The Italian painters and engravers Ludovico (1555-1619), Agostino (1557-1602), and Annibale (1560-1609) Carracci opposed the style of late mannerist painting and sought instead classically inspired realism. The style they created is called baroque classicism.

What the Carracci urged was a change from the artificial, antinaturalistic style then in vogue and a return to the realism, the richness, and in some cases the monumentality of the High Renaissance. This meant turning to examples of the work not only of Raphael, as is sometimes supposed, but of Titian, Correggio, and Michelangelo as well.

The movement began in Bologna. There is no doubt that Ludovico was the leader in the beginning. For a time he shared a studio with his cousins, the brothers Agostino and Annibale. Together they founded an art school or academy (the Accademia degli Incamminati) where their artistic principles were so convincing and their example so persuasive that...