Agostino Carracci Bologna 1557 - 1602 Parma

Possibly from the collection of Paolo Coccapani, Bishop of Reggio Emilia (see note above);
Possibly George Earl of Cholmondeley (L.537);
Alistair Mathews

This very important compositional study by Agostino is preparatory for his fresco of the subject in the Sala di Giasone in Palazzo Fava, Bologna, painted in 1583-84 (fig. 1).  It is a handsome drawing and testimony to the great skill of Agostino in this ambitious and collaborative early project, which was completed by Annibale, Lodovico and Agostino.  Anna Ottani Cavina, when writing about the eighteen episodes from the story of Jason in the Sala di Giasone, says that this continuous narrative frieze has its roots in Bolognese tradition and in particular in Nicolò dell' Abate's decoration in Palazzo Poggi, where he painted the stories of Camilla  from the Aeneid (see Anna Ottani Cavina, Gli Affreschi dei Carracci in Palazzo Fava, Bologna 1966, pp. 41-42).  She stresses the collaborative aspect of the commission but assigns the authorship of The Sacrifice of Pelias to Agostino (see op. cit, p. 47). This view is shared by the majority of scholars.

The present drawing was first published by Catherine Legrand as the work of Annibale, because of its connection with a well-known related study in the Louvre.  The latter, which is less finished than the present drawing, represents an earlier stage in the development of the composition and has many differences from the final fresco.  It also has an illustrious provenance: once in the Crozat Collection, it was bought by Mariette who first related it to the frescoes in Palazzo Fava and attributed it to Annibale, following an old attribution on the drawing (see Catherine Legrand, op.cit., pp. 64-65). Legrand retained the traditional attribution to Annibale for the Louvre drawing, but when commenting on the present drawing (known to her only from a photograph brought to her attention by Aidan Weston-Lewis) she pointed out the close stylistic similarities with Agostino.  It was Ann Sutherland Harris who first published the present drawing and the Louvre one as by Agostino, on the basis of stylistic factors (see Literature).  Most recently, Catherine Loisel has rightly catalogued the drawing in the Louvre as Agostino (see Dessins Italiens du Musée du Louvre, Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale Carracci, Paris 2004, p. 159, cat. no. 232, reproduced).

The present study is quite close to the final composition of the fresco although it does differ in a number of details, showing that Agostino was still making changes even at this final stage: there is a fourth figure blowing a trumpet, just drawn in black chalk, which appears to be in the same position as the only musician in the Louvre drawing but does not appear in the fresco.  Agostino must have felt, with good reason, that it would have overcrowded the space to the left and compromised the balance of the composition.  It is also worth noting that the present drawing is most probably the one listed in the inventory of Bishop Paolo Coccapani in 1640, as: 'Un 'Historia grande in foglio azuro del Sacrificio del Vitello d'Annibal Carraccia', (see J. Bentini, Disegni della Galleria Estense di Modena, Modena 1989, p. 38).  As the Louvre drawing is on beige paper it does not fit this description.