Skip to Main Content
  Navigation Menu
      Admission is always free

          Open today:10:00  to 5:00
          Directions
           Play Artle
        Visit
      Visit
          
            Getting Here
          
            Accessibility
          
            Tours, Guides & Maps
          
            Food & Drink
          
            Gallery Shops
          
            Visitor Policies
  
  Collection
      Collection
          
            Highlights
          
            Search the Collection
          
            Artists Search
          
            Acquisition Highlights
          
            Stories
          
            Games
  
  Exhibitions
      Exhibitions
          
            Current
          
            Special Installations
          
            Upcoming
          
            On Tour
          
            Past
  
  Calendar
      Calendar
          
            Films
          
            Performances
          
            Talks
          
            Guided Tours
          
            After Hours
          
            Fun for Kids
          
            Festivals
          
            Workshops
  
  Learn
      Learn
          
            Teachers
          
            Families
          
            Teens
          
            Adults
          
            Learning Resources
          
            Music Programs
          
            Film Programs
  
  Conservation
      Conservation
          
            Projects
          
            Publications
          
            Resources
  
  Research
      Research
          
            The Center
          
            Publications
          
            Make an Appointment
          
            Archives
          
            Library
          
            NGA Online Editions
  
  Support
      Support
          
            Donate Now
          
            National Membership
          
            Circle Membership
          
            Leadership Groups
          
            Planned Giving
          
            Major Giving
          
            Gifts of Art
  
  Shop
      Shop
          
            Books
          
            Jewelry
          
            Apparel & Accessories
          
            Kids
          
            NGA Custom Prints
  
  Play Artle
            Previous Menu
              


  Search
  Hide Menu
  
  Home>Research>Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts>Publications>Center Report>Center 43>Research Reports>Gail Feigenbaum
      

      
      Search Preface Dean’s Report People Programs Publications Research Reports Research Initiatives Credits and Acknowledgments All CenterReports
 Research Reports
 Gail FeigenbaumCenter 43
 Gail Feigenbaum
 High Prices: The Carracci Brand
 Annibale Carracci, The Dead Christ Mourned, about 1604, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
 In 1798 Annibale Carracci’s Pietà in the Orléans Collection was the most expensive painting in London, and probably the entire world. Crowds of spectators congregated around it at the great Manchester Art Treasures exhibition of 1857, creating “a furore” as “the most popular object of attraction in the Galleries.” Few critics failed to mention its high price. A critical about-face quickly followed as the classical style, of which the Carracci were paragons, was judged decadent, and—a subject of intense debate in those years—academic. Carracci prices dropped precipitously for a century. It would probably surprise people today that Carracci’s Pietà was once so wildly expensive as to call to mind a contemporary spectacle of high price, the Leonardo Salvator Mundi. High prices were a signal attributeof the Bolognese Carracci family of painters during the period of their activity, circa 1580–1619, and long after. High prices provide a point of departure for my exploration of the Carracci through the lens of the art market, cast as a case study, but with the belief that it will also serve to illuminate the art-historical moment more broadly. Beginning by pulling at the thread of conspicuously high prices, I propose that the Carracci deliberately conceptualized their identity as something akin to a name brand that persisted for centuries, that became ever more capacious and successful, and that could operate on terms quite independent of the properties of actual works. While branding for marketing purposes (as opposed to marking ownership) is an anachronistic term, it helps to tease out different aspects of the Carracci’s own practices. For example, the Carracci institutionalized their identity in the family’s academy, promulgating their reform of painting and inculcating their values into a new generation of artists. Frequented by the local nobility, the academy even served to “market” the Carracci to potential patrons. In collaborative commissions, Lodovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracci sublimated their individual manners to a collective style in their campaign to establish and disseminate the Carracci name. I would argue that the family developed their name like a brand, insisting that their painting was “by the Carracci, we did it together.”
 We look through shadowed trees at a river winding into the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Close to us, a cluster of three thin trees and a larger central tree are deep in shadow, which contrasts with the light-filled scene beyond. The topaz-blue river curves from the lower right corner, across the canvas, and into the distance at the center. A few spindly trees grow along the riverbank in front of a hut with a thatched roof to our right. The bank to our left is lined with reeds and tall grasses. Behind the central shadowed tree, a long, low, narrow boat is occupied by four people with pale skin. To our left, a person with a dark garment and white collar reclines near a seated man wearing yellow and a feathered cap. To our right, another person reclines near the boatman who pushes the boat through the water using a long pole. The harvest yellow and sage green of the riverbanks and vegetation beyond the boats fades to hazy, pale blue mountains along the horizon line, which comes just over halfway up the composition. White clouds float across a blue sky above.
      
