PARODI, Domenico - b. 1672 Genova, d. 1742 Genova

Italian painter, part of a family of artists, son of Filippo Parodi. Around 1678 he accompanied the family to Venice, where he studied with the portraitist Sebastiano Bombelli. He was in Padua around 1685 and later travelled to Rome to work under Maratti, possibly in 1690-94 when Paolo Girolamo Piola was there. Parodi’s Jupiter Rescuing a Shipwreck (before 1694, untraced; known from engraving), a complex composition that includes many figures in motion, demonstrates that in the 1690s he was Piola’s equal in combining the current highly ornamental figure-style (promoted by Piola’s workshop, the Casa Piola) with a classical manner inspired by Roman trends. This ability is apparent in his earliest dated works, two oval paintings depicting David Lamenting the Death of Uzza and Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple (both 1700; Rome, Santa Maria in Vallicella).

Parodi is best known for his illusionistic decorative ceilings depicting mythological and allegorical subjects, inspired by the programmes of the Casa Piola. Examples by Parodi survive in Santa Maria Maddalena (1712), the Palazzo Pallavicini-Podesta (c. 1716-21), the Palazzo Reale (1720s), Palazzo Rosso (1736), Palazzo Spinola, Palazzo Negrotti-Cambiaso and Palazzo Franzone (last three all 1730s), all in Genoa.

Parodi worked on several commissions for the Durazzo family, as records of payments to him show: portraits and marble busts. His detailed drawings for fountains, grottoes, religious statues, altars and tomb-reliefs are evidence of his multi-faceted interests. He also continued the sculptural tradition of his father, carving marble figures of Apollo, Ariadne, Bacchus and Diana (Vienna, Belvedere-Garten) as well as producing highly elaborate quadratura and academic figures that were close to the strongly twisting figures and draperies of Piola and to the polished manner of Lorenzo de’ Ferrari (1680-1744).

Parodi’s sculpture should not be confused with that of Domenico di Antomaria Parodi (1653-1703), who studied with Bernini and Filippo Parodi and married the daughter of Domenico Piola.