Domenichino 1581-1641
By Patrick Heath
Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino, (Bologna 1581 - Naples 1641), Communion of St Jerome, 1614, Oil on canvas, 419 x 256 cm, Musei Vaticani
Born on the 21st October 1581, Domenico Zampier, better known as Domenichino, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese school. His professional life is indebted to the Carracci family of painters, of whom two brothers trained him in Bologna and Rome respectively. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Domenichino was perceived as second only to those of Raphael, but in the mid-19th his reputation was effectively dismantled by John Ruskin. His importance as a Baroque classicist was recognized again only in the 20th century.
Domenichino was born in Bologna to a family of shoemakers, and there his initial study was conducted under the Antwerp-born Flemish painter, Dennis Calvaert. Domenichino quickly parted with Calvaert, favouring instead the Accademia degli Incamminati of Ludvico Carracci. It was at this time that his sobriquet was adopted; Domenichino is the diminutive of Domenico in Italian, and his peers saw this an apt description of the stocky young artist. In Bologna he was trained alongside Guido Reni (1575–1642), Francesco Albani (1578–1660) with whom he moved to Rome in 1602 to assist Annibale Carracci in the completion of the gallery of Palazzo Farnese—a formative experience. It was during his first years in Rome that he translated some of Annibale’s ideas into paint; his Lamentation is a fine example of the new classicism that blends an exquisite technique with carefully calibrated compositions and a formal repertory of gesture to convey emotion.
Domenichino’s first great fresco cycle was completed between 1612-1615 in the French national church of San Luigi dei Frances in Rome, illustrating the life and martyrdom of St Cecelia in a deeply classical style. Concurrently he painted his first, and most celebrated, altarpiece, The Last Communion of St. Jerome for the church of San Girolamo della Carità. In 1616, Domenichino began work alongside the fellow Bolognese landscape artist, Giovanni Battista Viola (1576-1622), and together they executed the frescoes depicting the life of Apollo in the Stanza di Apollo at the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati; he also painted the celebrated canvas of The Hunt of Diana at this time, a significant work for its sensitive colour; its idyllic mood departs from the arid classicism of his frescoes.
Domenichino returned to Rome in 1621 after the election of Pope Gregory XV and won a number of commissions for altarpieces and fresco cycles across the city, he also formed a fierce rivalry with Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647) painting at Sant'Andrea della Valle, San Silvestro al Quirinale, and San Carlo ai Catinari. Despite his resounding success in Rome, in 1631, Domenichino ventured to Naples in the latter stage of his life; he decided to take up the prestigious and very lucrative commission of the decoration of the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro of the Naples Cathedral. Domenichino was to die in Naples in 1641 in ambiguous circumstances- potentially at the hands of a group of artists known as the Cabal connected with Giovanni Lanfranco.
Stylistically, Domenichino’s work is marked by balanced and lucid compositions, serene lighting and gentle colours, and the sober expressions and indicative gestures of its figures. His devotion to other forms of artistry permeates his paintings; Domenichino read widely and was an accomplished musician and a gifted architect, and his art aspires to a kind of elevated poetry. Domenichino fully subscribed to the classical notion that painting was like silent poetry and required a stylized expressive vocabulary to be properly understood and deciphered.
Bibliography
Christiansen, Keith. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Domenichino (1581–1641). 2008
Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Domenichino. October 18, 2020
Posner, Christopher. The Roman Style of Annibale Carracci and His School. 1962
Spear, Richard E. Domenichino. 1982.