The Mannerist style begins to wane in Italy as a new generation of artists, including the Carracci brothers, Caravaggio and Cigoli, reemphasize naturalism.

Walter Friedlaender identified this period as "anti-Mannerism", just as the early Mannerists were "anti-classical" in their reaction to the High Renaissance.

Annibale Carracci’s The Beaneater (Italian: Mangiafagioli) is connected to the contemporary Butcher's Shop (now at Oxford), for it shares the same popularesque style.

Carracci has been influenced in the depiction of everyday life subjects by Vincenzo Campi and Bartolomeo Passarotti.

Manifest is Carracci's capability to adapt his style, making it "lower" when concerning "lower" subjects like the Mangiafagioli, while in his more academic works (such as the grossly contemporary Assumption of the Virgin) he is able to use a more classicist composure with the same easiness.