Carlo Dolci

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, 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.{{sfn|Rossetti|1911}} However Dolci was not prolific. "He would take weeks over a single foot", according to his biographer Baldinucci.{{Cite web |url=http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=479# |title=Getty Museum biography |access-date=2006-11-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060919201715/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=479# |archive-date=2006-09-19 |url-status=dead }} 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 copies of his works.

After attempting the whole figure of St John, and the head of the infant Christ, he painted a portrait of his mother, displaying a new and delicate style which brought him into notice. This procured him extensive employment at Florence (from which city he hardly ever moved) and in other parts of Italy.{{sfn|Rossetti|1911}}

Dolci was known for his piety. It is said that every year during Passion Week he painted a half-figure of the Savior wearing the Crown of Thorns.{{sfn|Rossetti|1911}} 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.[http://www.wga.hu/bio/d/dolci/biograph.html Web Gallery of Art biography]

Dolci's daughter, Agnese (died circa 1680), was also a painter.[https://books.google.com/books?id=Dqc8AQAAIAAJ Dizionario biografico universal], By Gottardo Garollo, 1907, page 692. Dolci died in Florence in 1686.

File:Dolci Saint Paul the hermit.jpg in Warsaw.]]

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.Wittkower, p. 345. 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",[https://books.google.com/books?id=QwPuAAAAMAAJ A general dictionary of painters], Volume 1, by Matthew Pilkington, page 268.{{sfn|Rossetti|1911}} 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;Subsequently at Burleigh the St Cecilia at the Organ;in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie. an Adoration of the Magi in the National Gallery, London; the St Catherine Readingin the Residenzgalerie, Salzburg. and St Andrew praying before his Crucifixion (1646) in the Palazzo Pitti.{{sfn|Rossetti|1911}} He completed his portrait of [http://www.wga.hu/html/d/dolci/bardi.html 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.

"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 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

Dolci Sir Thomas Baines.JPG|Sir Thomas Baines

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{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | first= Rudolf|last= Wittkower|author-link=Rudolf Wittkower| year=1993| title= Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750| pages= 345–46 | publisher= Penguin Books, Pelican History of Art}}

Attribution:

• {{EB1911 |last=Rossetti |first=William Michael|author-link=William Michael Rossetti|wstitle=Dolci, Carlo|volume=8|page=386}}

• {{cite CE1913|first=Leigh Harrison |last=Hunt|wstitle=Carlo Dolci |volume=5 |short=x}}
• {{ws|Christ Blessing the Bread}}, engraved by William Ensom for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.
• {{ws|The Magdalen}}, engraved by S. Sangster for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.
• {{ws|Infant Christ with Flowers}}, engraved by S. Sangster for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

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Category:1616 births

Category:1686 deaths

Category:17th-century Italian painters

Category:Italian male painters

Category:Painters from Florence

Category:Italian Baroque painters