CARACCI, Le Doyle°, the cousin-german of Anni bale and Agostino, was born at Bologna in 1555, and died in 1619. Ile studied tinder Prospero Fontana ; but it was by comemplating the works of Titian, Tintoretto, and Pao.o Veronese at Venice, and of Parmigiano and Corregio a.t Parma, that he relined his taste, and formed those elevated conceptions which characterise his paint ings, and which have raised him to the distinguished eminence which he still holds among artists. He laid the foundation of that school which was distinguished by the title of the Academy of the Caraccis, and which be came so highly celebrated. To this academy every stu dent resorted who gave hopes of future eminence ; and some of the noblest masters in the art had been the dis ciples of Ludovico. The advantages which they enjoy ed in his academy were singularly attractive. The dis crimination of Ludovico was not inferior to his other talents, and he directed the studies of his pupils to those departments of the art for which nature seemed peculi arly to have designed them. He had established at a great expellee, well chosen models of men and women ; and had collected at Rome a number of fine casts front the best figures, and some antique statues and curious basso-relievos. He took care to procure the most capi tal designs of the great masters ; to purchase instructive books on all subjects relative to the art ; and engaged the assistance of a very skilful anatomist, who taught the disciples whatever might be necessary to be known rela tive to the knitting of the bones, and the insertion of the muscles. His cousins, who were his pupils, were after wards employed along with him in the management of this academy. The style of these great masters was nearly the same, varied only by the diversity of disposi tion and temper. Ludovico, with less fire and vigour
than Agostino and Annibale, surpassed them in the more pleasing, though less commanding, qualities of grace, dignity, and sweetness. Mr Fuseli, who gives him the decided preference to both, has so well appreciated and described his manner, that we cannot forbear transcrib ing his own animated words. " Ludovico Caracci, far from subscribing to a master's dictates, or implicit imi tation of former styles, was the sworn pupil of nature. To a modest but dignified design, to a simplicity emi nently fitted for those subjects of religious gravity which his taste preferred, he joined that solemnity of hue, that sober twilight, that air of cloistered meditation, which has been so often recommended as the proper tune of historic colour. Too often content to rear the humbler graces of his subject, he seldom courted elegance, but always when he did, with enviable success. Even now, though they are nearly in a state of evanescence, the three nymphs in the garden scene of S. Michele in Bosco, seemed moulded by the hand inspired by the breath of Love. This genial glow he communicates even to the open silvery tone of fresco. His masterpiece in oil is the altar-piece of St John the Baptist, formerly in the Cortosa of Bologna, now in the Louvre, a work all sainted by this solemn line, whose lights seemed embrowned by a golden veil. But Ludovico sometimes indulged and suc ceeded in tours austere, unmixed, and hardy : such is the Flagellation of Christ in the same church, of which the tremendous depth of the flesh tints contrasts with the stern blue of the wide-expanded sky, and less conveys than dashes its terrors on the astonished sense." (i.t)