The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Domenichino)

The Last Communion of St. Jerome is a 1614 painting by Domitino. It was commissioned for the Church of San Girolamo della Carità in Rome in 1612 and is now in the Pinnacott-Cavat Conno. The composition is very similar to a painting of the same subject by Agostino Carocci. Domitino's rival, Giovanni Lanfranco, accused Domitino of plagiarism due to the similarities. Subject Matter The main subject of this painting is St. Jerome, who is the thin central figure depicted kneeling with the red cloth. St. Jerome C. 347-420 was a Christian Latin scholar, translator, and priest. He was considered a doctor of the Church, a saint whose doctrinal writings had special authority. One of his accomplishments is translating the Bible into Latin. From 382 to 385 he was a secretary for Pope Damasus I in Rome. Domitino's painting shares its subject with an earlier painting by Sandro Botticelli, in which Botticelli depicted a scene from the pseudepigraphical letter of Eusebius to Damasus. Commission The congregation of San Girolamo della Carità Church in Rome had been undergoing renovations and was being refurbished between 1611 and 1615. Domitino was commissioned to do a painting for the High Order of the Church. He was paid 240 scudi for the commission of this painting of the Last Communion of St. Jerome. This was Domitino's first public commission for an altarpiece. Domitino had worked on this painting for two years before its completion in 1614. Plagiarism In 1620, Giovanni Lanfranco accused Domitino of stealing ideas from Agostino Caracci's painting of the same subject matter. At the time of this accusation, both Domitino and Giovanni Lanfranco had been competing for a commission in south. Andrew Del Valle Giovanni Pietro Bellori and Nicholas Parson both helped to defend Domitino against this charge. Domitino, along with Lanfranco and Francesco Abboni, were well-known pupils that had trained under Annibale Caracci in the Caracci Academy. During this time, Domitino was more renowned and better established as an independent artist in comparison to his fellow pupils, Lanfranco and Abboni. Annibale Caracci had died in 1609 and was also the brother of Agostino Caracci who had died in 1602. Agostino Caracci had been commissioned in 1592 by the Sotosa in Bologna to paint The Last Communion of St. Jerome and finished it in late 1593. The Last Communion of St. Jerome was the subject painted rarely at this time, which added more leverage to Lanfranco's charge of theft. In Passeri's defence for Domitino, he claimed that it was hard to avoid the example set by Caracci's painting of the central figures of Jerome receiving communion from the priest and that Agostino's central image of St. Jerome was so definitive that Domitino had no alternative way of envisioning the scene without including the inspiration from Agostino's version. Passeri continued by stating that Domitino did what he could to vary from Caracci's version by changing the secondary figures, composition and other details in his own interpretation. Domitino himself also openly admitted that he had been inspired by Agostino's painting but did not intend any harm. Domitino left Rome for Naples in 1631. His reason for leaving is unknown. It may have been due to his declining health, legal trouble or the promise of more lucrative commissions in Naples. However, we do know that this plagiarism case caused Domitino to acquire notoriety which sometimes eclipsed the fame of his school. Similarities with Caracci's Version Elements in Domitino's version that are similar to Caracci's are the use of flying putty, the large candlesticks and the main figure of St. Jerome. Domitino's figure of St. Jerome is almost identical to Agostino's except for mirroring the placement and changing the pose to open arms. The red fabric wrapped around St. Jerome is similar in both paintings but how they are placed on the figure differs. Agostino has it hanging off one shoulder and laying on his lap. Domitino has it loosely hanging off St. Jerome's shoulders as if it's about to fall off him and revealing white fabric wrapped around his waist. There are also some figures in the background that are similar to Agostino's such as the man with the turban. For the most part, Domitino changed the placement of the figures and the design and wardrobe of the priest and crowd. Even the backgrounds are similar with rounded archways leading back towards a rural landscape with trees. Although Agostino has composite columns near the middle ground while Domitino has Corinthian columns. The symbolism they use is different. Domitino has a lion in the lower left which is a symbol for St. Jerome. Meanwhile Agostino had a skull to the lower right to symbolism St. Jerome's death. Reception Domitino considered the Last Communion of St. Jerome to be his masterpiece. Other artists at this time such as Andrea Sacchi and Nicholas Parson even considered it to be equal to Raphael's Transfiguration. Although after the appropriation scandal and accusations by Lanfranco, Domitino began to be viewed by others in a negative light. After the public debates over the issues of infringement for the Last Communion of St. Jerome, this sparked a bigger debate that challenged the traditional values of imitation. There were a few scholars and artists that supported Domitino. The Italian scholar Carlos S. Malveda 1616-1693 responded to Domitino's notoriety and artists in general by writing, What painter does not steal in some way, either from prints, or reliefs, or nature herself, or from the works of others, turning the poses in the opposite sense, twisting an arm or showing a leg, changing the face, adding a drapery, and, in short, judiciously hiding the theft?