In 1582, three members of the Carracci family—Agostino, Annibale, and Ludovico—founded the first major art academy emphasizing life drawing. Motivated by their desire to reverse the negative influence Mannerism had on art, the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of Those who are Making Progress) aimed to recover the classical traditions with a renewed study of nature. The Carracci re-instituted drawing objects from life and sought inspiration from natural forms rather than copying previous master’s artworks.
The Decline of Art
The Carracci, all prominent artists of their time, entered an artistic world that had deteriorated. The Renaissance artists (circa 1350–1620) had already surpassed the achievements of classical antiquity, and the Baroque era (circa 1600-1750) had yet to be conceived. From the mid-14th to mid-16th century, Europe had witnessed a steady succession of great masters. But now, things felt stagnant.
It had been decades since an artist of such caliber emerged—with the exception of the 54-year-old Paolo Veronese and the 75-year-old Tintoretto. The great masters that would restore the arts to its former heights had not yet appeared on the scene.
Near the end of the high Renaissance, artists hit a wall: Everything that could be mastered artistically was already achieved. A new style of art—later coined Mannerism—took root in Florence and Rome between 1510–1520. Early Florentine Mannerists copied Hellenistic sculptures instead of studying from nature. Called the “anti-classical” period of Greek culture, Hellenistic artwork (323 to 31 B.C.) flourished during Greek civilization’s late period. Consequently, early Mannerist artwork is recognizable for its use of elongated forms, warped perspective, and precarious poses as compared to the High Renaissance’s characteristics of harmony, symmetry, and order.
By the late Renaissance, mannerism favored rigid imitation of former master’s paintings—becoming an artistic style that imitated art, rather than nature. During Carracci’s day, lesser artists either mimicked the styles of their preferred predecessors or unintentionally caricatured them.
The Emilian School
The Carracci were well suited to the task of reinvigorating artistic life. As painters, they ranked just below previous great geniuses, and as aesthetic thinkers and teachers, they have been surpassed by few.
Born in Bologna (the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy), the Carracci trained in the Bolognese School of painting. Brothers Agostino and Annibale also trained at the Parma School of Painting (located in Emilia-Romagna’s second largest city) and Venice—which rivaled Florence and Rome as Italy’s center of art. Venetian painting pursued a different course than Florence and Rome, both of which were dominated by Mannerism.
The Emilian School (17th-century artistic movement)—alongside the Bolognese School and the Parma School of Painting—were notably free of the partisanship and rigidity that the late Italian Renaissance had fallen into. The Emilian School was characterized by its elegant depictions of aristocracy. Later influenced by the Carracci’s innovative and expressive style, the art school became pivotal in the development of Baroque art.
Of the significant schools within late Renaissance art, the Emilian was among the smallest and remains the least known. Geographically, its artistic center was located between the Italian Renaissance’s rival capitals of Florence and Venice. Before Mannerism, Florentine art emphasized classic idealized forms with harmonious designs. While Venetian art shared Florentine grandeur, it emphasized naturalism and color and favored emotional intensity over intellectualism.
Emilian art had its own combination of qualities, exemplified in the Parma School’s foremost painter Antonio da Correggio. The school’s most significant and unique characteristics was the preference for understated emotions (gentleness rather than intellectualism or regality) and embracing realistic coloration—common to the Venetian school, yet gentler. However, the Emilian school’s defining trait was its eclectic interest in the entirety of Renaissance art.
Instituting an Artistic Shift
While the Carracci placed emphasis on Florentine draftsmanship, as exemplified by Raphael, they incorporated the vibrant colors and emotive styles from Venetian painters—notably the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian (circa 1490–1576). In a sonnet written by Agostino, the Accademia degli Incamminati’s eclectic ideal aimed to incorporate “from Raphael a feminine grace of line, from Michelangelo a muscular force, from Titian strong colours and from Correggio gentle colours.”
The Carracci added another groundbreaking transformation in their artistic school: life drawing. Before the influence of the Accademia degli Incamminati, students largely trained by copying artworks and using sculptures as models for painting. Although this method inculcated a solid understanding of the techniques and aesthetic principles that their predecessors used to excel, it ultimately led to art that was removed from reality.
Great classicists like Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci had mastered the study of nature to create idealized forms that were more beautiful than nature. In subsequent decades, artists moved away from idealized nature to awkwardly exaggerating and elongating limbs from their imagination.
The Carracci turned to the obvious solution. Drawing and painting from live models became the foundation of their art school. Once a student could accurately replicate nature, they could go on to depict human beauty in a naturalistic way or create credible idealizations through modest alterations. Such emphasis on studying the live model soon became a standard in art academies—a tradition that still remains integral to classical art training.
