Galleria Farnese: a Masterpiece of the Baroque

The Louvre is dedicating a major exhibition to the Carracci drawings, reconstructing the creative process that led to the creation of the famous Galleria Farnese in Rome, frescoed by Annibale Carracci with the collaboration of his brother Agostino and their circle of students. Through a selection of sketches, studies, and preparatory cartoons of exceptional quality, the exhibition offers the opportunity to observe the creation of one of the absolute masterpieces of Baroque painting. Installed in the Mezzanine Napoléon room, the exhibition leads the visitor into the artist's studio, revealing the evolution of the project from the first sketch to the final composition. The drawings trace the journey from the rapidity of the initial stroke to anatomical studies and posing tests, up to the full-scale cartoons that anticipate the frescoes on the vault and in the Camerino. The exhibition testifies to the complexity of a collective process, in which drawing becomes a tool for invention, technical coordination, and dialogue with the client. The exhibition portrays an ambitious and self-aware Annibale Carracci, capable of blending Renaissance teachings with a new narrative energy. At thirty-four, the painter led a monumental undertaking that would shape the evolution of European decoration for over two centuries. The relationship between idea and form, between project and fresco, demonstrates the strength of a conception of art as an intellectual and collective endeavor, which finds its first and purest expression in drawing.