Carracci, Ludovico

(1555-1619)

   The cousin of Annibale and Agostino Carracci, with whom he effected the Carracci Reform. Ludovico was the son of a Bolognese butcher and was trained by the Mannerist painter Prospero Fontana. After his apprenticeship, he traveled to Venice, Parma, and Florence to study the works of Titian, Correggio, and Raphael, all of whom proved to be a major force in the development of the Carracci's philosophy of art—a philosophy that rejected the excesses of Mannerism and favored the classicism of the High Renaissance masters. When Annibale and Agostino left Bologna for Rome to work for the Farnese, it was Ludovico who continued running the Carracci Academy, where he trained the next generation of masters who later would help disseminate the Carracci's artistic ideals. His most notable works include the Bargellini Madonna (1588; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), the Cento Madonna (1591; Cento, Museo Civico), the Martyrdom of St. Peter Thomas (c. 1608; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), and St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima (c. 1613; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum).