en suddenly
repenting of their resolution, they effaced all that was painted of the
two frescos, and intrusted the decoration of the chapel entirely to
Domenichino. It ought to be mentioned to the honor of these munificent
persons, that they engaged to pay for every entire figure, 100 ducats,
for each half-figure 50 ducats, and for each head 25 ducats. They took
precautions also against any interruption to the artist, threatening the
Viceroy's high displeasure if he were in any way molested. But this was
only matter of derision to the junta. They began immediately to cry him
down as a cold and insipid painter, and to discredit him with those, the
most numerous class in every place, who see only with the eyes of
others. They harassed him by calumnies, by anonymous letters, by
displacing his pictures, by mixing injurious ingredients with his
colors, and by the most insidious malice they procured some of his
pictures to be sent by the viceroy to the court of Madrid; and these,
when little more than sketched, were taken from his studio and carried
to the court, where Spagnoletto ordered them to be retouched, and,
without giving him time to finish them, hurried them to their
destination. This malicious fraud of his rival, the complaints of the
committee, who always met with some fresh obstacle to the completion of
the work, and the suspicion of some evil design, at last determined
Domenichino to depart secretly to Rome. As soon however as the news of
his flight transpired, he was recalled, and fresh measures taken for his
protection; when he resumed his labors, and decorated the walls and base
of the cupola, and made considerable progress in the painting of his
pictures.

"But before he could finish his task he was interrupted by death,
hastened either by poison, or by the many severe vexations he had
experienced both from his relatives and his adversaries, and the weight
of which was augmented by the arrival of his former enemy Lanfranco.
This artist superceded Zampieri in the painting of the basin of the
chapel; Spagnoletto, in one of his oil pictures; Stanzioni in another;
and each of these artists, excited by emulation, rivaled, if he did not
excel, Domenichino. Caracciolo was dead. Bellisario, from his great age,
took no share in it, and was soon afterwards killed by a fall from a
stage, which he had erected for the purpose of retouching some of his
frescos. Nor did Spagnoletto experience a better fate; for, having
sed