CARRACCI, Annibale
(b. 1560, Bologna, d. 1609, Roma)

Pan and Diana

1597-1602
Fresco
Galleria Farnese, Palazzo Farnese, Rome

Annibale Carracci transformed the reception room into a shining collection of classical pictures. In fact, the decoration was not intended to be a single scene, but imitated a collection of framed paintings surrounding the main scene. This was the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne which fills the centre of the ceiling. The individual pictures are painted with a smiling, serene sense of classical antiquity revisited and reinterpreted through the art of Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian and Correggio.

In this image Pan offers a piece of white wool to Diana as a gift of love.