Carlo Dolci Florence 1616 - 1687

London, British Institution, 1843, no. 73 (lent by the Marquess of Lansdowne);
London, British Institution, 1865, no. 42 (lent by the Marquess of Lansdowne);
London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Loan Exhibition of The Lansdowne Collection (In Aid of the Royal National Institute for the Blind), 8 December 1954 - 29 January 1955, no. 45;
London, Royal Academy, and Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Painting in Florence 1600-1700, 20 January - 18 February 1979, and 27 February - 28 March 1979, no. 20.

Gambiagi, “Elogio di Carlo Dolci”, in Serie degli Uomini i più Illustri nella pittura, scultura e architettura, con i loro elogi, e ritratti incisi in rame cominciando dalla sua prima restaurazione fino ai tempi presenti, vol. XI, Florence 1769-75, p. 40, footnote 2;
Mrs. A. Jameson, Companion to the most celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London, London 1844, no. 11;
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. II, London 1854, p. 151;
G.E. Ambrose, Catalogue of the collection of pictures belonging to the Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G., at Lansdowne House, London and Bowood, Wilts., 1897, no. 88;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, London 1913, vol. I, pp. 290 and 291;
Loan Exhibition of The Lansdowne Collection (In Aid of the Royal National Institute for the Blind), exhibition catalogue, London, Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., 1954-55, p. 27, no. 45;
C. McCorquodale, “A Fresh Look at Carlo Dolci”, in Apollo, vol. XCVII, no. 135, May 1973, p. 488, foonote 10, reproduced fig. 18 (as formerly in the collection of Lord Lansdowne);
C. McCorquodale, "Some Paintings and Drawings by Carlo Dolci in British Collections", in Kunst des Barock in der Toskana, Florence/Munich 1976, p. 317, footnote 25;
C. McCorquodale, Painting in Florence 1600-1700, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy, 20 January - 18 February 1979; and Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, 27 February - 28 March 1979, pp. 54-55, cat. no. 20, reproduced;
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Fiesole 1983, p. 71;
F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Turin 1995, p. 88, cat. no. 54, reproduced in black and white and in colour plate XXI.

ENGRAVED:
By Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), as an oval.

The small scale of this copper and the highly finished, delicate brushwork indicate that this was a painting produced for private devotion, almost certainly for a sophisticated patron. The gem-like quality of the painting is heightened by the use of gold for the figures' haloes. By filling the picture space with the figures the artist has created a scene of great intimacy; the mother gazing tenderly at her child, the latter engaging with the viewer by looking out. The intimate, religious feeling and refined painting technique have much in common with Dolci's picture of The Agony in the Garden in Genoa, also painted on copper. Both works are datable to the fifth decade of the 17th century and the present painting has been dated by Baldassari to circa 1642.

A small copper of the Madonna suckling the Christ Child ("Maria SS. allattante il Bambino"), recorded as being in London in the late 18th century is almost certainly to be identified with the present work.¹ The painting was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) as an oval, in reverse, omitting the view through the window behind. The engraving was published by John Boydell in 1769 and was reproduced in the volume, Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay 1778-1840, London 1904, vol. II, no. 52, with a coat-of-arms.² It is not known when or how the painting was acquired by Henry Petty (1780-1863), 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne and 4th Earl of Kerry, but the picture was certainly in his collection by 1843, the first year in which he lent it on exhibition to the British Institution. Gustav Waagen saw the painting hanging at Lansdowne House a decade later (1854) and described it as: “Carlo Dolce.-The Virgin and Child. A miniature in oil; and less affected in character than is often the case in his pictures”. The painting has remained in the family of the Marquess of Lansdowne ever since.

1. Gambiagi, under Literature, recorded "Two tiny images of Mary painted... on copper, one a tondo of the sorrowing Virgin, the other suckling the Holy Child, both to be found in London, where they have been engraved by the famous Florentine engraver Francesco Bartolozzi: these precious prints well convey the perfection and beauty of their originals".
2. National Portrait Gallery, London, inv. no. NPG D14561.