Maria het Kind voedend

1578–1595 · Workplace

Bologna

1580–1581

A journey around Italy with Agostino

At the behest of the elder Ludovico Carracci, Annibale and Agostino travelled around Italy and studied the work of Titian, among others. From this came their interest in the glimmering colour taken from the Venetian painters.

1582

Opens a studio-academy in Bologna

In 1582 Annibale, his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico opened a painters’ studio in Bologna, at first called the Academy of the Desiderosi and then the Incamminati, “those opening a new way”. It is considered the first major art school based on life drawing and was the model for later art schools throughout Europe.

from 1582

Drawing from the nude in the academy

In the Academy students could draw from live nude models, which the Church had forbidden during the Counter-Reformation under the decrees of the Council of Trent. It taught both the theory and the practice of art, as well as perspective and plastic anatomy.

1583

An important public commission for a newcomer

Annibale’s collaboration with Ludovico and Agostino began in the early 1580s, when he was already over twenty. In 1583 he received an important public commission, unusual for a newcomer.

1587–1588

A trip to Parma and Venice

In 1587–88 Annibale is known to have travelled to Parma and then to Venice, where he joined his brother Agostino.