Le prime imprese del conte Orlando (1572) (14597370808)

Lodovico Dolce (1508/10–1568) was an Italian man of letters and

theorist A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

. He was a broadly based Venetian

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

and prolific author, translator, and editor; he is now mostly remembered for his ''Dialogue on Painting'' or ''L'Aretino'' (1557), and for his involvement in artistic controversies of the day. He was a friend of

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

's, and often acted as in effect his public relations man.

Biography

The date of Dolce's birth, long accepted as 1508, was more likely in 1510. Dolce's youth was difficult. His father, a former steward to the public attorneys (''castaldo delle procuratorie'') for the Republic of Venice, died when the boy was only two. For his early studies, he depended on the support of two patrician families: that of the doge

Leonardo Loredan Leonardo Loredan (; vec, Lunardo Loredan ; 16 November 1436 – 22 June 1521) was a Venetian nobleman and statesman who reigned as the 75th Doge of Venice from 1501 until his death in 1521. A wartime ruler, his dogeship was one of the most impo ...

o (see Dolce's dedication of his ''Dialogue on Painting'') and the Cornaro family, who financed his studies at Padua.Terpening, p. 9. After he completed his studies, Dolce found work in Venice with the press of

Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari (c. 1508 – 1578) was a 16th-century Italian printer active in Venice. He was one of the first major publishers of literature in the vernacular Italian language. Early life and career Giolito was born at Trino to ...

. He was one of the most active intellectuals in 16th-century Venice. Claudia Di Filippo Bareggi claims that over the course of thirty-six years Dolce was responsible for 96 editions of his own original work, 202 editions of other writers, and at least 54 translations. As a popularizer, he worked to make information available to the non-specialist, those too busy to learn Greek and Latin.Terpening, p. 13. Following a productive life as a scholar and author, Dolce died in January, 1568, and was buried in the church of San Luca in Venice, "although in which pavement tomb is unknown."

Works

Dolce worked in most of the literary genres available at the time, including epic and lyric poetry, chivalric romance, comedy, tragedy, the prose dialogue, treatises (where he discussed women, ill-married men, memory, the Italian language, gems, painting, and colors), encyclopedic summaries (of Aristotle's philosophy and world history), and historical works on major figures of the 16th century and earlier writers, such as Cicero, Ovid, Dante, and Boccaccio. "From 1542, when Dolce first went to work for the Giolito, until iolito'sdeath in 1568, he edited 184 texts out of just over 700 titles published by Giolito." These editions included works by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...

, Castiglione,

Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the It ...

Lodovico Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

Pietro Aretino Pietro Aretino (, ; 19 or 20 April 1492 – 21 October 1556) was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics. He was one of the most influential writers of his time and a ...

Angelo Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

, Jacopo Sannazzaro, and

Bernardo Tasso Bernardo Tasso (11 November 14935 September 1569), born in the Republic of Venice, was an Italian courtier and poet. Biography He was, for many years, secretary in the service of the prince of Salerno, and his wife Porzia de Rossi was closely c ...

. And he translated into Italian works of authors such as

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

, the playwright

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, and

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

Writings on art

''L'Aretino'' (1557), Dolce's main work on art, was designed as a riposte to

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

's ''

Lives of the Artists ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...

'', whose first edition of 1550 did not even include Titian, which Vasari rectified in the second edition of 1568. It takes the form of a dialogue in three parts between

, representing the Venetian point of view, and the Florentine humanist Giovanni Francesco Fabrini. Beginning with a discussion of the principles of art, the dialogue moves on to a ''paragone'' or comparison between

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

and

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, and to discuss a number of other contemporary painters, and then ends with a biography and appreciation of Titian. A clear hierarchy emerges from the book: of all the artists of his own century, Titian is the greatest, followed by the varied and harmonious Raphael, then the flawed Michelangelo.Blunt, pp. 82–84. It is uncertain how well he knew Titian at the time he wrote his life, which was the first published biography of the artist. There appear to be too many simple mistakes for the text to have been checked over by its subject. Dolce is a staunch partisan of the

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

in general, and critical of

Mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

. According to

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

, the work was probably written in close collaboration with Aretino, who died a year before publication. Aretino's advances to

had been rebuffed, and there is harsh criticism of his ''

Last Judgment The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

'', repeating those already made by others, but usually couching objections in terms of decorum for such an important location as the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

