DOMENICHINO, dem3-ne-ke'n6, or DOMENICO ZAMPIERI, Italian painter: b. Bologna, 28 Oct. 1581; d. Naples, 15 April 1641. He was sent to study first with Calvart, and afterward with the Caracci. From the slowness of his execution he was named, by his fellow-students, the ((ox of painting'"; but Anni bal Caracci predicted that the ox would ((plough a fruitful field.* Having contracted a great friendship for Albano he joined him at Rome, and his former master, Annibal Caracci, jealous of Guido, procured for him the execution of one of the pictures for a church which had been promised to that great painter. It was a cus tom with Domenichino to assume, for the time, the passion he was depicting; so that, while working by himself, he was often heard to laugh, weep'and talk aloud, in a manner that would have induced a stranger to suppose him a lunatic. The consequence, however, was, that few painters have surpassed him in lively repre sentation. His 'Communion of Saint Jerome,) now in the Vatican collection, has been con sidered, by some connoisseurs, inferior only to the 'Transfiguration' of Raphael; and the 'History of Apollo,' which he painted in 10 frescoes for Cardinal Aldobrandini, is a notable series. His merit excited so much envy that he
retired to his native city and employed himself two years on his famous picture of the 'Rosary' now in the gallery of Bologna. He was afterward recalled to Rome (1621) by Gregory XV, who created him his first painter and architect of the Vatican. Losing this post after the Pope's death, he accepted an invitation to Naples, to paint the chapel of Saint Januarius. But here he encountered a jealousy so rancor ous that his life became altogether embittered by it; and•so great was his dread of poison, that he prepared all his eatables with his own hand. Domenichino, who understood every branch of his art, produced nothing excellent without study and labor; but in consequence of his great premeditation, no painter has given his pieces more of the properties belonging to the sub ject. At the same time his designs are cor rect ; and he succeeded equally in the grand and the tender. Nearly 50 of his pieces have been engraved. Consult monographs by Breton (1867); C. Landon (1823); Roncagli (1842), and Serra (1909).