Biography

Antonio Carracci was the illegitimate son of Agostino Carracci and a Venetian courtesan named Isabella. After his father's death in 1602, he trained in Rome with his uncle Annibale, whom he probably assisted on the wall frescoes in the Galleria Farnese (1603-04) and on decorations in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove (1606). After a brief visit to Bologna in 1609-10, Antonio returned to Rome where he worked for the remainder of his short career.

Under Guido Reni's supervision he painted a series of Virtues and other subsidiary figures in the Cappella dell'Annunciata in the Palazzo del Quirinale (1609-10). Soon after he did the ceiling fresco of God the Father with Saints in the sacristy of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura (c. 1611). For Cardinal Michelangelo Tonti, he created the altarpiece of St Bartholomew Kneeling in Adoration and the fresco decoration for three small chapels in San Bartolomeo dell'Isola in Rome, dedicated to the Passion of Christ, the Virgin and St Carlo Borromeo (c. 1611-15). In 1616 Antonio was again active in the Palazzo Quirinale, where for Pope Paul V he painted frescoes with scenes from the Old Testament in the so-called Stanza del Diluvio.

Though at times confused with other members of the Carracci family, Antonio's oeuvre includes notable easel paintings, such as Alexander with King Porus (c. 1616, private collection), commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Montalto; The Flood, a copy of his earlier fresco in the Palazzo del Quirinale (1616-17, Musée du Louvre, Paris); and The Death of St Cecilia (Musée Fabre, Montpellier).