''Fishing'' (or ''Fishing Scene'') is a painting by Italian artist

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of t ...

, painted before 1595 and given to

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

by Prince

Camillo Pamphili Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili (21 February 1622 – 26 July 1666) was an Italian Catholic cardinal and nobleman of the Pamphili family. His name is often spelled with the final ''long i'' orthography; Pamphilj. Early life Pamphili was ...

in 1665. It is currently held and exhibited at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

History

The painting and its companion, ''

Hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

'', were included in

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of ...

's inventory in 1683, and in November 1695 they were in the apartments of

King Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

's younger brother. It was no doubt for this purpose that they were given two sumptuous gilt frames, each with attributes suited to the subject of the painting - among the finest examples of the art of frame-making in the time of Louis XIV. In 1955, when the varnish was being cleaned, the 19th century gilding covering the original gilding was removed - a task of some magnitude which was carried out by the French firm of Lebrun. This work, together with its companion, date from Carracci's Bolognese period, before he left for

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1595 to paint at the Galleria Farnese. At this time he was extremely interested in

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

, and his experiments are a foreshadowing of

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

's classical compositions; but in these pictures he is exploring in a different direction, in the tradition of the

Bassani Bassani is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Axel Bassani (born 1999), Italian motorcycle racer * Bilgé Ögün Bassani, Chief Executive Officer of the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB International) * Edvin ...

, a family of painters whose studios continued to turn out landscapes which were prized all over

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. His interest was the

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are desc ...

. Without any religious theme as pretext, he painted two pure landscapes whose true subjects are the forest and the river, motivated by the themes of

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

. Therefore, Carracci was able to show nature animated with the life of the

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

and of ordinary people. The composition follows the visual device of division into compartments. Together with the Galleria Farnese, the two thematic paintings are Carracci's greatest masterpieces, and have always been much admired by artists.

Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...

found inspiration in the ''Fishing'', and the ''

'' has been copied by

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

and Rouault.D. Benati & E. Riccomini, ''Annibale Carracci'',

Mondadori Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...

Electa (2006), ''s.v. "Fishing Scene"''.

Footnotes

References

Catholic Encyclopedia: Carracci
*H. Loyrette, ''The Louvre: All the Paintings'', Black Dog & Leventhal (2011) * * * C. Dempsey: ''Annibale Carracci and the beginnings of baroque style'', Harvard 1977, 2nd ed. Fiesole 2000. * A. W. A. Boschloo: ''Annibale Carracci in Bologna: visible reality in art after the Council of Trent'', 's-Gravenhage 1974. * C. Goldstein: ''Visual fact over verbal fiction: a study of the Carracci and the criticism, theory, and practice of art in Renaissance and baroque Italy'', Cambridge 1988. * D. Posner: Annibale Carracci: a study in the reform of Italian painting around 1590, 2 vol., New York 1971. * S. Ginzburg: Annibale Carracci a Roma: gli affreschi di Palazzo Farnese, Roma 2000. * C. Loisel: ''Inventaire général des dessins italiens'', vol. 7: Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale Carracci, (Musée du Louvre: Cabinet des Dessins) Paris 2004. * Annibale Carracci, catalogo della mostra a cura di D. Benati, E. Riccomini, Bologna-Roma 2006–2007. * C. Robertson: ''The Invention of Annibale Carracci'' (Studi della Bibliotheca Hertziana, 4), Milano 2008.

External links

Carracci's ''Fishing'' on the Louvre WebsiteAnnibale Carracci artistic context, technique and artworksAnnibale Carracci at the WikiGallery.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fishing (Annibale Carracci) Paintings by Annibale Carracci 1590s paintings Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Fish in art Maritime paintings