METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: GALLERIA 623: The Carracci and Seventeenth-Century Easel Painting.

Speranza

Annibale Carracci's move from Bologna, where he and his cousin Ludovico had founded a painting academy, to Rome in the 1590s had a momentous impact on Italian art. In Rome, Annibale became fascinated with ancient sculpture and absorbed the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. He undertook large-scale fresco projects but also made easel paintings, mostly of religious subjects. Out of his well-organized workshop came some of the period's most significant painters, including Domenichino and Francesco Albani. Displayed in this gallery, in addition to oil paintings on canvas, are small-scale works, often on copper, produced for important Italian patrons by Carracci, his followers, and others.