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Lamentation of Christ (Pieta) - Annibale Carracci 1603...
Pieta
Annibale Carracci 1603
In the mid-1580s in Bologna, Annibale, together with his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico Carracci, founded an art academy. The goal of the school was to establish nature once again as the point of departure throughout the realm of art, requiring the students at the academy to adhere closely to nature in their drawing. Because of their having cherished and preserved nature in art, the conceptual mentors of this endeavour were the great Venetians, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.
When Annibale was called to Rome in 1595 to paint the gallery of the Farnese family palace, his work came under the influence of antiquity as well as of the work of Raphael and Michelangelo and gradually changed in the sense of Roman gravitas. The path he took approaching classical stringency is evident in this small Pieta.
It was created only shortly before Annibale fell mentally ill. Asceticism, sparseness, complete agreement of content and formal effect, a repression of colour almost into monochromism: all these lend the small composition its heroic dimensions.
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