Carlo Dolci. A Refreshment

by J. Imorde

Book cover: Carlo Dolci. A Refreshment

Extent: 115 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Art & Art History

Series: Studies in Iconology

Series volume number: 8

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(February 2017)

ISBN: 9789042934566

Price: $45.00

In stock

This volume reevaluates the works of the Florentine painter Carlo Dolci. For art historical authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the name Dolci was used as a convenient epithet for mocking the sentimental style of the artist’s exclusively religious paintings. A seventeenth century audience, however, could still understand his ‘sweetness’ as an authentic expression of an old theological concept that went back to the bible itself: the so-called Dulcedo dei, or sweetness of God. This study looks at Dolci’s reception throughout the centuries to show how it came to be that the theologically substantiated aesthetic of sweetness in Dolci’s oeuvre fell out of favor and into oblivion.


Carlo Dolci. A Refreshment reevaluates the works of the Florentine painter Carlo Dolci. For art historical authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the name Dolci was used as a convenient epithet for mocking the sentimental style of the artist’s exclusively religious paintings. A seventeenth century audience, however, could still understand his ‘sweetness’ as an authentic expression of an old theological concept that went back to the bible itself: the so-called Dulcedo dei, or sweetness of God. This study looks at Dolci’s reception throughout the centuries to show how it came to be that the theologically substantiated aesthetic of sweetness in Dolci’s oeuvre fell out of favor and into oblivion.

  • By (author) J Imorde

"This book is short, but its argument is elegant and persuasive. With 21 pages of text, 31 pages of footnotes and 27 pages of bibliography, it is generously documented and beautifully illustrated." --Richard Woodfield, University of Birmingham, Journal of Art Historiography, March 28, 2018
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