Ep. 3 - Galleria Borghese - Domenichino [Domenico Zampieri] (1581-1641)

The painting of Domenichino, which depicts Diana's hunt, or at least that's how it's traditionally called, is a painting that has a very significant history for the collection of Scipione Borghese. The painting was actually made for Pietro Aldobrandini, the great patron saint of Domenichino and other Bolognese artists at the beginning of the 16th century in Rome, who was Clemente VIII's cardinal nephew. This painting attracted the attention of Scipione Borghese, who made him take over from the Domenichino shop, which, according to sources, tried to oppose, but with very little success, these aggressive sights of Scipione Borghese in this painting. We can certainly understand why Scipione Borghese liked this painting so much. It is a very large painting, it is a painting with a mythological subject, but it is a mythological subject that does not derive directly from a recognizable source, but probably from a re-elaboration that was provided by a lettering and various ancient subjects. This is why the painting does not actually depict a hunt for Diana, but it depicts the games of the nymphs. They challenge each other in the race, in the hunt, but above all in the foreground, and they challenge each other to try to hit with an arrow a very thin ribbon that is tied to a bird, to this pole that they must try to hit. In this case, we can really think that the theme of the painting is the theme of the race. It is a race between the nymphs and it is also a race of Domenichino with the painting of the previous century, with the great mythological subjects of Tiziano that were found in the collection of Pietro Aldobrandini, and it is also a race to try to introduce the viewer's gaze into the painting. There are some elements of this painting that make us think how the painter really took into account the presence of the viewer and that he turns his gaze into the painting. There is a nymph in the foreground who looks directly out of the painting and therefore almost presupposes the presence of a spectator, and there are two characters who are hidden behind a tree and who also turn to the spectator making the sign of silence. It is therefore an extremely well-known painting, it is a painting full of references to mythology but also to the theory of art and it is a painting that could not be missing in a collection like that of Scipione Borghese.