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
![Dolci Saint Paul the hermit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Dolci_Saint_Paul_the_hermit.jpg)
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
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
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 ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolci, Carlo
1616 births
1686 deaths
17th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
Painters from Florence
Italian Baroque painters