Domenichino Too

It’s going to be fever pitch excitement in that auction room at Christies on December 8^th. Not only- as mentioned a few posts ago- a splendid Rembrandt rescued from oblivion, but a fine masterpiece by Domenico Zampieri, better known to art historians as Domenichino- little Domenic. Though expected to fetch far less than the Rembrandt, Domenichino’s St John the Evangelist (1627-9) could go for £10 million.

This painting is a good example of how Domenichino assimilated high renaissance idioms: the motif of the hand within the page of the book, seems to derive from the prophets on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, as indeed does the ensemble of figures. It isn’t a direct transfer from a specific source since St Johnand the little children or putti could be distilled from a number of Michelangelo's prophets and sibyls. Yet, despite the monumental high renaissance style, Domenichino softened the forms, imparting an almost feminine grace to the Evangelist who looks up in inspiration towards the heavens.  Perhaps the most strangest feature is that abruptly raised right leg of the saint. I don't know the source of that, but my guess is that it's a modification of an aerial figure, such as in Raphael's Vision of Ezekiel or maybe the Jupiter in the Villa Farnesina in Rome.

This work was owned by one of the most famous of baroque collectors- the Marchese Giustiniani, who had a taste for the academic classicism of such artists as Domenichino and Poussin. Not that they were his favourite painters- that accolade fell to Caravaggio whose works numbered 12 in the Marchese’s collection.

It’s not often you get a baroque painting of this calibre come up at open auction. Coupled with the Rembrandt, it should electrify the atmosphere at Christies in December.  

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