        
        
            
         	  Annibale Carracci, River Landscape, c. 1590, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.58
 Carracci prices are entangled with honor, ambivalence about money, ambition, desire for immortality, social and professional status, economic survival, competition, skill, friendship, and family tensions. Prices are eventually correlated with “taste” and the concept of brand is useful in reevaluating this problematic variable. Branding has been of interest for contemporary art, but not for premodern periods, and I have benefited from studies on branding in other fields. Fortunately, art history, art market studies, and cultural economics offer a recent bonanza of relevant publications, but scholarship on the Italian market still lags behind that of Northern Europe. Lacking the North’s overt structures, business organization, and visibility, the stubbornly regional Italian market has almost to be inferred, transaction by transaction, and it raises questions about what has been considered normative about the art market more broadly. The published primary documentation reveals that the Bolognese were almost exclusively interested in Bolognese art, and the correspondence of agents tells a story of aggressive collectors from elsewhere hunting for increasingly scarce works by the Carracci and their former pupils, like Guido Reni: by far the highest price for any painting in Bologna in 1676 was for Annibale’s Resurrection. By 1700 a confluence of collecting and dispersal coinciding with the rise of the grand tour resulted in a demand that could not be met. With original paintings almost unobtainable, drawings, copies, or even school pieces sold for high prices. Cultural economics offers new perspectives on factors affecting price, financial value, innovation, and hedonic pricing. Especially useful in evaluating a correlation between the nebulous category of taste with price is the work of Kathryn Graddy, who analyzed Roger de Piles’s Balance (1708), a table that rates artists according to their excellence in categories like composition, drawing, and color. Graddy correlates de Piles’s ratings to demand and price over time and presents the “superstar model,” in which top-rated artists grow ever more valuable; the Carracci score very high, just below Raphael and Rubens. The Carracci formed part of the canon, discussed by most important art critics over three centuries. A link to their critical fortune is crucial to price. I am now embarking on an analysis of prices using the sales, inventories, and dealer stock books databases of the Getty Research Institute Provenance Index. What did the (brand) name Carracci mean, encompass, and evoke, especially in the criticism and in the salesroom, and how does this discourse correlate with price? San Diego, CA
Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, spring 2023 Gail Feigenbaum will return to San Diego. She will finish editing a book about the transatlantic art market from 1880 to 1930 and continue research for an article about the historical art market for the Carracci.
 Back to Research Reports








Stay connected Learn more about our exhibitions, news, programs, and special offers.
 Email Address for National Gallery newsletter subscription


About About the National Gallery
    
        Stories
    
        Press
    
        FAQs
    
        Contact Us
 Plan a Visit Getting Here
    
        Accessibility
    
        Today's Tours
    
        Food & Drink
    
        Calendar
    
        Downloadable Map
 Get Involved Donate
    
        Membership
    
        Volunteer
    
        Opportunities
    
        Shop Online
 Resources Search the Collection
    
        Conservation
    
        Library
    
        Archives
    
        The Center
    
        Film Programs
    
        Music Programs
    
        Audio/Video
    
        Open Access Images


Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily West Building6th St and Constitution Ave NWEnter or exit from Constitution Avenue, 4th Street, or 7th Street. The Madison Drive entrance is currently closed. East Building4th St and Constitution Ave NWEnter and exit from 4th Street. Sculpture Garden7th St and Constitution Ave NWEnter and exit from 7th Street, Constitution Avenue, or Madison Drive. We are closed on December 25 and January 1.
 The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.


Twitter
          Facebook
          Instagram
		      Pinterest
          YouTube
 © 2024 National Gallery of Art   Notices   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy