Background
Agostino Carracci was born on August 26, 1557, in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was the son of Antonio Carracci, a tailor, and brother of Annibale Carracci. He was a nephew of Lodovico Carracci.
Agostino Carracci was born on August 26, 1557, in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was the son of Antonio Carracci, a tailor, and brother of Annibale Carracci. He was a nephew of Lodovico Carracci.
Agostino Carracci studied painting, first with Fontana, who had been Lodovico's Carracci master, and later with Passerotti.
During the late 1570s, Agostino Carracci worked as a reproductive engraver, copying paintings by 16th century masters including Federico Barocci (1526 - 1612), Paolo Veronese (1528 - 1588), Tintoretto (1518 - 1594), Antonio Campi (1522 - 1587), and Correggio (1489 - 1534). In this time, he was greatly influenced by the Dutch-born engraver and draughtsman Cornelis Cort (1533 - 1578).
He visited Venice (1582, 1587 - 1589) and Parma (1586 – 1587). During this period he worked alongside Annibale and Ludovico on the fresco cycles at Palazzo Fava and Palazzo Magnani, in Bologna. These mural paintings included the Histories of Jason and Medea (1584) and the Histories of Romulus (1590 - 1592), respectively. He also completed his altarpiece of the "Madonna with Child and Saints".
In 1589 Agostino and his brother Annibale returned to Bologna and - in partnership with Lodovico - started the "Academy degli Desiderosi" (later renamed "Academia degli Incamminati" - Academy of the Progressives), to champion figure drawing using live models and to discuss the latest issues of art and design. It was this academy that formed the nucleus of the Bolognese School. Agostino himself combined teaching with painting.
In 1598, Agostino joined his brother Annibale in Rome, to fresco the Gallery of the Farnese Palace, whose ceiling was judged by many art critics to be one of the real masterpieces of painting, ranking alongside the Sistine Chapel frescoes and the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican.
In the latter years Agostino left Annibale to serve as court painter for Ranuccio Farnese in Parma. He died there without completing his own major endeavour in fresco, the decoration of a room in the Palazzo del Giardino.
Messalina in Lisisica's booth
The Last Communion of St. Jerome
1592Studies of the Carracci Figure
Mars and Venus
Penitent Magdalene
Self-Portrait of Agostino Carracci
Polyenos and Chrisis
Pluto
1592Bachus and Ariane
The Penitent Magdalen
Religion of Priapus
A Peasant Man, Head And Shoulders, Shouting
Portrait of Annibale, Ludovico and Agostino Carracci
Democritus
1598Venus and Mars
1600The satire and his wife
Venus Punishing Profane Love
1595Venus Genitrice
Julie with an athlete
The Satyr and Nymph
Giovanni Gabrielli, 'il Sivello'
1599Paris and Oenone
Portrait of Christine of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
1589Satyr Mason
Head of a Faun in a Concave
1595Portrait of a Lutenist (Portrait of the musician Orazio Bassani)
1586Ann Parolini Guicciardini
1598Landscape with Bathers
1599The Ecstasy of Saint Catherine
1590Angelica and Medor
Achille and Briseis
St. Agatha, from the episode "Holy Women"
1578Dog
Pandora
Hairy Harry, Mad Peter and Tiny Amon
Portrait of a woman
1599The Holy Family with Sts. Anthony Abbot, Catherine and the Infant St. John
St. Lucia, from the episode "Holy Women"
1578Jupiter and Juno
St. Margaret, from the episode "Holy Women"
1578Italian scientist Ulisse Aldrovandi
Aeneas and Dido
Hercules and Deianira
Neptune dispersing the clouds and calming the tides
1590Titian
1587The Flood
Alcibiade and Glycere
St. Catherine, from the episode "Holy Women"
1578Ovid and Corine
Antony and Cleopatra
Agostino Carracci had a son, Antonio Marziale Carracci.