Il Domenichino

(pseudonym of Domenico Zampieri). Born Oct. 21, 1581, in Bologna; died Apr. 6, 1641, in Naples. Italian painter and representative of the academic style of the Bologna school.

Domenichino studied in Bologna with L. Carracci, moving to Rome in 1602, where he collaborated with Annibale Carracci. His best works—the frescoes in the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi (1616-17) and Sant’ Andrea della Valle (1624-28) in Rome and the paintings Last Communion of St. Jerome (1614) in the Vatican Pinacoteca and Diana at the Chase (1617-18) in the Borghese Gallery in Rome—are characterized by symmetrical composition, clear, idealized drawings, and variegated local color.