Footnote 31: See the defence set up by Crespi, both for Domenichino and Massari, another imitator of Agostino's picture. It is inserted in the _Certosa di Bologna_, described at p. 26. He has also been commended by Bellori for his slowness of hand, who brings forward some of his maxims, such as that, "no single line is worthy of a real painter which is not dictated by the genius before it is traced by the hand; that excellence consists in the full and proper completion of works;" and he used to reproach those pupils who designed in sketch, and coloured by dashes of the pencil (p. 213). We meet with a third apology in Passeri, (p. 4,) for some figures borrowed from the Farnese Gallery, and imitated by Domenichino in the histories of St. Jerome in the portico of S. Onofrio. At p. 9 too he defends him in regard to the style of his folds, in which by some he was thought too scanty, and too hard in their disposition.
There is a small, but inestimable picture of St. Francis, that belonged to the late Count Jacopo Zambeccari, at Bologna. The saint is seen in the act of prayer, and by the animated and flushed expression of the eyes, it appears as if his heart had just been dissolved in tears. Two pictures, likewise beautifully composed, I have seen at Genoa; the Death of Adonis bewailed by Venus, in the Durazzo Gallery just before mentioned, and the S. Rocco in the Brignole Sale, offering up prayers for the cessation of the plague. The attitude of the holy man; the eagerness of those who seek him; the tragic exhibition of the dying and the dead around him; a funeral procession going by; an infant seen on the bosom of its dead mother, vainly seeking its wonted nutriment; all shake the soul of the spectator as if he were beholding the real scene. Among his pictures from profane history the most celebrated is his Chase of Diana, in the Borghesi Palace, filled with spirited forms of nymphs, and lively incidents. In the same collection are some of his landscapes, as well as in that of Florence; and some of his portraits in others. Here too he is excellent, but they are the least difficult branches to acquire. Respecting his other works, and the most eminent of his pupils, enough has been stated in the Roman and Neapolitan schools. He educated for his native place Gio. Batista Ruggieri; and to his numerous other misfortunes was added the pain of finding him ungrateful, after having rendered him eminent in his art. This pupil united with Gessi in quality of assistant; and as we shall shew, also took his denomination from him. Passeri dwells on this disappointment of Domenichino incidentally in his life of Algardi, (p. 198).