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DOMENICHINO (or DOMENICO), ZAMPIERI (...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 398 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DOMENICHINO (or DOMENICO), ZAMPIERI (1581-1641) , See also:Italian painter, See also:born at See also:Bologna, on the 21st of See also:October 1581, was the son of a shoemaker. The diminutive See also:form of See also:Christian name by which he is constantly known indicates his See also:short stature. He was placed, when See also:young, under the tuition of See also:Denis See also:Calvart; but having been treated with See also:great severity by that See also:master, he See also:left him, and became a See also:pupil in the See also:academy of the See also:Caracci, under See also:Agostino. Towards the beginning of the 17th See also:century he went to See also:Rome, at the invitation of his See also:fellow-pupil and intimate See also:Albani, and prosecuted his studies under Annibale Caracci. The See also:faculty of Domenichino was slow in its development. He was at first timid and distrustful of his See also:powers; while his studious, unready and reserved See also:manners were misunderstood by his companions for dulness, and he obtained the See also:nickname of the " Ox " (Bue). But Annibale Caracci, who observed his faculties with more See also:attention, predicted that the apparent slowness of Domenichino's See also:genius would in See also:time produce what would be an See also:honour to the See also:art of See also:painting. When his See also:early productions had brought him into See also:notice, he studied with extreme application, and made such advance as to raise his See also:works into a comparison with those of the most admired masters of the time. From his acting as a continual See also:censor of his own works, he became distinguished amongst his fellow-pupils as an accurate and expressive designer; his See also:colours were the truest to nature; See also:Mengs, indeed, found nothing to See also:desire in his works, except a somewhat larger proportion of elegance. That he might devote his whole powers to the art, Domenichino shunned all society; or, if he occasionally sought it in the public theatres and walks, this was in See also:order better to observe the See also:play of the passions in the features of the people—those of joy, anger, grief, terror and every See also:affection of the mind—and to commit them vividly to his tablets; thus, says Bellori, it was that he succeeded in delineating the soul, in colouring See also:life, and calling forth heartfelt emotions, at which all his works aim. In See also:personal See also:character he is credited with See also:temperance and modesty; but, besides his want of sociability, he became somewhat suspicious, and jealous of his master. In Rome, Domenichino obtained employment from Cardinals See also:Borghese, See also:Farnese and Aldobrandini, for all of whom he painted works in See also:fresco.

The distinguished reputation which he had acquired excited the envy of some of his contemporaries. Lanfranco in particular, one of his most inveterate enemies, asserted that his celebrated " Communion of St See also:

Jerome " (painted for the See also:church of La Carita towards 1614, for a See also:pittance of about ten guineas, now in the Vatican See also:Gallery, and ordinarily, but most irrationally, spoken of as the second or third best oil picture in the See also:world) was an See also:imitation from Agostino Caracci; and he procured an See also:engraving of this master's picture of the same subject (now in the Gallery of Bologna), copies of which were circulated for the purpose of proving that Domenichino was a plagiarist. There is in truth a very marked resemblance between the two compositions. The pictures which Zampieri painted immediately afterwards, representing subjects from the life of St See also:Cecilia, only increased the alarm of his competitors, and redoubled their injustice and malignity. Disgusted with these cabals, he left Rome for Bologna, where he remained until he was recalled by See also:Pope See also:Gregory XV., who appointed him See also:principal painter and architect to the pontifical See also:palace. In this architectural See also:post he seems to have done little or nothing, although he was not inexpert in the art. He designed in great See also:part the See also:Villa di See also:Belvedere at See also:Frascati, and the whole of the Villa Ludovisi, and some other edifices. From 1630 onwards Domenichino was engaged in See also:Naples, chiefly on a See also:series of frescoes (never wholly completed) of the life of St See also:Januarius in the Cappella del Tesoro. He settled in that See also:city with his See also:family, and opened a school. There the persecution against him became far more shameful than in any previous instance. The notorious so-called " See also:Cabal of Naples "—the painters See also:Corenzio, See also:Ribera and Caracciololeagued together as they were to exclude all See also:alien competition, plagued and decried the Bolognese artist in all possible ways; for instance, on returning in the See also:morning to his fresco See also:work, he would find not infrequently that someone had rubbed out the performance of the previous See also:day. Perpetual worry is believed to have brought the life of Domenichino to a See also:close; contemporary suspicion did not See also:scruple to speak broadly of See also:poison, but this has remained unconfirmed.

He died in Naples, after two days' illness, on the 15th of See also:

April 1641. Domenichino, in correctness of See also:design, expression of the passions, and simplicity and variety in the airs of his heads, has been considered little inferior to See also:Raphael; but in fact there is the greatest gulf fixed between the two. Critics of the 18th century adulated the Bolognese beyond all See also:reason or See also:toleration; he is now regarded as See also:commonplace in mind and invention, lacking any innate ideality, though undoubtedly a forcible, resolute and learned executant. " We must," says See also:Lanzi, " despair to find paintings exhibiting richer or more varied draperies, details of See also:costume more beautifully adapted, or more majestic mantles. The figures are finely disposed both in See also:place and See also:action, conducing to the See also:general effect; whilst a See also:light pervades the whole which seems to rejoice the spirit, growing brighter and brighter in the aspect of the best countenances, whence they first attract the See also:eye and See also:heart of the beholder. The persons delineated could not tell their See also:tale to the See also:ear more plainly than they speak it to the eye. The ' Scourging of St See also:Andrew,' which he executed in competition with Guido Reni at Rome (a fresco in the church of See also:San Gregorio), is a powerful See also:illustration of this truthful expression, Of the two works of these masters, Annibale Caracci preferred that of Domenichino. It is said that in painting one of the executioners the artist actually wrought himself into a See also:passion, using threatening words and actions, and that Annibale Caracci, surprising him at that moment, embraced him, exclaiming with joy, ` To-day, my dear Domenichino, See also:thou art teaching me.' So novel, and at the same time so natural, it appeared to him that the artist, like the orator, should feel within himself all that he is representing to others." Domenichino is esteemed the most distinguished See also:disciple of the Caracci, or second only to Guido Reni. See also:Algarotti preferred him to the greatest masters; and See also:Nicolas Poussin considered the painter of the " Communion of St Jerome " to be the first after Raphael. His pictures of " See also:Adam and See also:Eve," and the " Martyrdom of St See also:Agnes," in the Gallery of Bologna, are amongst his leading works. Others of See also:superior See also:interest are his first known picture, a fresco of the " See also:Death of See also:Adonis," in the Loggia of the Giardino Farnese, Rome; the " Martyrdom of St See also:Sebastian," in See also:Santa Maria degli Angeli; the " Four Evangelists," in Sant' ,See also:Andrea della See also:Valle; " See also:Diana and her See also:Nymphs," in the Borghese gallery; the " See also:Assumption of the Virgin," in Santa Maria di Trastevere; and frescoes in the neighbouring See also:abbey of Grotta Ferrata, lives of SS. Nilus and See also:Bartholomew.

His portraits are also highly reputed. It is admitted that in his compositions he often borrowed figures and arrangements from previous painters. Domenichino was potent in fresco. He excelled also in landscape painting. In that See also:

style (in which he was one of the earliest practitioners) the natural elegance of his scenery, his trees, his well-broken grounds, the character and expression of his figures, gained him as much public admiration as any of his other performances. See Bolognini, Life of Domenichino (1839); C. See also:Landon, Works of Domenichino, with e Memoir (1823). (W. M.

End of Article: DOMENICHINO (or DOMENICO), ZAMPIERI (1581-1641)

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