Though the Eclectic movement is properly associated with the cousins Lodovico and Annibale Carracci,[90] it somewhat antecedes them. The impetus comes from Flanders with the painter of Antwerp, Denis Calvert, who came to Bologna late in the sixteenth century and founded an art school. Like all the better educated Flemings, he represented a profound nostalgia for Renaissance grandeur, and also a certain detachment from the particular Italian artists who had embodied the ideal of _grandezza_. Such a man is, perforce, an eclectic, studying widely the methods of his great predecessors and seeking to assimilate in his own art their various perfections. Besides, methods of comparative study which had formerly been extremely difficult if not impossible were now easy. Casts were available of the antique marbles, fairly faithful engravings were at hand for all the great painters. It is significant that both the Carracci were reproductive engravers. Denis Calvert was no genius, but a prudent and sagacious artist who made the most of a slender endowment. His critical and assimilative spirit passed over to his best pupils. Their reform, unlike Caravaggio’s, was not revolutionary, but based on a careful restudy of the grand style, which they had never wavered in venerating. Annibale Carracci was reared in devotion to Raphael, whose fine St. Cecilia was at Bologna. Venice lured him, but he was rebuffed by Tintoretto. Annibale made profound studies of Correggio at Parma, whence he writes that Raphael now seems wooden to him in comparison. He is now launched on the impossible quest of combining with the austere grandeur of the Roman School, the charm of Venetian coloring and the emotional instability of Correggio. Thus it was an attempt to restore the grand style largely in the name of one of its chief disintegrators, and as such it was from the first headed for failure. Yet it was an attempt dictated by the times, and the inevitable choice of any superior spirit who wished to reknit the Renaissance tradition. It was the moment of the Catholic Reaction and of the endeavor of the new Jesuit Order to rebuild a shaken Church on the basis of persuasion. Largely shorn of authority, the Church must now be popular or perish. It wisely chose to be popular, adopting the thrilling novelties of Baroque architecture, borrowing from the opera its swelling choral cadences, everywhere stressing the note of charm, surprise and emotion. So the moderation and austerity which underlay the Renaissance style were forbidden to the Eclectics, and they chiefly differed from the rival Naturalists in choosing to make their sensationalism as decorous as the circumstances permitted. Such is the social background of the Carracci’s reform, and they deserve utmost credit for achieving so much under such limitations. [Illustration: FIG. 315. Lodovico Carracci. Assumption.—_Bologna._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 316. Annibale Carracci. Madonna in Glory.—_Bologna._ ]