Christ Crowned with Thorns

1595–1609 · Virkested

Rome

1597–1605

Assistants at the Palazzo Farnese: the masters to come

Many of Annibale’s assistants and pupils on the projects at the Palazzo Farnese and the Herrera Chapel became pre-eminent artists of the next decades, among them Domenichino, Francesco Albani, Giovanni Lanfranco, Domenico Viola, Guido Reni and Sisto Badalocchio.

c. 1605

A mental breakdown after a meagre fee

Carracci was a melancholic, and around 1605 he suffered a mental breakdown which, biographers explain, was caused by the unexpectedly low fee of 500 scudi for the frescoes of the Farnese gallery.

March 1605

Serious illness: rheumatism keeps him from painting

In March 1605 Annibale fell seriously ill and apparently never recovered enough to resume work. From 1605 severe rheumatic pains deprived him of the ability to paint.

1606

Leaves the Palazzo Farnese

In 1606 Annibale left the Palazzo Farnese and lived in the Roman parish of San Lorenzo in Lucina.

April 1606

The cardinal laments the painter’s “heavy melancholic humour”

In 1606 Annibale signed a “Madonna of the Bowl”, but in a letter of April 1606 Cardinal Odoardo Farnese lamented that a “heavy melancholic humour” kept Annibale from painting for him.