, rather than morality as such—understandably, given Aretino's own notorious record in his life and works. Mark Roskill sees a different picture of the book's prehistory, with Dolce being a member of Aretino's "outer circle" for some years around 1537–42, before a slackening of relations; over this period Dolce became familiar with Aretino's strong but unsystematic thinking on art. After the publication of Vasari's ''Lives'' in 1550, the Venetian intellectual establishment felt the need for a Venetian counterblast, for which Dolce was probably chosen "by someone higher up in the hierarchy of Venetian humanists", and also supplied with some material. On Aretino's death in 1556, the work also took on another purpose: to serve as a memorial for him. It may have been at this point that the dialogue form was adopted. Dolce's approach in fact relies considerably on Vasari, who he is likely to have known, as Vasari's stay of 13 months in Venice in 1541–42 came when Dolce was closest to Aretino, at whose urging Vasari had made the visit. In turn, the added material on Titian in Vasari's 2nd edition of 1568 shows evidence of using ''L'Aretino'' (and also evidence of ignoring it), as well as the researches of the Florentine ambassador. The two men may have met in Vasari's brief visit in May 1566. Dolce's book continued to be admired as a treatise on art theory through to the 18th century, but more recently it is his biographical information that has been valued. A dual edition in French and Italian was published in 1735, and there were published translations in Dutch in 1756, German in 1757, and English in 1770. Roskill's book includes ''L'Aretino'' in Italian and English on facing pages.

Tragedies

As a dramatist he wrote numerous tragedies: ''Giocasta'' (1549, derived probably from

' ''

The Phoenician Women ''The Phoenician Women'' ( grc, Φοίνισσαι, ''Phoinissai'') is a tragedy by Euripides, based on the same story as Aeschylus' play ''Seven Against Thebes''. It was presented along with the tragedies ''Hypsipyle'' and '' Antiope.'' With this ...

'' via the Latin translation of R. Winter), ''Thieste'', ''Medea'', ''Didone'', ''Ifigenia'', ''Hecuba'' and ''Marianna''. An English-language adaptation of the first of these, the ''Jocasta'' by

George Gascoigne George Gascoigne (c. 15357 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to t ...

and Francis Kinwelmersh, was staged in 1566 at Gray's Inn in London. His tragedy ''Didone'' (1547) was one of his more influential tragedies in Italy, a precursor of Pietro Metastasio's ''

Didone abbandonata ''Didone abbandonata'' is an opera libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio. It was his first original work and was set to music by Domenico Sarro in 1724. The opera was accompanied by the intermezzo '' L'impresario delle Isole Canarie'', also ...

'' (1724).

Comedies

He also wrote numerous comedies, including ''Il Marito'', ''Il Ragazzo'', ''Il Capitano'', ''La Fabritia'', and ''Il Ruffiano''.Terpening, p. 258.

Histories

Two of his histories—the ''Life of

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

'' (1561) and the ''Life of Ferdinand I'' (1566)—were very successful in the sixteenth century. His ''History of the World'' (''Giornale delle historie del mondo'', 1572, posthumous) is a lengthy calendar of notable historical and literary events, listed for each day of the year. The events he employs range in time from the origins of civilization to his own day.

Treatises

His ''Treatise on Gems'' (''Trattato delle gemme'', 1565) falls into the

lapidary Lapidary (from the Latin ) is the practice of shaping stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems (including cameos), and faceted designs. A person who practices lapidary is known as a lapidarist. A la ...

tradition, with Dolce discussing not only the physical qualities of jewels but the power infused in them by the stars. As his authorities, he cites

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

, the Persian philosopher

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...

Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psycholog ...

, and the ''Libri mineralium'' of

Albert the Great Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his life ...

among others, but, according to Ronnie H. Terpening, he appears to have simply translated Camillo Leonardo's ''Speculum lapidum'' (1502) without crediting the earlier author. In addition to translating Cicero's ''De Oratore'' (1547), Dolce authored several treatises on language, among them the ''Osservationi nella volgar lingua'' (1550). This was a linguistic and grammatical study in which Dolce draws examples from and comments on Dante, Boccaccio, and Ariosto, among others.

Chivalric Romances

In the genre of

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric k ...

, Dolce produced several reworkings of traditional material, including ''Sacripante'' (1536), ''Palmerino'' (1561), ''Primaleone, figliuolo di Palmerino'' (1562), and the posthumous ''Prime imprese del conte Orlando'' (''The Early Deeds of Count Orlando'') (1572).

Classical Epic

Drawing heavily on Virgil, he wrote an epic poem on Aeneas, the ''Enea'', published the year of his death. For those who had no knowledge of Greek or Latin, he compiled a work in ''ottava rima'', ''L'Achille et l'Enea'', joining Homer's epic to Virgil's, a work published posthumously in 1570.

