Agostino Carracci

Agostino Carracci was born in Bologna on 16 August 1557, the cousin of Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619) and older brother of Annibale Carracci. Together the three artists affected the future course of painting in Italy, and in the case of Agostino, whose primary activity was engraving, the development of printmaking. Agostino started his career as a goldsmith, and apprenticed briefly with Prospero Fontana (1512-1597) and with Bartolomeo Passarotti (1529-1592) in 1577. Engraving prints as early as 1574, Agostino entered the studio of the engraver Domenico Tibaldi (1541-1583) in 1578 or 1579. Here Agostino learned a new system of engraving, which made use of swelling and tapering lines, probably by copying the innovative prints of Cornelis Cort.

In 1582 Lodovico, Agostino, and Annibale founded the Accademia degli Incamminati, an art school that emphasized intellectual thought, the study of anatomy, life drawing, and drawing and engraving prints after other works of art. Seeking firsthand knowledge of aesthetic innovations around Italy, the three Carraccis traveled frequently. During the 1580s Agostino made several trips to Venice and Parma, making prints after paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Titian, and Correggio, among others.

The effect of these Venetian trips is also apparent in his frescoes in the Palazzo Fava (Bologna, completed 1584), and in the Palazzo Magnani (Bologna, completed in 1592). While these frescoes were part of collaborations with Annibale and Lodovico, Agostino also produced several independent paintings, most notably the Last Communion of Saint Jerome (ca. 1589; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale).

Agostino continued to paint and engrave prints in Bologna and Parma until about 1598, when he joined Annibale in Rome and contributed to the frescoes in the Grand Gallery in the Palazzo Farnese. In 1600 Agostino returned to Parma, where he died on 23 February 1602.

Nicknamed the "Italian Goltzius," Agostino Carracci was extremely popular in his day. He produced over two hundred prints: reproductive prints, original prints with religious or mythological subjects, coats of arms, portrait prints, and book illustrations. His teaching and his prints influenced many artists working in Bologna, Rome, and elsewhere.