CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announce a major acquisition of an early 17th-century painting by Ludovico Carracci, The Vision of Saint Francis (c. 1602). The work, acquired by the Department of Medieval through Modern European Painting and Sculpture at the museum, is the first painting by Ludovico Carracci to enter the collection. While the museum does hold a generous amount of works on paper by Ludovico and his cousins Annibale and Agostino, generally recognized as the artists who transformed Italian painting at the turn of the 17th century, The Vision of Saint Francis is the first painting by a Carracci to become part of the Art Institute’s permanent collection. This intimate, emotionally charged oil on copper painting, depicting a tender vision of Saint Francis, is now on view in Gallery 212A at the museum. “We are thrilled to add this singular example of 17th-century Bolognese painting to our per