Domenico Zampieri (1581-1641), known as Domenichino, was a Bolognese painter and a pupil of the Caracci. He worked in Bologna, Rome, Fano and Naples, where he died, allegedly murdered by the painters there wishing to avoid outside competition. Following the Caracci he aimed to draw on traditional, Raphael esque, styles, and as a result there were accusations that he was merely an imitator. The sixth of Reynolds's Discourses (1774), accepts that he followed the 'general principles of his school', but claims that he is one of those who 'extended their views beyond the model that lay before them' ( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 105). Reynolds in the Idler No 76 is quoted at Works, 5.273 as referring to 'the purity of Domenichino'.
In the footnote at Works, 6.403 there is a more extended depreciation. At Works, 11.328 Christ appearing to the Magdalen is described as abominable in every way, and at Works, 13.103 there is a roll call of those whose work on landscape you can look at 'being sure that everything you see is bad': Claude and Domenichino, Cuyp and Wouwerman and Berchem, Tempesta and Vernet. The coupling of Claude and Domenichino is significant. Domenichino was not only an important figure in the baroque Counter-Reformation; he was also an influence on the work of Claude.
Cook and Wedderburn argue that Ruskin 's diatribe is to be justified as a reaction to Domenichino's mid-nineteenth-century reputation.
See Ruskin and the Italian School.