Editions of Other Writers

Among the authors edited by Dolce (for which see "Works" above), he focused most significantly on Ariosto. He edited three of Ariosto's comedies, ''La Lena'' (c. 1530), ''Il Negromante'' (c. 1530), and ''I Suppositi'' (1551); the poet's ''Rime'' (1557), and the ''Orlando furioso'' (1535). For the latter poem, he published a work explaining the more difficult aspects, the ''Espositioni'' (1542), and an analysis of the poem's figurative language, the ''Modi affigurati'' (1554).

Translations

Whether Dolce knew Greek or not has been questioned by Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna. Nevertheless, using (but not acknowledging) Latin translations of authors such as Euripides, he translated the works of several Greek authors into Italian, among them

Achilles Tatius Achilles Tatius (Greek: Ἀχιλλεὺς Τάτιος, ''Achilleus Tatios'') of Alexandria was a Roman-era Greek writer of the 2nd century AD whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the ancient Greek novel, or ''romance'', '' The Adve ...

(''Leucippe and Clitophon'', 1544), Homer's ''Odyssey'' (''L'Ulisse'', 1573, posthumous) and the ''History of the Greek Emperors'' (1569, posthumous) by Nicetas Acominatus. He also translated various Latin authors, sometimes very loosely, other times, such as for Seneca's ten tragedies, with fidelity to the original.Terpening, p. 93. Ronnie H. Terpening concludes his book on Dolce by noting that

Truly, then as now, taking into account all his imperfections and those of the age, this is a worthy career for any man or woman of letters. Without his unstinting efforts, the history and development of Italian literature would surely be the poorer. In addition, if what others have said about him is accurate, Dolce was also a good man, for after 'indefatigable' the adjectives used most often to describe him are 'pacifico' and, of course, 'dolce.' In such a contentious age, these are simple but high words of praise indeed. (p. 169)

Notes

References

Blunt, Anthony Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

, ''Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600'', 1940 (refs. to 1985 ed.).

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. * Dolce, Lodovico, ''Tieste'', edited by Stefano Giazzon, Torino, RES Edizioni, 2010 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Il'' Thyeste ''(1543) di Lodovico Dolce'', in AA. VV., ''La letteratura italiana a congresso. Bilanci e prospettive del decennale (1996–2006)'', Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, II, pp. 325–333 * Giazzon, Stefano, ''La'' Giocasta ''di Lodovico Dolce: note su una riscrittura euripidea'', «Chroniques Italiennes», 20, 2011, pp. 47 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Venezia in coturno. Lodovico Dolce tragediografo (1543–1557)'', Roma, Aracne, 2011 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Dante nel regno di Melpomene: appunti sulla presenza dantesca nelle tragedie di Lodovico Dolce'', «Filologia e Critica», 1, (2011), pp. 125–138 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''La'' dictio tragica ''di Lodovico Dolce fra Classicismo e Manierismo'', «Rivista di Letteratura Teatrale», 4 (2011), pp. 29–59 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''La'' Hecuba ''di Lodovico Dolce: appunti per una analisi stilistica'', «Lettere Italiane», LXIII, 4 (2011), pp. 586–603 * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Il Manierismo a teatro: l'Ifigenia di Lodovico Dolce'', «Forum Italicum», 1 (2012), pp. 53–81 () * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Petrarca in coturno: sul riuso di'' Rerum vulgarium fragmenta ''e'' Triumphi ''nelle prime tragedie di Lodovico Dolce'', «Italianistica. Rivista di letteratura italiana», XLIII, 1 (2014), pp. 31–45 (ISSN 0391-3368) * Giazzon, Stefano, ''La maschera dell’ambiguità. Sull’'' Ifigenia ''di Lodovico Dolce'', «Per Leggere», XXVI, 1 (2014), pp. 63–90 (ISSN 1591-4861) * Giazzon, Stefano, ''Il'' Sacripante ''di Lodovico Dolce: un poema manierista'', «Esperienze Letterarie», XL, 4 (2015), pp. 29–61 (ISSN 2036-5012) * Hale, Sheila, ''Titian: His Life'', 2012, Harper Press, * Montorfani, Pietro, ''«Giocasta», un volgarizzamento euripideo di Lodovico Dolce'', in «Aevum», 80 (2006), pp. 717–739. * Roskill, Mark W., ''Dolce's'' Aretino ''and Venetian Art Theory of the Cinquecento'' (New York: Published for the College Art Association of America by New York University Press, 1968; reprinted with emendations by University of Toronto Press, 2000) * Terpening, Ronnie H., ''Lodovico Dolce, Renaissance Man of Letters'', University of Toronto Press, 199
(review)

External links

the sixteenth-century English-language adaptation by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolce, Lodovico 1508 births 1568 deaths Italian Renaissance humanists Grammarians from Italy