The Florentine Carlo Dolci, an artist of the Mature Baroque, was born in 1616. As a child he was sent to study at the art school of the famous draughtsman and fresco master Jacopo Vignali, where he showed a remarkable talent for painting. Under the influence of his teacher, Dolci committed himself to religious themes. His passionate works combined a certain naturalism and the “beauty ideal” of the Tuscan Cinquecento — the art of the 16th century.
The many copies and replicas of his paintings show that Dolci was very popular among his contemporaries. His canvases full of light and conventional piety were especially appreciated.
By the early 1640s, under the influence of the “сhiaroscuro” style of Guido Reni, a major representative of the Bolognese school of painting, Dolci had made his paintings more intense and colorful.
A decade later, he began to work in a new refined and brilliant manner, reflecting the Flemish and Dutch art that had taken root in Tuscany through the work of the Leiden painter and poet, Jan van Myris. Dolci continued to work on Biblical subjects. Particularly attentive to detail — furniture, draperies, the texture of things — he achieved beautiful pictorial effects enhanced by the refined color scheme. At that time the artist began to pay more attention to the fine detailing of the figures in the background.
Dolci’s artistic manner — with his attention to detail, bright palette, and smoothness of brushwork — won him the patronage of the Medici clan, Florence’s most powerful family. The Tuscan rulers were his customers and provided the artist with a comfortable livelihood.
Dolci was known for his piety and for every Easter he painted a new figure of the Savior wearing a crown of thorns. In the picture “Saint John the Evangelist” the Apostle is depicted in his typical manner — a languid young man with his eyes raised to heaven, in a garment with exquisitely drooping folds, against the dark conventional background. Toward the end of his life, his characters were rendered more still and heavy in order to emphasize their devotion.
By 1675, Dolci had almost stopped painting canvases. This event, as well as the master’s untimely death, is usually attributed to a fateful encounter between the artist and Luca Giordano, a Neapolitan painter nicknamed “Luka works quickly”. In front of the eyes of the old master, he painted more works in a few hours than Dolci could have done in many months.
The many copies and replicas of his paintings show that Dolci was very popular among his contemporaries. His canvases full of light and conventional piety were especially appreciated.
By the early 1640s, under the influence of the “сhiaroscuro” style of Guido Reni, a major representative of the Bolognese school of painting, Dolci had made his paintings more intense and colorful.
A decade later, he began to work in a new refined and brilliant manner, reflecting the Flemish and Dutch art that had taken root in Tuscany through the work of the Leiden painter and poet, Jan van Myris. Dolci continued to work on Biblical subjects. Particularly attentive to detail — furniture, draperies, the texture of things — he achieved beautiful pictorial effects enhanced by the refined color scheme. At that time the artist began to pay more attention to the fine detailing of the figures in the background.
Dolci’s artistic manner — with his attention to detail, bright palette, and smoothness of brushwork — won him the patronage of the Medici clan, Florence’s most powerful family. The Tuscan rulers were his customers and provided the artist with a comfortable livelihood.
Dolci was known for his piety and for every Easter he painted a new figure of the Savior wearing a crown of thorns. In the picture “Saint John the Evangelist” the Apostle is depicted in his typical manner — a languid young man with his eyes raised to heaven, in a garment with exquisitely drooping folds, against the dark conventional background. Toward the end of his life, his characters were rendered more still and heavy in order to emphasize their devotion.
By 1675, Dolci had almost stopped painting canvases. This event, as well as the master’s untimely death, is usually attributed to a fateful encounter between the artist and Luca Giordano, a Neapolitan painter nicknamed “Luka works quickly”. In front of the eyes of the old master, he painted more works in a few hours than Dolci could have done in many months.
