Annibale Carracci
Italian painter, 1560-1609
Bean Eater
1582/83
Oil on canvas
27 3/8 x 34 3/4 inches (69.533 x 88.265 centimeters)
Purchase: Gift of Estelle Reninger, 1986.
1986.017.000

Annibale Carracci belonged to an important family of Italian artists from Bologna who, toward the end of the sixteenth century, rejected the prevailing Mannerist style, preferring the work of earlier northern Italian Renaissance artists such as Titian and Correggio. The Carracci opened an academy around 1582, where they taught students the importance of painting from nature. The presentation of a peasant at his simple meal of beans, bread, and pigs' feet was novel subject for an artist to portray in sixteenth-century Italy. Italian genre paintings (works depicting scenes from everyday life) commonly depicted idyllic country scenes or comedic views of lowly street vendors. The direct observation and sympathy for the subject mark this as an early example of a more naturalistic style of genre painting.