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tlie Guadafrni, fifter to the great finger and aftor Guadagni, 

 who had been here in early youth. 



The Zampcriiii was a very pretty woman, coquetilh, and 

 an affefted finger. Her tlrll appearance on our ftage was 

 in La buona figliaola Maritata of Piccmi, of which the 

 inufic was fo difficult to perform, and not eafy to hear, that 

 it was never fufficieutly repeated for the public to be fami- 

 liarly acquainted with it. They were glad, therefore as well 

 as the performers, to return to La buona hgliaola, for their 

 own relief from a too ferious attention. 



The filter of Guadagni, an degant finger, and graceful 

 aftrcfs, the original performer of the part of Cocchina in 

 Italy, being fuperfeded in that part by the Zampermi, occa- 

 fioned a great rupture between Guadagni juft arrived here 

 in 1769 for the fecond time, and the honourable patentee 

 and imprifario of the opera ; which generated faction and a 

 party fpirit that deftroyed the comfort of the opera, ferious 

 and comic, at a time when the public, in a ftate of tran- 

 quillity, would have been more delighted than at any other 

 period. 



We never heard the Zamperini fing ferious mufic, but 

 arc told by M. Laborde (EfTai fur la Muf. ), that " having 

 a natural talent for mufic, and great fpirit and fire in her 

 aftion, though her excellence of performance was princi- 

 pally manifefted in comic operas, yet (he fung equally well 

 in the ferious. After performing with great applaufe in 

 London, Lifbon, and Italy, (he quitted the ftage, and was 

 well married." 



ZAMPIERI, DoMENico, called Domen'ichino in the 

 Hiftory of Painting, was born at Bologna, in 1581, and 

 placed when very young under the tuition of Denis Calvert ; 

 but being ill treated by him, he prevailed upon his father to 

 permit him to enter the fchool of the Carracci, at the time 

 when Guido and Albano were both ftudents there. He 

 foon diftinguilhed himfelf, but more by his care and afliduity 

 than by brilliancy of talent. He here attached himfelf to 

 Albano, and, when he left the Carracci, they travelled to- 

 gether to Parma, Modena, and Reggio, to ftudy the works 

 of Corregio and Parmeggiano, and foon afterwards they 

 both went to Rome. In that city his firft patron was car- 

 dinal Agucchi, who employed him in his palace, and com- 

 miflioned him to paint three pictures for the church of S. 

 Onofria, of fubjefts from the life of S. Jerome. His 

 former mafter. An. Carracci, alfo employed him for fome 

 time to affift in his great work at the Farnefe gallery ; and 

 he painted from his own defigns, in the loggia in the garden, 

 the Death of Adonis, when Venus fprings from her car to 

 affift her unfortunate lover. 



As the health of A. Carracci became rapidly impaired, and 

 he was neceffitated to refufe many commiflions offered to 

 him, he recommended them to his fcholars ; and had the 

 fatisfaftion of feeing Guido and Domenichino employed by 

 the cardinal Borghes to paint the frefcoes in S. Gregorio, 

 which have fubfequently become fo celebrated, and of which 

 the Flagellation of S. Andrea by the latter is fo juftly ad- 

 mired. The cardinal Farnefe alfo employed him to paint 

 fome frefcoes in the chapel of the abbey at Grotto Ferrata ; 

 among them is that pifture of the Cure of the Demoniac 

 Youth, which has been compared with and by many pre- 

 ferred to the one of Raphael in the Transfiguration. An- 

 other cardinal, Aldrobrandini, availed himfelf of the cftab- 

 li(hed renown of Domenichino, and engaged him to paint in 

 frefco ten piftures of the hillory of Apollo, in his villa at 

 Frafcati, which added greatly to his reputation. Soon 

 afterwards he completed the work which more than 

 any other has ferved to immortahze his name, his well- 

 known piSure of the Communion of S. Jerome, painted 



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for the principal altar of the church of S. Girolamo della 

