The intriguing stylistic diversity of Bolognese painting had a tremendous impact on the development of artistic creation in seventeenth-century Italy. The flourishing of different stylistic approaches in the Mannerist paintings of the previous generation evolved, in the work of the three Carracci and their Bolognese followers, into an eclectic approach characterized by the combination of two or more styles in a single work of art. These painters each sought to formulate an individual approach characterized by more than one signature style, which they combined in accordance with what they were asked to portray, in order to convey specific ideas or messages.

This study aims to redefine and re-evaluate Bolognese painting in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in relation to the concept of eclecticism. From the early nineteenth century until quite recently, this concept was perceived as a synonym for bad art. A new appreciation of eclecticism emerged only in the last few decades, in postmodern theory and writing—most notably in the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who blazed the way for a rehabilitation of this term and of its aesthetic value. As I will argue in this book, by re-establishing the viability of the term, one gains a new understanding of the unique nature of early modern Bolognese painting, which expanded the limits of artistic creation and challenged the constraints evident in Vasarian unity. Significantly, eclecticism also challenges the traditional perception of linear stylistic development in the course of a given painter's artistic evolution. It is this study's aim to show that by accepting diversity as a major component of artistic theory and practice, one may uncover new layers of meaning in Bolognese painting at the turn of the seventeenth century.

When I first began my research on artistic theory as embedded in seventeenth- century painting more than a decade ago, I was under the impression that modern scholars overestimated the role of theory in the artistic production of this period. My point of departure at that time was Donald Posner's perception of the Carracci's practicality, together with Denis Mahon's opinion on their experimentalism. Yet as my research evolved, I came to realize the importance of theory in seventeenth-century Bolognese artistic conduct.