ABSTRACT
Vincenzo Giustiniani in his Discorso on painting regarded the styles of Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio, along with Guido Reni, as being the greatest in recent painting thanks to their union of painting di maniera and painting from nature. Caravaggio's work was clearly more controversial than that of Annibale, but the altarpieces that, for whatever reason, were not accepted by certain church authorities always found another buyer. Indeed both artists achieved their renowned impact through their artistic originality in reinterpreting religious themes that clearly had great importance in Counter-Reformation Rome, and through their inventive skills were able to appeal to some of the new orders, the learned connoisseurs like Vincenzo Giustiniani, and the popolani. Annibale and Caravaggio would both leave an extraordinarily rich legacy for the needs of the next generation of Baroque artists and their audiences, as the Counter-Reformation moved into a more triumphant mode.
