or Domenico Lampieri, the celebrated painter, was born at Bologna in 1581. He was placed when young under the tuition of Denis Calvart; but having been treated with great severity by that master, he left him, and became a pupil in the academy of the Caracci, where he remained for a long time. The genius of Domenichino was slow in its development. He was at first timid and distrustful of his powers; whilst his studious, thoughtful, and reserved manners were misunderstood by his companions for dulness. But the intelligent Annibal Caracci, who observed his faculties with more attention, and knew his abilities better, testified of Domenichino that his apparent slowness of parts would in time produce what would be an honour to the art of painting. When his early productions had brought him into notice, he studied with incredible application, and made such advances in painting as to raise his works into a comparison with those of the most admired masters. From his acting as a continual censor of his own works, he became amongst his fellow pupils the most accurate and expressive designer; his colours were the truest to nature, and of the best *impasto*, and he proved the most universal master in the theory of his art; in short, the only painter amongst them all, in whom Mengs found nothing to desire, except a somewhat larger proportion of elegance. That he might devote his whole being to the art, Domenichino shunned all society, or if he occasionally sought it in the public theatres and walks, it was in order better to observe the play of the passions in the features of the people,—those of joy, anger, grief, terror, and every affection of the mind, and to commit them vividly to his tablets; and thus, says Belloni, it was that he succeeded in delineating the soul, in colouring life, and calling forth heartfelt emotions, at which his works all aim, as if he waved the same wand which had belonged to the poetical enchanters Tasso and Ariosto.

After several years' severe study at Bologna, Domenichino went to Parma, in order to examine the beautiful works of the Lombards, and thence proceeded to Rome, where he assisted Annibal Caracci, and obtained employment through his recommendation from Cardinals Borghese, Farnese, and Aldobrandi, for all of whom he painted works in fresco, which were justly admired. The distinguished reputation which he had acquired excited the jealousy of some of his contemporaries, who represented his very excellencies as defects. Lanfranco in particular, one of his most inveterate enemies, asserted that his Communion of St Jerome was an imitation from Agostino Carracci, and procured an engraving of this master's picture of the same subject, copies of which were circulated for the purpose of showing up Domenichino as a plagiarist. But this stratagem only tended to expose the calumnious intents of his rivals, as it was evident that there was no other resemblance in the compositions than what must necessarily be the case in the pictures of two artists treating the same subject; and that every essential part, and all that was admired in the work, were entirely his own. If it had been possible for the exertions of modest merit to have repelled the shafts of slander, the pictures which he painted immediately afterwards, representing subjects from the life of St Cecilia, might have silenced the attacks of envy and malevolence; but they only increased the alarm of his competitors, and redoubled their injustice and malignity. Disgusted with these cabals, Domenichino left Rome for Bologna, where he remained until he was recalled by Pope Gregory XV., who appointed him principal painter and architect to the pontifical palace. But the persecutions of his enemies continued unabated, and are said to have absolutely wearied out his life. He died, not without suspicion of being poisoned, in 1641.