Domenichino

Domenichino painted in a calm, clear classical style, with balanced compositions, graceful figures and soft, even light. He was also one of the painters who shaped the ideal landscape, with wide, peaceful countryside around small figures.

He was born Domenico Zampieri in Bologna in 1581 and trained at the Carracci academy. In 1602 he moved to Rome to work with Annibale Carracci. His Last Communion of St Jerome, in the Vatican, was once among the most admired pictures in Rome. His frescoes on the life of St Cecilia are in San Luigi dei Francesi, and two of his best known paintings, the Cumaean Sibyl and Diana and her Nymphs, are in the Galleria Borghese. In 1631 he moved to Naples to paint the chapel of San Gennaro in the cathedral.

In A Sibyl, look at the turban, the rich colour and the calm upturned face. He died in Naples in 1641.