Pietà (Christ of Caprarola),

1597

During his lifetime, Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci made fewer than twenty prints. This fine impression of the Lamentation demonstrates how etching and drypoint afforded him linear delicacy and greater tonality. The risks of the etching process are also present, evident in the foul biting visible along the top of the print. First at the Academy he cofounded in Bologna and later in Rome, Annibale was tremendously influential to other artists. His Lamentation was copied multiple times, including by his older brother Agostino, who taught him printmaking.

Annibale produced this print two years after his pivotal move to Rome and during a stay outside the city at the Farnese villa of Caprarola (as indicated in the inscription). He had already explored the subject of the Lamentation in his drawings and paintings, though none serve as the direct basis for this version. Correggio’s Lamentation altarpiece (1524–25) is a clear source for the print, as both works show Christ’s body in slumped languor.