Lecture 28: Annibale Carracci and the Reform of Art
non-canonical proportions, such as elongations. Annibale was the ¿ nest artist
among the three Carracci, although Ludovico’s painting had a personal,
mystical slant of considerable power.Annibale’s Butcher’s Shop (c. 1582–1583) was highly esteemed by
aristocratic collectors despite its lowly subject. It belonged to the Gonzaga
collection in Mantua, then Charles I of England, then the countess of
Bristol, and then General John Guise, who gave it to Christ Church, Oxford
University, in 1765. It was not unusual in Italy at this time to use subjects
from everyday life rather than the Bible, mythology, or history. Annibale
Carracci and his relatives stressed this kind of theme at their academy. This
painting is about 9 feet wide. There are six ¿ gures, a lamb, a dog, and animal
carcasses in a frieze-like composition. In the shallow space of the painting, a
soldier is at left, a butcher in a white gown weighing meat, an elderly woman
behind him, and another butcher leaning forward from behind a counter.
Hanging carcasses appear, and another butcher lifts one of them on to or
off of a hook. A butcher with a knife, holding down a bound lamb, kneels
in the center foreground. The lamb, scales, and carcass being “deposed”
might suggest a Christian allegory, but for most viewers, the exaggerated
burlesque elements of the painting—especially the soldier—do not permit
such an interpretation. Despite the Bolognese
Academy reforms and the return to Renaissance
proportion and Naturalism, the Carracci did not
abandon Classical or biblical subject matter but
continued these themes with a renewed sense
of reality.In 1595, Annibale traveled to Rome to decorate
rooms in the Farnese Palace, designed by
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. The palace was
begun in 1514 for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese,
who later became Pope Paul III. When Sangallo
died in 1546, the work was continued by Michelangelo and completed by
Giacomo della Porta. Between 1595 and 1601, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese
commissioned Annibale Carracci and his assistants to decorate two rooms in
the great palace, a small one, called the Camerino, and the large gallery.The 16th century
in northern Italy
saw a reaction
to the excesses
of Mannerism, a
longing to return to
more realistic art.