Carracci, Agostino (1557-1602; Italian), after Barocci, Federico (c.1535-1612; Italian)
Aeneas bearing his father, Anchises, from burning Troy (1595)
Engraving, c.38.2 x 55 cm
Acquired by 1894
Location unknown
Both NGV 1894 and 1905 describe the pre-Felton impression of this engraving as one of those donated by George Collins Levey in 1879, but this appears to be incorrect.
The work does not appear in the NGV’s unpublished list of 1879 accessions (PF), and it also seems anomalous in relation to the other prints Levey acquired in Paris in 1878 (almost all of them French in origin, and later in date). See now Levey gift, Appendix A2.
Barocci, famous for his subtlety of form and colour, and often regarded as a precocious precursor of the Baroque style, was reportedly unimpressed by this sharply linear rendering of his painting. A second painting of the theme by Barocci, produced in 1598 (and in the Borghese Gallery, Rome, by 1613), was one of the sources of the young Gianlorenzo Bernini’s statue of the subject, also in the Borghese.
For another representation of this story, in this case definitely one of the prints donated by Levey, see Audran after Spada Aeneas saving his father {1879} NGV [PR] [Levey gift, cat.34].
[comparative photo: Metropolitan Museum impression]
Refs.
NGV 1894, p.109 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 2nd bay, no.46); NGV 1905, p.123 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 2nd bay, no.35)
For the impression reproduced here, see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/47.100.1023 (with size and date indicated above; also citing Barocci’s reported reaction to Carracci’s print). Another impression, in poor condition, is held in the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne: see Dictionary of Italian artists [Victoria] (1984), p.31
For Barocci, see also Bénézit I, pp.1176-78 (listing his birth date as 1526 or 1528) and AKL 7 (1993), pp.116-19; for his Borghese canvas, see e.g. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/barocci/aeneas/aeneas.jpg
