ABSTRACT
This essay features a close reading of Giovanni Battista Agucchi’s concept of artistic schools, which he develops in his uncomplete treatise, published 1646 by Giovanni Antonio Massani. From this fragment, it can be shown that an artistic geography, which had been formulated to a large extent by Giorgio Vasari and which is seen here from a different perspective, has been modified and developed further. In particular, I focus on the goals Agucchi pursued in his conception of artistic schools. While he regarded these schools as a historical development, he seeks to praise the Carracci for their unification of three of the four types of painting that he identified. Agucchi’s concept of artistic schools was influential and further developed by Francesco Scannelli and Giovan Pietro Bellori, while later authors referred to the invention of schools.
