Rebellious yet disciplined; traditional yet irreverent: the Carracci revolutionised painting and changed the course of art history. This film departs from the usual model both in subject and style: rather than asking viewers to absorb the art historical consensus on Italian painting, it invites them to discover something new; and it is full of unexpected treasures to entice the eye and pr ovoke the mind.
Marco Riccòmini, an art advisor of international fame, shares his knowledge in a search for the key to understanding and appreciating the lives, the works – and the magic – of the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci, and their cousin Ludovico Carracci, who were working together at the end of sixteenth century. Here for the first time the legend of the Carracci – well known to art historians but less familiar to the general public – is told on the screen.
In unconventional style, director Giulia Giapponesi follows Riccòmini through galleries right across the Western world on a journey of encounters, revelations and mysteries, and a lot of hard looking. It is this looking that will arouse wonder in everyone, from the scholars and aficionados to the most unsuspecting of observers.