Agostino Carracci

Happy Birthday Agostino Carracci!! This Italian Baroque painter was born in 1557 and came from a family with artistic history. His brother Annibale was a better known artist. In addition to painting, Agostino was also an engraver and teacher of art. He created engravings from drawings of the human body so accurate they were still commonly used as teaching tools 200 years later! The Carracci family established the Academy of the Initiated, which became the primary art institute in Bologna. Angels were an integral part of Italian Baroque art. His Whispering Angels contrasts the image of angels as sweet cherubs; his are sly, mischievous and appear to be plotting something as they peer from under the foliage.