The Carracci drawings

Completed at the very beginning of the 17^th century, a decorative interior in the heart of the Palazzo Farnese – the current seat of the French Embassy in Italy – would come to be regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of Western painting, a 17^th century Sistine Chapel and a model for many interiors painted throughout Europe for nearly 300 years. The work in question is the gallery decorated by Annibale Carracci, his brother Agostino, and their students.

In order to present its immense beauty to the widest possible audience, the Musée du Louvre is ’moving’ the Galleria Farnese to Paris, where the most extraordinary collection of preparatory drawings ever assembled will recreate the gallery in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle. The Galleria Farnese drew admiration far and wide and inspired the work of many artists – the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles and the Grand Foyer of the Opéra Garnier, to name only a few – due to the beauty of its frescoes as well as that of its preparatory drawings. Never before had so many drawings for a painted interior been preserved, from the rapid sketch outlining the artist’s initial ideas to the large cartoon measuring several metres per side, which contains a full-scale drawing of the fresco. With the most discerning collectors instantly vying for them, the drawings quickly became veritable symbols of status and power. As the repository for the French royal collection, the Musée du Louvre now houses the world’s foremost collection of these works – alongside the British Royal Collection, from which 25 works will feature in the exhibition, lent by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection.

Recounting the story of a positively European fascination, the exhibition will, for the very first time, also present the newly restored last remnants of the Galleria Farnese replica commissioned by Louis XIV for the now destroyed Tuileries Palace. The massive scale of the copying endeavour embodied by this exceptional collection of very large cartoons, drawn by the first residents of the French Academy in Rome, reveals the boundless admiration that the Galleria Farnese inspired. But behind the veil of fame this masterpiece casts over its creators – the Carracci as a group – the exhibition aims to give visitors a closer look at the engaging character of the work’s key architect, Annibale.

An immersive exhibition design reproducing the Galleria’s vault will also include a second ceiling: that of the Camerino, a small room the artist was given to test his designs. Displayed alongside other sheets Annibale completed before leaving for Rome, the Camerino drawings – like those made for the Galleria – will highlight the 34-year-old artist’s determination to bring about a stylistic and intellectual revival. As he sojourned in the Eternal City for the very first time, his efforts would bring him to the point of exhaustion. Annibale’s incontestable masterpiece, his last great creation, an inspiration for the ages and an enduring source of awe and wonderment for observers of its frescoes and drawings, the Galleria Farnese is both an extraordinary feat and the embodiment of a tragic fate: still young, the exhausted artist would never paint again, passing away after its completion.