Tommaso Donini - David with the Head of Goliath

Tommaso Donini or Tommaso Dovini, called ''Il Caravaggino'' (21 December 1601, in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

– 21 March 1637, in Rome) was an Italian painter active mainly in

.Sergio Guarino, ''DONINI, Tommaso, detto anche Caravaggino''
in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 41 (1992) He was previously erroneously referred to as 'Tommaso Luini' as the 17th century artist biographer

Giovanni Baglione Giovanni Baglione (; 1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. Although a prolific painter, Baglione is best remembered for his encyclopedic collection of biographies of the o ...

referred to him as such in his ''Le Vite de’ Pittori'' of 1642. Donini painted altarpieces. He was a follower of

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

.Ann Sutherland Harris, Donini (Luini), Tommaso (il Caravaggino)
(bapt Rome, Dec 24, 1601; d Rome, March 21, 1637) at Grove Art Online

Life

Donini was born in Rome on 21 December 1601 and was baptized on 24 December 1601 in the

Santa Maria del Popolo The Parish Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo () is a titular church and a minor basilica in Rome run by the Augustinian order. It stands on the north side of Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares in the city. The church is hemmed in b ...

. His father Marco was originally from Venice and was a gilder. His masters were

Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian Baroque painter. Biography Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Coun ...

and

Angelo Caroselli Angelo Caroselli or Carosèlli (11 February 1585 – 8 April 1652) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native Rome. He created religious works, allegories, portraits as well as genre art, genre scenes in the vein of ...

. While attending the workshop of Caroselli, he was asked to study and make many copies of the works of Caravaggio. He became so skilled at this that he was soon working alongside his master, who himself was a follower and copyist of Caravaggio. This skill likely earned Donini the nickname ''Il Caravaggino''.Non fu solo un copista. Angelo CAROSELLI, la vita e le opere, in una imponente monografia di Marta Rossetti
Alternatively, it is possibly that he received the nickname for being, like Caravaggio, an outsider with a short fuse and known for being litigious. In 1635 he was involved in a trial for stabbing another painter in the leg. He attended

Andrea Sacchi Andrea Sacchi (30 November 159921 June 1661) was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptor ...

's drawing academy between 1630 and 1632. Donini and Sacchi collaborated on works. He died on 21 March 1637 in Rome at the age of 35. Tommaso Donini - The Holy Trinity

Work

His known works are few. His frescoes in the Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina and in the Church of San Giuseppe a Capo le Case have been destroyed. There are still two paintings by his hand in the Basilica of San Carlo al Corso: a ''God and angels adoring he holy sacrament'' painted between 1627 and 1632 for the temporary high altar and later placed on the altar of the left transept and a ''Saint Ambrose'' in the sacristy. His ''Funeral of St. Filippo Benizi'' and ''Miracle of St. Filippo Benizi'' (both between 1630–1632) in the chapel of St. Filippo Benizi of the Santa Maria in Via are still ''in situ''. Some art historians believe that Antonio Circignani painted a large part of the ''Funeral of St. Filippo Benizi''. Andrea Sacchi collaborated with Donini on the altarpiece for the Basilica of San Carlo al Corso. Sacchi also made a design for the head of one of the monks who witness St. Filippo Benizzi performing a miracle. Other attributions to Donini include a ''Madonna with Child and Saints'' and a ''Saint Lawrence baptizing a neophyte'' originally in the

San Lorenzo fuori le Mura The (Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls) is a Roman Catholic papal minor basilica and parish church, located in Rome, Italy. The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and one of the five papal basilicas (former ...

and currently in the

Valvisciolo Abbey Valvisciolo Abbey is a Cistercians, Cistercian monastery in the province of Latina, central Italy, near the towns of Sermoneta and Norma, Lazio, Ninfa. It is an example of rigorous romanesque architecture, Romanesque-Cistercian architecture, cons ...

and a ''Saint Francis renouncing his possessions'' in the

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Saint Charles at the Four Fountains), also called , is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. The church was designed by the architect Francesco Borromini and it was his first independent commission. ...

. A ''David with the Head of Goliath'' in the

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two s ...

is also attributed to Donini. It shows an exhausted David lifting the severed head of Goliath. David's expression is one of exhaustion more than of victory. The young woman in the red robe standing behind him looks rather disbelievingly at the young hero. The emphasis on the emotionality of the scene and the choice of the moment immediately after the killing of Goliath show the influence of Caravaggio in this work. The illumination of the scene, which makes David's white skin shine against the extremely dark background, also testifies to the stylistic proximity to Caravaggio.''Baroque Pathways'', works from the collections of the Palazzo Barberini
at the Museum Barberini

Bibliografia

- G. Baglione, Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti, dal Pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 in fino a’ tempi di Papa Urbano Ottavo nel 1642, pp.356-357 - F. Titi, Studio di pittura, scoltura, et architettura, nelle chiese di Roma, Roma 1674, p.383 - C. D’Onofrio, C. P. Pietrangeli, Abbazie del Lazio, Roma 1971, p.287, fig. 345 - F. D’Amico, Su Tommaso Donini detto il Caravaggino e sul Savonanzi, in Boll. D’arte, LXIV (1979), 3, pp.79-86 - S.Testa, Abbazia di Valvisciolo, “Vallis Lusciniae” Ars et Historia, 2007, p.111-112 - S.Testa, Il Caravaggino Tommaso Donini San Lorenzo battezza San Romano, Roma, 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Donini, Tommaso 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters Painters from Rome Caravaggisti