Carlo Dolci

CARLO DOLCI (Florence, 1616 - 1686).
"Dolorosa".
Oil on copper.
It presents certificate of authenticity of Arabella Cifani.
Measurements 29 x 22 cm, 48 x 41 cm (frame).

This work follows in the wake of Carlo Dolci as the treatment of the image is very subtle and delicate, with a use of diagonal light and a soft chiaroscuro while visible especially in the flesh tones. The Virgin is in a classical profile posture, a taste that began to be renewed in the Italian Peninsula during the fifteenth century and that would characterize the Renaissance and the subsequent Baroque period. The image stands out for the pathos of her gestures, a common feature in Carlo Dolci's painting.

The devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin has its roots in medieval times, and was especially spread by the Servite order, founded in 1233. There are many and varied iconographic representations that have the central theme of the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, a theme that Dolci took up almost four centuries later.

The formal and stylistic characteristics of the work are those of the unmistakable Florentine painter Carlo Dolci, who, according to critics, was the most outstanding Baroque painter in Florence in the 17th century. In addition to the paintings destined to decorate the altars of churches, Dolci popularized compositions with half-length images of the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, saints and other sacred figures, with a polished and detailed technique, which were well received by the late Baroque clientele. Among his first works signed as an independent artist are portraits, a genre that the painter worked on throughout his career and for which he was particularly renowned. He forged his style by copying the works of the great masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including Fra Angelico, Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo and Correggio. He was also in contact with the Medici collection, which had a great influence on his work of the Dutch painters of his time, such as Willem van der Aelst. Throughout his career and after his death he had numerous disciples, among them Agnese Dolci, his daughter, who followed the family tradition and made numerous copies of Carlo Dolci's paintings.