Name of Object:

Annunciation

Location:

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Holding Museum:

Pinacoteca Nazionale

Original Owner:

Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament

Current Owner:

Italian State

Date of Object:

1584

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Ludovico Carracci (1555, Bologna-1619, Bologna)

Museum Inventory Number:

28314

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

182,5 x 221 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Counter-reformation, Classicism, Naturalism, Early baroque

Provenance:

Church of San Giorgio in Poggiale (Bologna), Oratory of the Holy Sacrament

Type of object:

Painting

Period of activity:

1584–1619

Place of production:

Bologna

Description:

The scene takes place in a domestic interior. The composition, based on a neo-Renaissance perspective shows a nearly archaic poverty. The scene opens outward allowing the viewer to feel directly involved in the event. The employment of three different sources of light is very original: the main light source illuminates the figures coming from the foreground. A light is emanating from a dove that symbolizes the Holy Spirit shines from above. A third beam of light shines from a side door. Far from the spectacular luminosity of Tintoretto, this painting employs a poor, nearly severe palette anticipating a naturalism of feeling and research on the human form. It is a careful representation of life typical of the early Baroque period as depicted by artists such as Caravaggio. Keeping in contact with Raphael and Correggio's noble classicism, Ludovico Carracci portrays life in a quotidian tone with a humble, direct and moving religiosity. This seems to reflect the spirit that a great interpreter of the Catholic Reformation, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna from 1566, applied to the visual arts, in his book Sacred and Profane Images, published in 1582. The altarpiece stood on a predella, painted by Camillo Procaccini before his departure for Milan (1585–86), which was lost during the Second World War.

A symbol of the early Counter-reformation in Bologna (more appropriately of the Catholic Reformation) because of its authentic and direct religious feeling. Based on its humble naturalism and its original experiments with light it is one of the paintings from Lombardy and northern Italy which led to the style of Caravaggio.

How date and origin were established:

The date 1584, hypothesized by the critics on stylistic basis, has been recently confirmed by historical documents about the building of the oratory where the painting was held (Feigenbaum 1990).

How Object was obtained:

Commissioned by Giulio Cesare Guerini, a member of the Company of the Holy Sacrament, the painting became property of the Italian Government in 1866. The painting was taken back to the church of San Giorgio in Poggiale. It was moved to the Pinacoteca shortly before the beginning of Second World War and it is still on show in this museum.

Selected bibliography:

Arcangeli, F. Natura ed espressione nell'arte bolognese-emiliana (exhibition catalogue) (ed. F. Arcangeli), Bologna, 1970, p. 42, p. 188.
Ludovico Carracci (ed. A. Emiliani),  Bologna, 1993, pp. XLVIII-XLIX .
Feigenbaum, G. “The early history of Lodovico Carracci's 'Annunciation' altarpiece”, The Burlington Magazine 132, 1990, pp. 616-622.
Brogi, A. Ludovico Carracci (1555 - 1619), Ozzano Emilia (Bo), 2001.
Brogi, A. in Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. Catalogo generale (eds. J. Bentini, G. P. Cammarota and D. Scaglietti Kelescian), II, Da Raffaello ai Carracci, Venice, 2004, pp. 221-23.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright image: Archivio fotografico della Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio storico artistico di Bologna, su concessione del Ministero per i Beni culturali.

Citation of this web page:

Carla  Bernardini "Annunciation" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus12_A;1;en

Prepared by: Carla BernardiniCarla Bernardini

SURNAME: Bernardini
NAME: Carla

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d'Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Curator of the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte

CV

Graduated in Modern Literature, specialized in History of Art at the University of Bologna.
She is a specialist in Bolognese and Emilian art of the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of her essays are dedicated to museology and collecting, decorative and applied arts, revival in the Visual arts between the 19th and the 20th centuries. Since 1985 she works at Musei Civici d’Arte Antica of Bologna, as curator of the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte.

Translation by: Antonella MampieriAntonella Mampieri

SURNAME: Mampieri
NAME: Antonella

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Art Hitorian

CV:
Graduated and specialised at the University of Bologna. She is a specialist in Bolognese late Baroque art, namely sculpture. Among other subjects she has been studying nineteenth-century funerary art in the Bologna monumental cemetery, la Certosa.
Translation copyedited by: Lisa Kelman

MWNF Working Number: IT2 01