ng the plagiarism,
discovered the calumny, as it proved that there was no more resemblance
between the two works than must necessarily result in two artists
treating the same subject, and that every essential part, and all that
was admired was entirely his own. If it had been possible for modest
merit to have repelled the shafts of slander, the work which he executed
immediately afterwards in the church of S. Lodovico, representing the
life of St. Cecilia, would have silenced the attacks of envy and
malevolence; but they only tended to increase the alarm of his
competitors, and excite them to redoubled injustice and malignity.
Disgusted with these continued cabals, Domenichino quitted Rome, and
returned to Bologna, where he resided several years in the quiet
practice of his profession, and executed some of his most admired works,
particularly the Martyrdom of St. Agnes for the church of that Saint,
and the Madonna del Rosario, both of which were engraved by Gerard
Audran, and taken to Paris and placed in the Louvre by order of
Napoleon. The fame of Domenichino was now so well established that
intrigue and malice could not suppress it, and Pope Gregory XV. invited
him back to Rome, and appointed him principal painter, and architect to
the pontifical palace.

DECISION OF POSTERITY ON THE MERITS OF DOMENICHINO.

"The public," says Lanzi, "is an equitable judge; but a good cause is
not always sufficient without the advantage of many voices to sustain
it. Domenichino, timid, retiring, and master of few pupils, was
destitute of a party equal to his cause. He was constrained to yield to
the crowd that trampled upon him, thus verifying the prediction of
Monsignore Agucchi, that his merits would never be rightly appreciated
during his life-time. The spirit of party having passed away, impartial
posterity has rendered him justice; nor is there a royal gallery but
confesses an ambition to possess his works. His figure pieces are in the
highest esteem, and command enormous prices."

PROOF OF THE MERITS OF DOMENICHINO.

No better proof of the exalted merits of Domenichino can be desired,
than the fact that upwards of fifty of his works have been engraved by
the most renowned engravers, as Gerard Audran, Raffaelle Morghen, Sir
Robert Strange, C. F. von Muller, and other illustrious artists; many of
these also have been frequently repeated.

DOMENICHINO'S CARICATURES.

While Domenichino was in Naples, he was visited by hi