DOMENICO GUIDOBONO (Savona, 1668 - Naples, 1746) Young girl in a landscape with a rooster, pigeon and copper basin Oil on canvas, 96.7X72 cm The younger brother of Bartolomeo, known as the priest of Savona, Domenico was a talented artist, also a creator of elegant still lifes and mythological scenes. His apprenticeship is presumed to have taken place in his father's workshop and his catalogue has only recently enjoyed adequate philological study. Indeed, he was often attributed workshop or low quality works, while the best ones were systematically referred to Bartholomew. It is assumed that he too undertook a study trip to Emilia, acquiring the influences of Correggio, Parmigianino and Lanfranco, following a training path common to many Genoese masters of the Baroque age, such as Giovanni Carlone, Valerio Castello, Giovanni Battista Merano and Domenico Piola. There is no doubt, however, that by the 1980s Guidobono was in Turin together with his brother, and in the Savoy capital he worked on several occasions until his death, while the Genoese commissions continued. His are, for example, the frescoes in Palazzo De Mari, Casareto di Campetto, where he exhibits a nonchalant mastery in combining the decorative element with the figurative one and a skilful luministic direction, achieving effects of remarkable elegance. Returning to the canvas in question, it well documents the artist's naturalism, already highlighted in 1762 by Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, praising Domenico's skill in painting animals, flowers and landscapes: 'And having had the inclination to do animals from his birth, he praiseworthily employed himself [...] After spending twenty-one years in Turin, he came to Genoa where he lived for thirty years and where he painted figures in general, with little good grace. In making animals, however, as we have said, and also in the villages, he always did himself honour' (cf. Ratti 1762- Newcome Schleier 2002, 183-191). We thank Camillo Manzitti for the attribution. L. Rossi, Storia de' pittori scultori et architetti liguri e de' forestieri che in Genova operarono secondo il manoscritto del 1762 di Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, edited by Maurizia Migliorini, Genoa 1997, p. 133 R. Soprani, G.C. Ratti, Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti genovesi, II, Genova 1797, pp. 145 G. V. Castelnovi, Ricerche per il Guidobono, in Emporium, LXII, no. 6, vol. CXXIII, no. 738, pp. 242-258 E. Gavazza, F. Lamera, L. Magnani, La pittura in Liguria. Il secondo Seicento, Genoa 1990, pp. 424, 445 M. Newcome, Bartolomeo e Domenico Guidobono, Turin 2002, ad vocem A. Orlando, Le nature morte dei Guidobono, in M. Newcome, Bartolomeo e Domenico Guidobono, Turin 2002, pp. 129-144 G. Spione, Bartolomeo and D.. G. in Piedmont, in G. Spione, F. Cappelletti, I fratelli Guidobono e Daniel Seiter: l'avvio della grande composizione a Torino fra Seicento e Settecento, Turin 2002, pp. 19-118 M. Newcome, Bartolomeo and Domenico Guidobono. Dalle collezioni private a Palazzo Lomellino, Genoa 2010, ad vocem