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| Agostino Carracci Nude woman, half-length before 1602 drawing British Museum |
BEATRICE:
"Pervert not truth,
Orsino. You remember where we held
That conversation; nay, we see the spot
Even from this cypress; two long years are passed
Since, on an April midnight, underneath
The moonlight ruins of Mount Palatine,
I did confess to you my secret mind."
– from The Cenci, a verse drama by P.B. Shelley (1819)
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| attributed to Agostino Carracci Group of woman, possibly for The Finding of Moses before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Agostino Carracci Studies of standing male nude before 1592 drawing British Museum |
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| Agostino Carracci Sheet of sketches with landscape before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Agostino Carracci Man in cloak from behind before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| Agostino Carracci Study for engraved arms of a Cardinal ca. 1594-95 drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Agostino Carracci Wing-headed monster, possibly design for door-knocker before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| Agostino Carracci Profile-portrait of Pope Clement VIII before 1602 drawing British Museum |
Pope Clement VIII (Ippolito Aldobrandini, 1536-1605) was best known in his own day as a clever manipulator of international politics. But he is mainly remembered by posterity for violent authoritarianism, having ordered the executions in Rome of the young patrician Beatrice Cenci (in 1599) and the philosopher Giordano Bruno (in 1600). Both figures have remained martyrs to bigotry in popular imagination, their stories told and retold by historians and poets, with Clement as presiding villain.
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| Agostino Carracci Virgin and Child before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| Agostino Carracci Christ and the woman taken in adultery ca. 1593 drawing British Museum |
"A study [directly above] for Agostino's painting, formerly in the Palazzo Sampieri, Bologna, now in the Brera, Milan. This was Agostino's contribution to three painted overdoors (1593-5), all now in the Brera, Milan, treating the three female sinners of the Gospel. The others in the series were executed by his brother Annibale and his cousin Lodovico."
– curator's notes from the British Museum
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| attributed to Agostino Carracci Head of bearded man before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| follower of Agostino Carracci Head of goat before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| follower of Agostino Carracci Queen and attendants kneeling and praying before 1602 drawing British Museum |
BEATRICE:
Entrap me not with questions. Who stands here
As my accuser? Ha! Wilt thou be he,
Who art my judge? Accuser, witness, judge,
What, all in one? Here is Orsino's name;
Where is Orsino? Let his eye meet mine.
What means this scrawl? Alas! ye know not what.
And therefore on the chance that it may be
Some evil, will ye kill us?
– from The Cenci, a verse drama by P.B. Shelley (1819)
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| follower of Agostino Carracci Seated woman with snake on arm, looking in mirror before 1602 drawing British Museum |
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| follower of Agostino Carracci St Jerome before 1602 drawing British Museum |