Full title | A Woman borne off by a Sea God (?) |
---|---|
Artist | Agostino Carracci |
Artist dates | 1557 - 1602 |
Series | The Farnese Gallery Cartoons |
Date made | about 1599 |
Medium and support | Charcoal and white chalk (a grey wash applied later over the whole) on paper |
Dimensions | 203.2 x 410.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Presented by Lord Francis Egerton, 1837 |
Inventory number | NG148 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
A muscular sea god, with dragon-like wings sprouting from his hips, is carrying off a naked woman. They are surrounded by winged infants known as putti and a host of marine divinities, some of whom ride on dolphins. Cupid aims an arrow at the couple in the centre. This is a working drawing, or cartoon, for part of the frescoed ceiling of the Gallery in Palazzo Farnese, Rome. The project was largely designed and executed by Annibale Caracci, with the assistance of his older brother Agostino.
The ceiling shows stories taken from classical mythology based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and in particular the loves of the gods. However, we are not exactly sure of the subject of this cartoon and its fresco. The theme of the fresco facing it on the opposite side (the cartoon for which is also in the National Gallery’s collection) is unrequited love, but the woman in this drawing seems far from reluctant to be carried away.
A muscular sea god, with dragon-like wings sprouting from his hips, is carrying off a naked woman. They are surrounded by putti, and a host of other marine divinities, some of whom ride on dolphins. On the right Triton, a sea god, blows a horn made from a conch shell; on the left a Nereid, or sea nymph, sits on a sea creature. In the air above, Cupid aims an arrow at the couple in the centre.
This is the working drawing for part of the frescoed ceiling of the Gallery in Palazzo Farnese, Rome. It is the cartoon, or final stage in the design for one of two large scenes, made to look as if they are paintings in gilded frames and propped up on the cornice of the long sides of the Gallery.
We are not sure exactly of the subject of this cartoon. The ceiling shows stories taken from classical mythology, largely based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and in particular the loves of the gods. The subject of the fresco on the opposite side – for which Cephalus carried off by Aurora in her Chariot is the cartoon – is unrequited love, but the woman in this drawing seems far from reluctant to be carried away.
Although Annibale Carracci most likely had overall control of the project and was largely responsible for designing the scheme, it is difficult to distinguish between the work of Annibale and that of his older brother Agostino, with whom he collaborated on the ceiling itself. They themselves deliberately harmonised their painting styles and rebuffed demands to know who exactly did what. All the early sources attribute the painted scene to which this drawing relates entirely to Agostino. Unlike in the cartoon of Cephalus and Aurora, where Annibale’s hand is detectable in certain details, the style of this drawing is consistent, suggesting that it is all the work of Agostino. There are several differences between the cartoon’s design and the final fresco – in particular the pose of the horn-blowing Triton on the right – and these changes are probably due to Annibale, by whom further studies for the Triton exist. If you look closely at the cartoon, however, you can see that this too was a work in progress: the central woman’s left hand once rested on the shoulder of the sea god but her arm was then changed to a raised position; and the head of the putto riding the dolphin at the front is shown in two different positions simultaneously (one looking forwards and one in profile).
Cartoons could be transferred onto a ceiling either by being cut up into sections and the design traced onto the plaster with a sharp instrument, as happened with Aurora and Cephalus, or through pricking, as here. Small holes were made along the outlines of the design – a tedious task which would have been done by a junior assistant – and then coloured chalk was shaken over the cartoon, leaving dotted marks on the fresh plaster. Since it would have been impractical to manipulate a piece of paper measuring approximately 2m x 4m on the ceiling itself, the design must have been transferred onto a substitute cartoon which was placed behind this one so that holes could be pricked through both. This second cartoon was then cut up into smaller sections in order to transfer the design onto the ceiling. This method allowed the artist to keep the original cartoon, either for reuse later on, as a teaching tool, or to be sold.
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A Woman borne off by a Sea God (?)
