Domenichino

Domenichino (dōmānēkē`nō) or Domenico Zampieri (dōmā`nēkō tsämpyĕ`rē), 1581–1641, Italian painter, b. Bologna. He was one of the principal pupils of the Carracci, beginning as Ludovico Carracci's assistant in Bologna. In 1602 he went to Rome, where he worked with Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace. Later he carried out numerous fresco commissions for Roman churches, of which the most important are the Martyrdom of St. Andrew in San Gregorio Magno, the Life of St. Cecilia in San Luigi de' Francesci (1615–17), and the decoration of Sant' Andrea della Valle (1624–28). The finest easel painting of his early Roman years is the Last Communion of St. Jerome. He also worked in Naples, designing frescoes (unfinished) of a more baroque nature for the chapel of San Gennaro in the cathedral. As an adherent of classical doctrine and as an influential landscape painter, Domenichino has a place of considerable importance.

Bibliography

See catalog of drawings by J. W. Pope-Hennessy (1948).

---

Domenichino

 orig. Domenico Zampieri

Last Communion of Saint Jerome, oil painting by Domenichino, 1614; in …

(credit: SCALA/Art Resource, New York)

(born Oct. 1581, Bologna, Papal States—died April 6, 1641, Naples) Italian painter. He was trained in the academy of Lodovico Carracci in Bologna. In 1602 he joined the Bolognese artists in Rome working under Annibale Carracci in the decoration of the Farnese Palace. His work, done in the Baroque Classical style, is marked by lucid and balanced compositions, even and serene lighting and subdued colours, and the sober expressions and restrained gestures of its figures. He became Rome's leading painter and had a succession of major decorative commissions. He was an outstanding draftsman and portraitist; his paintings were regarded as second only to those of Raphael throughout the 17th–18th centuries and had great influence on Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.