Lot Essay
The recto and verso of this drawing are for the figure of Saint Jerome in The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, dated 1614, now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, R.E. Spear, Domenichino, New Haven and London, 1982, no. 14, pl. 141.
The picture was commissioned by the Fathers of the church of San Gerolamo della Carità around 1611 and was unveiled three years later on the feast day of Saint Jerome, on 30 September 1614. An avviso was published the next day, mentioning that Cardinal Aldobrandini went to see the picture: 'Il cardinal Aldobrandino tornò qua sabato da Frascati et ieri per la festa di S. Girolamo della Carità, dove si è di questi giorni scoperto un bellissimo quadro di pittura, commendato universalmente, opera di Domenico da Bologna', J.A.F. Orbaan, Documenti sul barocco in Roma, Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria, 1920, p. 227. The picture was immediately praised by the critics. Poussin and Sacchi said it was comparable only to Raphael's Transfiguration, then in San Pietro in Montorio.
In the early 1620s the first voices of disagreement rose when Lanfranco, in an unsuccessful attempt to win the commission for the pendentives of Sant'Andrea della Valle, accused Domenichino of plagiarism and sent his pupil Perrier to Bologna to engrave Agostino Carracci's version of The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, inversed, so that it could be compared to Domenichino's. The composition of Agostino's picture, painted some twenty years earlier for the Certosa of Bologna, was one of the only representations of this subject and Domenichino certainly used it as a source of inspiration, Spear, op. cit., p. 34, fig. 139. As an aid for his composition, Domenichino used some of Agostino's drawings for the Saint Jerome that he owned; one of these is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna and on the verso bears an inscription stating that Maratta bought the drawing from Domenichino's studio, having acquired it after the death of Agostino Carracci, D. Mahon, Mostra dei Carracci, Catalogo critico dei Disegni, exhib. cat., Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, 1953, no. 56. Malvasia also mentions that in 1612, just after having been awarded the commission of the altarpiece, Domenichino travelled to Bologna, probably to see Agostino's painting.
A number of drawings for Domenichino's picture are extant, many of which study the position and the head of the Saint. The two drawings at Windsor for Saint Jerome differ slightly from the picture, and must pre-date the verso of the present drawing which is very close to the final composition, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, The Drawings of Domenichino in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1948, nos. 1068, 1071, illustrated. Of the three extant studies for the head of the Saint, the present one, the sheet at Windsor Castle and the other in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, (Spear, op. cit., figs. 142-3) the last is the closest to the picture. Preliminary sketches for the composition are at Windsor, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., nos. 1064-5, illustrated.
The picture was commissioned by the Fathers of the church of San Gerolamo della Carità around 1611 and was unveiled three years later on the feast day of Saint Jerome, on 30 September 1614. An avviso was published the next day, mentioning that Cardinal Aldobrandini went to see the picture: 'Il cardinal Aldobrandino tornò qua sabato da Frascati et ieri per la festa di S. Girolamo della Carità, dove si è di questi giorni scoperto un bellissimo quadro di pittura, commendato universalmente, opera di Domenico da Bologna', J.A.F. Orbaan, Documenti sul barocco in Roma, Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria, 1920, p. 227. The picture was immediately praised by the critics. Poussin and Sacchi said it was comparable only to Raphael's Transfiguration, then in San Pietro in Montorio.
In the early 1620s the first voices of disagreement rose when Lanfranco, in an unsuccessful attempt to win the commission for the pendentives of Sant'Andrea della Valle, accused Domenichino of plagiarism and sent his pupil Perrier to Bologna to engrave Agostino Carracci's version of The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, inversed, so that it could be compared to Domenichino's. The composition of Agostino's picture, painted some twenty years earlier for the Certosa of Bologna, was one of the only representations of this subject and Domenichino certainly used it as a source of inspiration, Spear, op. cit., p. 34, fig. 139. As an aid for his composition, Domenichino used some of Agostino's drawings for the Saint Jerome that he owned; one of these is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna and on the verso bears an inscription stating that Maratta bought the drawing from Domenichino's studio, having acquired it after the death of Agostino Carracci, D. Mahon, Mostra dei Carracci, Catalogo critico dei Disegni, exhib. cat., Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, 1953, no. 56. Malvasia also mentions that in 1612, just after having been awarded the commission of the altarpiece, Domenichino travelled to Bologna, probably to see Agostino's painting.
A number of drawings for Domenichino's picture are extant, many of which study the position and the head of the Saint. The two drawings at Windsor for Saint Jerome differ slightly from the picture, and must pre-date the verso of the present drawing which is very close to the final composition, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, The Drawings of Domenichino in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1948, nos. 1068, 1071, illustrated. Of the three extant studies for the head of the Saint, the present one, the sheet at Windsor Castle and the other in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, (Spear, op. cit., figs. 142-3) the last is the closest to the picture. Preliminary sketches for the composition are at Windsor, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., nos. 1064-5, illustrated.