In 1597, when he was in his early twenties, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese called upon the renowned Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci to undertake the grandest of projects: the decoration of the enormous gallery on the piano nobile of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The resulting frescoes are one of the great feats of Renaissance painting, a dazzling array of mythological scenes ensconced in a trompe l’oeil architectural framework. The Palazzo Farnese has been home to the French Embassy to Italy for some 150 years, so it is only fitting that this landmark exhibition, which brings together a vast collection of the drawings Carracci made in preparation for the project, should take place at the Louvre (5 November–2 February 2026). Some of the cartoons that were ultimately painted by Annibale, his brother Agostino and their students, are several metres wide, allowing the figures depicted to frolic on a grand scale. Also on display are newly restored fragments of the replica frescoes that Louis XIV commissioned for the Tuileries Palace.
Find out more from the Louvre’s website.
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