Some 95 drawings by 16th Century Italian artist Annibale Carracci are being exhibited until January 9th 2000 at the Washington National Gallery of Art. Carracci (1560-1609) was considered as a virtuoso regarding the art of drawing and was one of the rare artists to work after nature. With Caravaggio he was one of the few artists who really laid the foundation of painting during the 17th Century.
This artist was used to make many preparatory sketches for his paintings after founding in Bologna an Academy with his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico.
The National Museum of Urbino, which possesses some 50 drawings, accepted for the first time to loan these to the Washington exhibition, which will enable visitors to discover that Carracci was the true heir of Michelangelo and Raphael. In exchange, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation will restore many of these sketches.