Oeuvres sur Papier - Works on Paper - Jean-Luc Baroni & Marty de Cambiaire - 2022

Annibale Carracci
Bologne 1560 – Rome 1609
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Étude d’un moine
Sanguine <strong>sur</strong> papier légèrement teinté de lavis de sanguine. Porte une attribution <strong>sur</strong> l’ancien montage à
la plume et encre brune : di Anibale Caraci.
197 x 144 mm (7 ¾ x 5 ¾ in)
Provenance
Monsieur Deseraux (inscription au crayon au verso du montage : Monsieur Deseraux à Monsieur Le
C...) ; Sotheby’s New York, 27 janvier 2021, lot 15.
Annibale Carracci, avec son frère Agostino et son
cousin Lodovico, initia à Bologne à la fin du XVIe
siècle une révolution dite naturaliste, qui fit du dessin
un moyen d’étude et d’expression indépendant
de la peinture. Cette autonomie du dessin s’exprime
dans les sujets d’étude choisis par ces artistes
et leurs suiveurs, des paysages, des scènes de l’intimité
et du quotidien, des portraits, des caricatures.
1. A. Carracci, Homme portant des lunettes, un livre à la
main, The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle.
In Bologna at the end of the 16 th century, Annibale
Carracci, along with his brother Agostino and cousin
Lodovico, initiated a so-called Naturalist revolution
that established drawing as a means of study and
expression independent of painting. The autonomy
of drawing was expressed in the subjects studied
by these artists and their followers: landscapes,
intimate scenes, daily life, portraits and caricatures.
The practice of drawing nourished their ability to
see, observe and record reality and in return, close
observation of landscapes and everyday scenes
provided new motifs and subjects for study that
could enrich and stimulate artistic activity. This new
preoccupation is evident very early in the career
of the Carracci, particularly for Annibale, whose
work demonstrates a striking realism. The sense of
reality observed, nourished by the regular practice
of drawing, was passed on to Annibale’s students in
Bologna and to others in Rome where he was invited
in 1595 to paint the Palazzo Farnese camerino and,
most significantly, the gallery ceiling. Annibale’s
Bologna pupils – Domenichino, Guido Reni and
Francesco Albani – produced these types of studies
as well as artists who were indirectly influenced by
him such as Pier Francesco Mola, Albani’s pupil in
Rome and even Guercino. The naturalist direction
did not prevent these artists from simultaneously
pursuing the ideal of beauty, informed by the study
of antiquity and the great Renaissance masters as
well as after nature.
A compulsive draftsman, it was Annibale who
made this kind of drawing widespread, capturing
moments on the spot like snapshots before their
time: a man sleeping, a family in front of the fire or
a young woman singing. In our sketch, emerging
from a door or a wall, the monk intimates silence
with a quickly sketched gesture. The artist’s mark
making is flexible and fast; he strives to restore the
memory of a thing seen or reconstituted in his mind
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