Within Cardinal Joseph Fesch's vast art collection there were not only masterpieces. A painting in storage at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ajaccio provides an opportunity to add a new work to the catalogue of a minor figure in Annibale Carracci's Roman circle: Innocenzo Tacconi. At the same time, it makes it possible to trace the precedents and subsequent developments of a particular invention, and to assess the manner in which this pupil and collaborator of Annibale, hardly among the most gifted, exploited the Carracci legacy. Such an assessment is further supported by comparison with works by other associates in the
same circle, such as Sisto Badalocchio and Antonio Maria Panico. Finally, it prompts reflection on the posthumous esteem enjoyed by these works among later generations, an esteem often rooted more in cultural affiliation than intrinsic merit, since they derived all or nearly all of their sustenance from that artistic inheritance.