ANNIBAL CARACCI.

ANNIBAL is the most celebrated of the Caracci, but, in speaking of him, it would be unjust not to communicate the portion of glory due to Lodovico and Agostino, and the principle traits of their history, which are naturally connected with Annibal.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, painting had begun to degenerate; an overcharged manner, bad taste, and false systems, having made the most destructive progress. The principles of Michael Angelo, and of Raphael, were disregarded, and nothing existed in fa vour of these great masters, but a sterile admiration, Caravaggio and Josepin were on the point of effecting the ruin of the art, when there arose, from an obscure family at Bologna, three men, who were destined to restore painting to all its former celebrity and magnificence, and, in a particular manner, to conduct their cotemporaries into that path which they at the time appeared to have for ever abandoned.

Lodovico Caracci, who was born in the year 1555, is the first of the three that made himself known. His father was a butcher, but contrived, nevertheless, to give his son an excellent education. The young man followed his taste for the fine arts; was for some time upon his travels, and, after having studied the works of Julio Romano, Parmigiano, Correggio, and the Venetian painters, he formed his style from their different manners, to perfect that which he had acquired from his first master, Prospero Fontana. On his return to Bologna, he discovered, in his two cousins, AGOSTINO and AN