Fetti, Domenico

Domenico Fetti, Fetti also spelled Feti, (born 1588/89, Rome, Papal States [now in Italy]—died April 16, 1623, Venice, Republic of Venice), Italian Baroque painter whose best-known works are small representations of biblical parables as scenes from everyday life—e.g., The Good Samaritan. These works, which Fetti painted between 1618 and 1622, were executed in a style that emphasized the use of rich colour and the changing effects of light and shade. They are important in the development of Baroque landscape for the way small-scale figures and landscape scenery are fused into an atmospheric whole.

In Rome Fetti was a pupil of Ludovico Cigoli but was principally influenced by the followers of Caravaggio and also by Adam Elsheimer. Through Cigoli he attracted the attention of Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga. The cardinal went to Mantua to become Duke Ferdinando II, and Fetti became his court painter about the end of 1613. At Mantua he saw the works of Peter Paul Rubens as well as those of Giulio Romano, and his style was considerably modified. Later, the influence of Venetian art was even more marked; he took up residence in Venice in 1622.