Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.

Biography

He was born in Florence, on his mother's side the grandson of a painter. He was precocious and apprenticed at a young age to

Jacopo Vignali Jacopo Vignali (September 5, 1592 – August 3, 1664) was an Italian people, Italian painter of the early Baroque period. Biography Vignali was born in Pratovecchio, near Arezzo, and initially trained under Matteo Rosselli. He painted the ceiling ...

, and when only eleven years of age he attempted a whole figure of St John, and a head of the infant Christ, which received some approbation. However Dolci was not prolific. "He would take weeks over a single foot", according to his biographer Baldinucci. His painstaking technique made him unsuited for large-scale fresco painting. He painted chiefly sacred subjects, and his works are generally small in scale, although he made a few life-size pictures. He often repeated the same composition in several versions, and his daughter, Agnese Dolci, also made excellent copies of his works. When only eleven years of age, he attempted a whole figure of St John, and a head of the infant

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, which received some approbation. He afterwards painted a portrait of his mother, and displayed a new and delicate style which brought him into notice, and procured him extensive employment at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

(from which city he hardly ever moved) and in other parts of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Dolci was known for his piety. It is said that every year during

Passion Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

he painted a half-figure of the Savior wearing the

Crown of Thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the in ...

. In 1682, when he saw Giordano, nicknamed ''"fa presto"'' (quick worker), paint more in five hours than he could have completed in months, he fell into a depression. Dolci's daughter, Agnese (died circa 1680), was also a painter. Dolci died in Florence in 1686.

Works

The grand manner, vigorous coloration or luminosity, and dynamic emotion of the Bolognese-Roman Baroque are foreign to Dolci and to Baroque Florence. While he fits into a long tradition of prestigious official Florentine painting, Dolci appears constitutionally blind to the new aesthetic, shackled by the Florentine tradition that holds each drawn figure under a microscope of academicism. Wittkower describes him as the Florentine counterpart, in terms of devotional imagery, of the Roman

Sassoferrato Sassoferrato is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Ancona in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy. History To the south of the town lie the ruins of the ancient Sentinum, on the Via Flaminia. The castle above the town is mentione ...

. Pilkington declared his touch "inexpressibly neat ... though he has often been censured for the excessive labour bestowed on his pictures, and for giving his carnations more of the appearance of ivory than the look of flesh", a flaw that had been already apparent in Agnolo Bronzino. Among his best works are a ''St Sebastian''; the ''Four Evangelists'' at Florence; ''Christ Breaking the Bread''; the ''St Cecilia at the Organ''; an ''Adoration of the Magi'' in the National Gallery, London; the ''St Catherine Reading'' and ''St Andrew praying before his Crucifixion'' (1646) in the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

. He completed his portrait o
''Fra Ainolfo de' Bardi''
when he was only sixteen. He also painted a large altarpiece (1656) for the church of Sant' Andrea Cennano in Montevarchi. As was typical for Florentine painters, this was a painting about painting, and in it the Virgin of Soriano holds a miraculous and iconic painting of St Dominic.Charles McCorquodale, "Some Unpublished Works by Carlo Dolci" ''The Burlington Magazine'' (1979) pages 140, 142-147, 149-150.

Gallery

"Mary Magdalene" by Carlo Dolci.jpg, Magdalen Dolci Santa Cecilia.jpg, Saint Cecilia Dolci San Simone.JPG, San Simone Carlo Dolci 004.jpg, Saint with golden heart Dolci David con la testa di Golia.jpg, David with Head of Goliath Dolci San Matteo.PNG, St Matthew Saint Philippe Benizzi (Dolci Carlo 1616-1686).jpg, St Philip Benizzi Carlo Dolci - Diogenes.jpg, Diogenes Carlo Dolci - Moses - WGA6379.jpg, Moses Carlo_Dolci_Salome_Head_of_St_John_the_Baptist.jpg, Salome and Head of St. John the Baptist Carlo Dolci - Vase of Flowers - WGA6374.jpg, Still-life Flowers Dolci Santa Caterina da Siena.JPG, St Catherine of Siena Carlo Dolci Mater dolorosa.jpg, Mater Dolorosa Dolci Annunciation.jpg, Annunciation Dolci Vergine annunciata.jpg, Annuciation Virgin Dolci Angelo annunciante.jpg, Annuciation Angel Carlo Dolci 006.jpg, Madonna and Child Dolci Madonna col Bambino2.PNG, Madonna and Child Dolci Gesù fiori.jpg, Jesus with flowers (1663) Carlo Dolci - The Guardian Angel - WGA06375.jpg, Guardian Angel Dolci Crocifissione Andrea.jpg, Cruxifixion of St. Andrew Dolci Visione di San Luigi.jpg, Vision of St Louis (1675) Carlo Dolci - The Holy Family with God the Father and the Holy Spirit - WGA06376.jpg, The Holy Family with God the Father and the Holy Spirit Dolci Claudia Felicita.jpg, Claudia Felicitas of Austria Dolci Teresa Bucherelli.jpg, Teresa Bucherelli Carlo Dolci - Portrait of Vittoria della Rovere in Widow's Weeds - WGA6382.jpg,

Vittoria della Rovere Vittoria della Rovere (7 February 1622 – 5 March 1694) was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the wife of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. She had four children with her husband, two of whom would survive infancy: the future Cosimo III, Tuscany's longest- ...

as Widow Carlo Dolci 008.jpg, Mattias de' Medici (1635) Dolci Ainolfo de Bardi.jpg, Ainolfo de Bardi Dolci Stefano Della Bella (lighter).jpg,

Stefano della Bella Stefano della Bella (17 May 1610 – 12 July 1664) was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and sev ...

Dolci Sir Thomas Baines.JPG, Sir Thomas Baines

Footnotes

References

* Attribution: *

External links

* * , engraved by William Ensom for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

. * , engraved by S. Sangster for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolci, Carlo 1616 births 1686 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Florence Italian Baroque painters