The Judgement of Midas

Domenichino's Judgement of Midas, painted around 1617, depicts the myth of the musical contest between Apollo and Pan before the Phrygian king, who foolishly judged in Pan's favour and was punished with ass's ears. The subject was treated by Domenichino in a series of landscape canvases produced for the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, forming part of a programme of pastoral-mythological decoration. These works were crucial in establishing the classical landscape as a major genre.

The figures of Apollo, Pan, and Midas are placed within an expansive classical landscape, small in relation to their setting but clearly characterised. Domenichino's cool, clear light and systematic spatial recession anticipate the classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain. The treatment of trees and distant plains shows his systematic approach to landscape construction.