Domenico Guidobono

Domenico Guidobono (1668–1746) was an Italian painter of easel paintings and frescoes, who together with his brother Bartolomeo Guidobono was one of the principal decorative painters active in Liguria and Piedmont in the late 17th and first half of the 18th century.

Life Domenico Guidobono was born in Savona, Republic of Genoa as the son of Giovanni Antonio Guidobono and Geronima Cross. His father was a decorative painter of maiolica (ceramic earthenware), who worked for the royal court of Savoy. When he was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist in Savona, his godfather was the Genovese painter Domenico Piola, one of the eminent members of the Piola family, which operated a large workshop known as the 'Casa Piola'. It is likely therefore that in addition to being trained by his father Domenico Guidobono also benefited from training in the Casa Piola.

His older brother Bartolomeo (1654–1709) gained a major reputation as a decorative fresco painter.

Despite fulfilling this major commission in the Palazzo Madama, Domenico worked probably also in other Turin mansions. After the death of the duchess in 1724 Domenico moved to Genoa, where he got commissions of some importance such as the frescoes in Palazzo Ottavio Imperiale on Campetto square and in the palazzo Negrone on Piazza Fontane Marose.

Little or nothing is known about the final years of the artist's life and activity. In 1737 the fathers of the monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption in Genoa, received from Domenico a painting depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, in exchange for a painting of the same subject by his brother Bartolomeo.

According to the oldest sources, Domenico died in 1746 in Naples, where, already elderly, he had moved for some time to work.

Domenico's personal style began to show itself more forcefully after his brother's death in 1709. An example is the Allegory in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The subject of this painting remains elusive. The woman holding dividers over an open book with diagrams has been identified as Circe or Melissa. However, she probably depicts a more generic sorceress. She is surrounded by symbols of her dark magic: skulls, a bat, and a chimera (a fantastical winged creature). The animal in the left foreground is a coati, a member of the raccoon family native to South America.