the most
distinguished of the family as a painter, was the son of a
tailor and was intended for his father's business. He went off,
however, to his cousin Lodovico, with whom he devoted himself
to art. In 1580 he visited Parma, where he spent three years in
studying the works of Correggio. The copies noticed above (7
and 37) were perhaps made at this time. Annibale afterwards
studied in Venice. In 1589 the school of the Carracci was
started at Bologna. They called it the _Incamminati_, or, as we
might say, "The Right Road." In 1600 Annibale was invited to
Rome by the Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to decorate his palace.
Here, we are told, "he was received and treated as a gentleman,
and was granted the usual table allowance of a courtier."
He was assisted in the Farnese frescoes by Lanfranco, by
Domenichino (then a young man), and by his brother Agostino,
of whom, however, he was very jealous (_see under_ 147). He
died in 1609, and was buried near Raphael in the Pantheon. The
frescoes of the Carracci in the Farnese palace were preferred
by Poussin to all the works in Rome after those of Raphael,
and they undoubtedly possess many technical merits. The
subject-pictures by Annibale in our Gallery will fail greatly
to please; they are academical and unindividual, and are
deficient in true enthusiasm. Annibale was one of the first to
practise landscape-painting as a separate department of art. In
this field the influence of the Netherlands and of Venice may
be seen united in Carracci's pictures, which in their turn laid
the foundation for Poussin and Claude. In our Gallery Annibale
is seen at his best in the two poetic subjects painted for a
harpsichord (93 and 94); these are both graceful and spirited.
The Apostle Peter, according to a Roman tradition, being terrified at
the danger which threatened him in Rome, betook himself to flight.
On the Via Appia our Saviour appeared to him bearing his cross. To
Peter's question: Domine quo vadis? ("Lord, whither goest Thou?")
Christ replied, "To Rome, to suffer again crucifixion." Upon which
the apostle retraced his steps, and received the crown of martyrdom.
So much for the subject. As for its treatment, the note of almost
comic exaggeration in St. Peter's attitude will not fail to strike the
spectator; and "there is this objection to be made to the landscape,
that, though the day is breaking over the distant hills and pediment on
the right hand, there must be another sun somewhere out of the picture
on the left hand, since the cast shadows from St. Peter and the Saviour
fall directly to the right" (Landseer's _Catalogue_, p. 193).