The great talents of Domenichino did not develop themselves so early as
in many other great painters. He was assiduous, thoughtful and
circumspect; which his companions attributed to dullness, and they
called him the Ox; but the intelligent Annibale Caracci, who observed
his faculties with more attention, testified of his abilities by saying
to his pupils, "this Ox will in time surpass you all, and be an honor to
the art of painting." It was the practice in this celebrated school to
offer prizes to the pupils for the best drawings, to excite them to
emulation, and every pupil was obliged to hand in his drawing at certain
periods. It was not long after Domenichino entered this school before
one of these occasions took place, and while his fellow-students brought
in their works with confidence, he timidly approached and presented his,
which he would gladly have withheld. Lodovico Caracci, after having
examined the whole, adjudged the prize to Domenichino. This triumph,
instead of rendering him confident and presumptuous, only stimulated him
to greater assiduity, and he pursued his studies with such patient and
constant application, that he made such progress as to win the
admiration of some of his cotemporaries, and to beget the hatred of
others. He contracted a friendship with Albano, and on leaving the
school of the Caracci, they visited together, Parma, Modena, and Reggio,
to contemplate the works of Correggio and Parmiggiano. On their return
to Bologna, Albano went to Rome, whither Domenichino soon followed him,
and commenced his bright career.
The student may learn a useful lesson from the untiring industry,
patience, and humility of this great artist. Passeri attributes his
grand achievements more to his amazing study than to his genius; and
some have not hesitated to deny that he possessed any genius at all--an
opinion which his works abundantly refute. Lanzi says, "From his acting
as a continual censor of his own productions, he became among his fellow
pupils the most exact and expressive designer, his colors most true to
nature, and of the best _impasto_, the most universal master in the
theory of his art, the sole painter amongst them all in whom Mengs found
nothing to desire except a little more elegance. That he might devote
his whole being to the art, he shunned all society, or if he
occasionally sought it in the public theatres and markets, it was in
order better to observe the play of nature's passions in the features of
the people--those of joy, anger, grief, terror, and every affection of
the mind, and commit it living to his tablets. Thus it was, exclaims
Bellori, that he succeeded in delineating the soul, in coloring life,
and raising those emotions in our breasts at which his works all aim; as
if he waved the same wand which belonged to the poetical enchanters,
Tasso and Ariosto."