Pietà - 'The Christ of Caprarola’

This etching, which Bohlin considered the 'most moving of all Annibale's prints', is the only print which the artist inscribed with the place of it's creation, Caprarola, where Carracci may have gone from Rome in order to see the decorations of the Farnese Palace. It is also his technically most complex work, as there are not only touches of drypoint but also a network of fine craquelure lines in the sky, which add a shimmering, ethereal atmosphere to the scene. Resulting from fine cracks in the etching ground, it is not clear whether this effect is deliberately or are 'a lucky accident', as Bohlin was inclined to think (Bohlin, p. 452-54)
The first five states of this plate, before Nico van Aelst added his address and published the print, must have been created in quick succession, as the quality of the present impression and the rarity of these early states suggest.