Factfile

Pietà - after Veronese by Agostino Carracci

Theme : Art and Culture

One of six paintings by Veronese engraved in 1582 by Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), indicative for Diane DeGrazia Bohlin, an authority on the prints of the Carracci, of a business relationship between the painter and the engraver. (The painting is now in the Hermitage). "No one has doubted this signed and dated engraving, which exemplifies the new emphasis in Agostino's work on the contrast of light and shade and a new use of the paper for bright highlights...Veronese's original...is enlarged to include a tree and a distance beyond...It is this kind of change which marks Agostino as an 'original' reproductive engraver. Rather than copy a composition directly, he attempted to imbue it with his own personality, changing and interpreting so as to expand the forms in space." This work is part of the Deffett Francis Collection.