Ludovico Carracci

Despite his espousal of naturalism, Ludovico’s early works have the grace and colorism of more overtly elegant artists such as Federico Barocci (1535–1612) and Correggio (1489–1534), as well as the Venetian school. It was during the decade before 1590 that Ludovico produced many of what are now his most popular works, among them the St Vincent Martyr (Credito Romagnolo, Bologna), The Vision of St Francis (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and the Bargellini Madonna (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna). Ludovico’s later paintings become darker in tonality with more massive figures, as altarpieces such as the Madonna appearing to St Hyacinth (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and Christ at the Pool of Bethesda (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna), both with a clear debt to Venetian painting, demonstrate. But well into the 1590s his Madonnas have an almost doll-like Correggesque sweetness which is instantly recognizable. Ludovico went to Rome in 1602 and was patronized by important Roman patrons such as the Farnese and Barberini, but despite that brief excursion he remained rooted in Bologna where he was its leading painter until he was eventually eclipsed after 1610 by a new generation led by Guido Reni (1575–1642).

In addition to Ludovico’s large-scale religious works he decorated major Bolognese palaces, notably the Palazzo Fava and the Palazzo Tanari, with mythological and allegorical paintings. He was also an exceptionally fine portrait painter as well as the occasional painter of refined works on copper, such as the Vision of Saint Francis at the Art Institute of Chicago, which entered into their collection in 2010.