Self-Portrait
Annibale Carracci, 1593
This self-portrait by Annibale Carracci, dated 17 April 1593, shows the painter in a half-length close-up, wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat and a dark, plain garment. The cropping pulls the eye straight to the face: short hair, a steady gaze and a self-assured expression stand out against a neutral background. The date is written in the upper left corner of the canvas. It places the artist at about 33, at the height of his success, shortly after he and his cousin Ludovico had completed decorations for the Palazzo Magnani in Bologna. Scholars have compared it with the self-portrait of his brother Agostino, now in the Uffizi, and see in the pair two different temperaments: Agostino appears refined and intellectual, while Annibale looks more offhand and direct. The title as a self-portrait rests on oral tradition, which fits the many seventeenth-century prints and drawings in which the Carracci depicted themselves. It is now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.
- Painter
- Annibale Carracci
- Date
- 1593
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 24 × 20 cm
- Museum
- Galleria nazionale di Parma, Parma
- Genre
- self-portrait
- Depicts
- Annibale Carracci
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