Madonna Enthroned with Saint Matthew

This huge canvas arrived in 1588, just as the artist was starting to reach his peak. Measuring nearly four metres tall by two and a half metres wide, surely Carracci would have made use of his studio for this commission?

It is not only a large painting but also the detail is extraordinary, with multiple figures placed in front of a landscape scene. In some cases he would add flourishes of detail to the background but in this case he chooses to allow the foreground figures to dominate the entire focus.

The artist is the sole signature on this piece, though. He used his standard mark of Hannibal Carractius Bon F. MDLXXXVIII. The original artwork can now be found in the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden, Germany. The artist's work in general is fairly well dispersed across Europe, having been prominent with the Baroque era and much demanded as a result. Collectors within France, the UK and also Germany managed to acquire several of his works around that time and they remain there today.

This well known painting is a good example of the skills Carracci possessed in portraiture. There is also some beautiful draped curtains in the top left of the painting which sit behind the playful cupids. To accurately capture material alongside architectural structures again showed another string to this artist's bow. He was essentially without limit, also implementing some stunning landscape scenes into the background of some of his other paintings.