Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an

Italian Baroque painter Italian Baroque art was a very prominent part of the Baroque art in painting, sculpture and other media, made in a period extending from the end of the sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries. The movement began in Italy, and despite later curr ...

, active mainly in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. 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, 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 copies of his works. After attempting the whole figure of St John, and the head of the infant

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

, he painted a portrait of his mother, displaying a new and delicate style which brought him into notice. This procured him extensive employment at

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

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. 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 According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or ) was placed on the head of Jesus during the Passion of Jesus, events leading up to his crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion. It was one of the Arma Christi, instruments of the Passion, e ...

. 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 The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

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. 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 Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italians, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or r ...

. 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 National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

; 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 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

Footnotes

References

* Attribution: *

External links

* * , engraved by William Ensom for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. * , engraved by S. Sangster for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. * , engraved by S. Sangster for The Easter Gift, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolci, Carlo 1616 births 1686 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Florence Italian Baroque painters