Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati featured in its garden pavilion the Stanza di Apollo with a fresco series of 10 original scenes from the story of Apollo (1616-1618). Of the ten, seven plus one fragment have been transferred to canvas (1840) and exported to the National Gallery, London, and the twoothers remain in situ. The artwork is likely designed generally by Domenichino himself, but much of the painting is executed by his assistants. Many studies for the collection are at Windsor in the Royal Collection.

Reid: Domenichino, 1581-1641. “Scenes from the Life of Apollo.” 10 frescoes, for Villa Aldobrandini (Belevedere), Frascati. 1616-1618. 2 and a fragment in place; others (detached) National Gallery, London, nos. 6284 – 91. [Spear 1982, no. 55 - — ill. / London 1986, pp. 160 – 63 — ill.]

Apollo slaying Coronis: Ovid Met. 2.600, NationalGallery.org, OGCMA0183ApolloLoves_DomenichinoAldobrandini

Judgement of Midas: Ovid Met. 11, NationalGallery.org (with audio clip), OGCMA0664MidasJudgment_DomenichinoAldobrandini

Transformation of Cyparissus: Ovid Met. 10.106-42, NationalGallery.org, Apollo seated in clouds remains unextracted on the wall in Frascati, OGCMA318Cyparissus_DomenchinoAldobrandini

Apollo Pursuing Daphne: Ovid Met. 1, NationalGallery.org, the best landscape in the collection, OGCMA0328Daphne_DomenichinoAlbrandini

Flaying of Marsyas: Ovid Met. 6, NationalGallery.org, placed over the door of the stanza, OGCMA0640Marsyas_DomenichinoAldobrandini

Apollo and Neptune advising Laomedon: Ovid Met. 11.196 ff., NationalGallery.org, OGCMA0627Laomedon_DomenichinoAldobrandini

Apollo killing the Cyclops: Ovid Met. 2.600-34, 15.533-46, 15.626-744 and Apollodorus Library 3.10 (retaliation for cyclopes’ slaying of Aesculapius) NationalGallery.org, trompe-l’oeil tapestry with dwarf, Apollo’s likeness cf. Apollo Belvedere (Langmuir), OGCMA0234NOTAsclepiusHygeia_DomenichinoAldobrandini

Mercury stealing the Herds of Admetus (as Apollo plays his reed pipe): Ovid Met. 2.685-713, NationalGallery.org OGCMA0572HermesInfancy_DomenichinoAldobrandini.

Langmuir, p. 191: “The mythological stories in the landscape frescoes of the Stanza di Apollo depicted the sun god as death-dealer; his beneficient aspect as patron of the arts was revealed in a fountain on the end wall showing Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus, a hidden water organ beneath lending sound to the sculpted musical instruments. The recherché programme and obscure sources of some of the painted scenes suggest the collaboration of a learned adviser.”

Spear 1982 = Richard E. Spear. Domenichino. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.

London 1986 = National Gallery London. Illustrated General Catalogue. 2d rev. ed. 1986.

Asclepius: “When Theseus’s son Hippolytus died, Artemis begged Asclepius to restore him to life. Asclepius did so but was himself killed by Zeus for disrupting the course of nature. Apollo avenged his son’s death by killing the Cyclopes who made Zeus’s thunderbolts.” Reid s.v. “Asclepius and Hygeia”