Agostino Carracci

Agostino Carracci was the scholarly member of the Carracci family, the brother of Annibale and cousin of Ludovico. He was a painter and one of the finest engravers of his time, and his prints of Tintoretto, Veronese and Correggio spread their work across Europe.

He was born in Bologna in 1557, trained as a goldsmith and then as a painter under Prospero Fontana and Bartolomeo Passarotti, and studied engraving in Venice with Cornelis Cort. With Annibale and Ludovico he founded the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna, a teaching academy based on drawing from life. His finest painting, The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna. He worked with Annibale on the Farnese Gallery in Rome and died in Parma in 1602 while decorating a palace for the Duke.

The Penitent Magdalen shows his careful drawing and calm, devotional mood.