 Carita. This fine produftion ranks with the beft of any 

 age. It is faid with great femblance of truth, that the 

 arrangement of its compofition was borrowed of Agoftincs 

 Carracci, who painted the fame fubjedl for the Certofi at 

 Bologna. But if Domenichino did borrow the thought, he 

 has amply made amends by the mode in which he has adorned 

 it. It received its due meed of applaufe at the time, and 

 was ranked as the work next in value to the Transfiguration 

 by Raphael ; but while the merit of its author thus excited 

 the admiration of the public and moft of the artifts of 

 Rome, it eHcited in the minds of feveral, and among them 

 of Lanfranco, the bitterift fpirit of envy and malignity, 

 which was adlively exerted againft him. He was reviled as 

 a plagiariil, and the execution of his piftures condemned as 

 heavy and ungraceful ; and in fpite of their powerful effeft, 

 the influence of his adverfaries fo far prevailed, that for a 

 time he failed of commiffions, and had ferious thoughts of 

 changing his profefiion for that of fculpture. The celerity 

 and freedom with which Lanfranco invented and painted, 

 and all thofe machinifts who applauded the means of art 

 above the end, were oppofed to the flow and uncertain 

 power of invention poflefted by Domenichino. But upon 

 this fubjeft Lanzi juftly obferves, that if Domenichino had 

 had the good fortune which he merited, he would, like the 

 Carracci in Bologna, have foon triumphed over his adver- 

 faries, admitting that he was an imitator, but not a fervile 

 one, and that if his works were more flow in their birth 

 than thofe of his enemies, they merited a much longer 

 exiftence. " The public," he adds, " is juft in its judg- 

 ment, but before its tribunal a good caufe is not fufficient 

 of itfelf unlefs able pleaders give it credit. Domenichino 

 timid and folitary, mafter of httle, had not then fufficient 

 means to proteA himfelf againft the torrent which over- 

 whelmed him, and report feemed to verify the remark of the 

 cardinal Agrecchi, that his worth would not be duly appre- 

 ciated till after his death. Impartial polterity does him 

 juftice, and there is now no gallery which is regarded as 

 complete without fome fpecimen of his talents." 



The virulence of thefe perfecutions difgufted and dif- 

 turbed Domenichino fo much, that he returned to Bologna, 

 and there he tranquilly paflcd fome years in the delightful 

 praftice of his art. Among the moft renowned of his pro- 

 duftions about this period are his piftures of the Martyr- 

 dom of S. Agnes, for the church of that faint, and the 

 Madonna della Rofario, both large works, and of fufficient 

 merit to attract the infipidity of the French, and for a 

 while they adorned the walls of the Louvre ; but they are 

 now returned to their original deftinations. When malice 

 and envy had exhaufted themfelves, and fame added frefli 

 laurels to the brow of Domenichino, he was invited back to 

 Rome by pope Gregory XV., who appointed him his prin- 

 cipal painter, and architeft to the pontifical palace. The 

 cardinal Montotto engaged him to paint the vault of S. 

 Andrea della Valle, where he reprefented the four Evan- 

 gelifts with Angels ; and in the chapel of cardinal Bandini, 

 in the church of S. Sylveftro, in the Quirinal, he painted 

 four pictures, which rank amongft his beft : the fubjefts are, 

 Efther before Ahafuerus, Judith with the Head of Holo- 

 fernes, David playing and finging before the Ark, and Solo- 

 mon and his Mother Bathfheba feated on a Throne. The 

 former are certainly of a very high clafs of art, and though 

 lacking the fimplicity and grandeur of M. Angelo or Raf- 

 faelle, yet they are full of rich and fine forms, particularly 

 thofe of the angels, &c. which accompany the figures. The 

 latter are not of fo elevated a ftyle, but are more famih'ar, 

 and wrought with fine colour : they are engraved by Jacomo 



Frey. 