The Farnese Gallery Cartoons
These huge cartoons were made in preparation for the painted ceiling in the Gallery of one of Rome’s greatest Renaissance private palaces, the Palazzo Farnese (now the site of the French Embassy in Rome). In 1593 Odoardo Farnese, who had just been made a cardinal, opened negotiations to get the Carracci brothers to decorate the palace he had inherited the previous year. Annibale Carracci moved to Rome in 1595, and was followed by his older brother Agostino two years later.
The Carraccis frescoed the vault and end walls of the long narrow Gallery on the first floor of the palace, where the Farnese family’s extensive collection of antiquities were displayed. Packed with illusionistic architecture, sculptures and painted mythological scenes illustrating the loves of the gods, the ceiling gives the impression of being three-dimensional. The frescoed decoration in the Palazzo Farnese is rightly considered the Carraccis' crowning achievement and was widely admired both during their lifetime and afterwards.
These huge cartoons, Cephalus carried off by Aurora in her Chariot and A Woman borne off by a Sea God, were made in preparation for scenes on the painted ceiling in the Gallery of one of Rome’s greatest Renaissance private palaces, the Palazzo Farnese (now the site of the French Embassy in Rome). In 1593 the nineteen-year-old Odoardo Farnese, who had just been made a cardinal, opened negotiations to bring the Carracci brothers to Rome to decorate the palace he had inherited the previous year. Annibale Carracci moved to Rome in 1595, and was followed by his older brother Agostino in 1597.
Annibale first decorated the Cardinal’s study, the Camerino, and then moved on to the ceiling of the Gallery in 1597, with assistance from his brother. The Gallery is a long narrow room on the first floor of the palace, which was used to display the Farnese family’s extensive collection of antiquities. Its barrel-vaulted ceiling posed a challenge due to its steep curvature but Annibale devised an ingenious scheme for its decoration. Packed with trompe l‘oeil pictures and statues, the vault and two end walls are entirely painted but the illusion is so skilful that the visitor is fooled into believing that at least parts of it are three-dimensional. Painted architecture, stucco work, illusionistic bronze medallions, marble sculptures and mythological paintings jostle for space and attention. Naked youths lounge on the cornice that runs around the room, recalling Michelangelo’s famous ignudi (nude male figures) on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which Annibale must have studied closely. All these elements make up an imagined gallery, complementing the setting of the sculptures displayed below.
The ceiling is the result of Annibale’s momentous encounter with classical antiquity and the art of the High Renaissance in Rome. His intensive study of Michelangelo and Raphael, especially the latter’s frescoes in the Villa Farnesina (which also belonged to Cardinal Odoardo), and of Roman antique sculpture, moved his art towards the more monumental and classical style of his later works.
The complex, multi-layered design of the Farnese ceiling is based on well-known Roman models, in particular the Sistine Chapel, although its themes are classical rather than biblical: the loves of the gods, largely taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The Carracci brothers followed the normal practice in planning the decoration of the ceiling. Numerous preparatory drawings were made – compositional studies, figure studies, drawings for decorative details (many of which survive) – and after these came full-scale drawings, or cartoons, from which the designs were transferred onto the ceiling. The drawings, in particular, show how the brothers’ ideas developed and what were their literary and artistic sources.
In the centre of the vault above each long wall of the Gallery is a large rectangular scene in a trompe l‘oeil frame, seemingly propped up on the cornice. The National Gallery’s drawings are the cartoons for these two painted scenes. The exact nature of the two brothers’ collaboration on the ceiling decoration is not clear, although the project was well advanced by the time Agostino arrived in Rome in 1597 (he left in 1600, following a dispute with Annibale). It is generally thought that Agostino painted the two frescoes for which these cartoons are the designs, although Annibale may have contributed various elements and had overall control of the project.
After a series of delays, the ceiling was finally completed in 1601. When the vault was nearly finished, Annibale was paid 500 scudi – a miserly sum for a masterpiece which had been in the making for over three years. Annibale’s disappointment probably contributed to his mental breakdown and his inability to fulfil later commissions, but the fame of the ceiling was such that it was – and still is – considered the masterpiece of his career.


More paintings by Agostino Carracci
