Annibale Carraci Baroque Paintings

Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)

Annibale Carraci was a wonderful baroque artist. He is mostly know for his Farnese ceiling Paintings. These  paintings feature scenes from Virgil’s Metamosphosis. That book told tales of the love of the gods. For our purpose, I featured a few of his Greek paintings. Some are from the Farnese ceiling.  The first painting shows Diana. She was awaken by a faun. He is inviting her to his Bacchanal. The drapery and the hairdos are quite realistic. Diana seems a bit frightened. By the leg of the goddess we see a faun brat with a very creepy expression. 

This next painting is also really pretty. Here we see Venus sleeping. All around her, we see playful cupids. They make great decorations. Venus herself is really pretty. The style is idealized. It has a lot of Renaissance traits and some scenery to boot.

Above, we see a painting from the Farnese Ceiling.  Here we see Venus with one of her lovers. She is performing the Swan leg maneuver. Her lover is so enchanted with her beauty that he is putting the other sandal on the same leg. By her other leg, we see her little Cupid. Outside of the painting, we see some cool painted borders that bring closing to this scene. Between her legs we see a post in Latin. It says that from her came the Latin race. Don’t forget, the Latins claim to be heirs of Aeneas, and the Trojans.

This painting is pretty cool. Here Perseus was ambushed. He was forced to use his Medusa Head to give himself an edge. Behind him, some maidens are closing their eyes. Those who did look upon Medusa have been turned to stone. Those Figures do look petrified. 

In this painting, we see Zeus asking Hera to sleep with him. This is from a scene of the Iliad. Hera was planning to seduce Zeus and put him to sleep. While he slept she planned to help the Greeks to win over the Trojans. For our purposes, here we see the moment before they enter their marital bed. Hera had made herself extra pretty by borrowing Venus’ sash. You can still see it bellow her chest. This belt was supposed to make women extra pretty.

To keep Zeus from suspecting, she is playing hard to get. To get her to sleep with him, Zeus is complimenting her beauty. He says she is more beautiful, than all the maidens he has slept with. On the background, we see Cupid with his bow. On the clouds, Sleep is stealing Zeus’s lightning bolts. By Zeus’s leg, we see his eagle symbol. Hera has her peacock behind her.  I hope that you liked these featured paintings a lot.

In this painting, we see Jesus being Baptized by his cousin. The two main figures in the foreground are pointing to Jesus. They want the viewer to focus on Jesus. The scenery is naturalistic. The figures are all idealized. The clothed figures in the background are the Pharisees. They always had something to say about whatever Jesus did.

 This painting is pretty self explanatory. Jesus is being supported by two angels. One of them is looking at the viewer. He wants us to understand what Jesus suffered for the sake of our sins.

This is a pretty unusual depiction of Christ. Here, we see him dead with the three Marys and his mother. His mother fainted with Christ in her arms. Her hand positions are similar to that of her son. The maiden in Red is Mary Magdalene. As noted, the figures here have thin halos. The patron wanted Halos on the three Marys. The sad expression on the maidens are realistic. However, all the figures are idealized.

 Like we all know, Nuns are the wives of Christ. As such, St. Catherine is getting married to baby Jesus. He is giving her a wedding band. Behind her, we have two angels. One is looking at the saint, the other at the viewer. In doing so, we become part of the miracle. The figures here are extremely pretty. The light falls on all their faces. I think those are all the paintings worth rating. I hope that you liked them a lot.