Editing Agostino Carracci (section)

==Life==
[[File:Bust-Length Portrait of a Woman (recto); Bust-Length Study of a Girl (verso) MET DP808290.jpg|right|thumb|''Bust-Length Portrait of a Woman'']]
[[File:'Pieta' by Agostino Carracci, The Hermitage.JPG|thumb|''The Lamentation'' (c. 1586)]]
Agostino Carracci was born in [[Bologna]] as the son of a tailor. He was the elder brother of Annibale Carracci and the cousin of Ludovico Carracci.  He initially trained as a goldsmith.  He later studied painting, first with [[Prospero Fontana]], who had been Lodovico's master, and later with [[Bartolomeo Passarotti]]. He traveled to Parma to study the works of [[Correggio]]. Accompanied by his brother Annibale, he spent a long time in Venice, where he trained as an engraver under the renowned [[Cornelis Cort]].<ref name=cat>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03374c.htm Carracci] at the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''</ref>  Starting from 1574 he worked as a reproductive [[engraver]], copying works of 16th century masters such as [[Federico Barocci]], [[Tintoretto]], [[Antonio Campi]], [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]] and [[Correggio]]. He also produced some original prints, including two [[etching]]s.

He traveled to [[Venice]] (1582, 1587–1589) and [[Parma]] (1586–1587). Together with Annibale and Ludovico he worked in Bologna on the fresco cycles in [[Palazzo Fava]] ([[Lives of Jason and Medea|''Histories of Jason and Medea'']], 1584) and [[Palazzo Magnani, Bologna|Palazzo Magnani]] ([[Scenes from the Foundation of Rome|''Histories of Romulus'']], 1590–1592). In 1592 he also painted the [[The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Carracci)|''Communion of St. Jerome'']], now in the [[Pinacoteca di Bologna]] and considered his masterwork. In 1620, [[Giovanni Lanfranco]], a pupil of the Carracci, famously accused another Carracci student, [[Domenichino]], of [[The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Domenichino)|plagiarizing this painting]]. From 1586 is his altarpiece of the ''Madonna with Child and Saints'', in the National Gallery of [[Parma]].  In 1598 Carracci joined his brother Annibale in Rome, to collaborate on the decoration of the Gallery in [[Palazzo Farnese, Rome|Palazzo Farnese]]. From 1598 to 1600 is a ''triple Portrait'', now in [[Naples]], an example of genre painting. In 1600 he was called to Parma by Duke [[Ranuccio I Farnese]] to begin the decoration of the Palazzo del Giardino, but he died before it was finished. His friend the poet [[Claudio Achillini]] composed an [[epitaph]], which was later published by [[Carlo Cesare Malvasia]] in the life of the Carracci.<ref>{{cite book|title=Malvasia's Life of the Carracci: Commentary and Translation|publisher=[[Penn State Press]]|isbn=9780271044378|page=8|author=Anne Summerscale|date=2000 }}</ref>

Agostino's son [[Antonio Marziale Carracci|Antonio Carracci]] was also a painter, and attempted to compete with his father's Academy.

An engraving by Agostino Carraci after the painting ''Love in the Golden Age'' by the 16th-century Flemish painter [[Paolo Fiammingo]] was the inspiration for [[Matisse]]'s ''[[Le bonheur de vivre]]'' (Joy of Life).<ref>Thomas Puttfarken, "Mutual Love and Golden Age: Matisse and 'gli Amori de' Carracci", ''The Burlington Magazine'', 124 (Apr. 1982): 203–208.</ref>