Follower of Domenichino, XVIIIth century

Follower of DOMENICO ZAMPIERI, "DOMENICHINO" (Bologna, 1581-Naples, 1641), 18th century.
"St. Jerome", based on "The Viaticum of St. Jerome" by Domenichino (Vatican Museums).
Oil on vellum.
Measurements: 10 x 8 cm; 25 x 23 x 4 x 4 cm (frame).

The painter in question is clearly inspired by "The Viaticum of St. Jerome" by Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino). The author, faithful follower of the Bolognese master, takes in particular the bust of the old nonagenarian man, with a thick gray beard and tired eyes looking towards heaven in his last supplication to God, as he was represented in the Viaticum. Domenichino's oil painting, painted around 1611 and preserved in the Vatican Museums, narrated the episode in which the saint, knowing he was at the end of his life, wished to receive communion for the last time surrounded by his disciples and Saint Paula. Domenichino, in turn, had been inspired by a picture of the same subject painted years earlier by Agostino Carracci, whose disciple he was. St. Jerome, both in the Bolognese original and in the painting we show, moves us with the rapture conveyed by his half-open lips, his parchment-like skin and his gaze (in which we can barely see the whites of his eyes, for it is an ecstatic gaze). The birth of the shoulders and chest also manage to convey the emotional cadence of the moment, showing the fragility of a body that fades, but at the same time shines with a light that comes from the soul.