Erotica in Art

 

" In art, immorality cannot exist.
Art is always sacred"

                                                     August Rodin

 

Agostino Carracci

 

b Bologna, 15 Aug 1557; d Parma, 22 March 1602.

Painter, engraver and draughtsman, cousin of Ludovico Carracci. He abandoned his profession as a tailor, which was also that of his father, Antonio, and began training as a painter. According to Faberi, he studied first in the workshop of the painter Prospero Fontana (like Ludovico), then trained under the engraver and architect Domenico Tibaldi and under the sculptor Alessandro Menganti (1531–c. 1594). However, it is likely that Faberi’s account was influenced by his desire to present Agostino’s career as an example of the versatile ‘cursus studiorum’ advocated by the Accademia degli Incamminati. Other sources (Mancini, Malvasia, Bellori) agree that it was his cousin Ludovico who was responsible for directing him towards painting. Only recently has it been assumed that he was a pupil of Bartolomeo Passarotti.
These 20 plates are out of the book „L`ARETIN d`Augustin CARRACHE ou Receuil de Postures Érotiques, d`apres les Gravures a l`eau-forte par cet Artiste célèbre", which was printed 1798 in Paris. This artist was Jacques Joseph Coiny, who lived from 1761 to 1809.