- 383
Carlo Dolci Florence 1616 - 1687
Description
- Carlo Dolci
- The Mourning Virgin (‘Madonna Addolorata’)
- inscribed in an old, probably late 18th or early 19th-century hand, on the reverse: Comm. Bartolomeo Clementi/ Vicenza
oil on canvas laid on panel, circular
Catalogue Note
The painting bears the same inscription as on the reverse of a painting on copper by Dolci, showing The Head of an Angel, recently sold at auction for £120,000 and now in a private collection.1 That painting, which may have been cut into an irregularly-shaped circular format, was probably ‘paired up’ with this Head of the Mourning Virgin some time in the late 18th or 19th century. This was almost certainly done by Commendatore Bartolomeo Clementi of Vicenza, whose name is inscribed on the reverse of both paintings. Although the figures of the Virgin Annunciate and the Archangel Gabriel are often paired, and were treated as pendants by Dolci himself,2 the iconography here is unusual for such a pairing: the beautifully rendered tear on the Virgin’s cheek indicates that she is mourning the loss of her Son (the image often referred to as the ‘Madonna Addolorata’ or ‘suffering Madonna’) whilst the angel’s serene expression indicates that he may be Gabriel annunciating to the Virgin.
This painting’s small dimensions and the fact that it is on panel - a more hard-wearing support than canvas - indicate that it was probably intended as a portable picture for private devotion. Although the oval or circular format was used by Dolci on numerous occasions the painting’s extremely small scale is unusual and the composition, with the Madonna looking up and to the right, is unique in the artist’s œuvre. The red and blue colouring of her drapery and the porcelain-like handling of her face, together with details such as the tear on her cheek and her glistening eye, are all characteristic of the artist, as is the use of actual gold paint (now partially worn off) to depict her halo.
The attribution to Dolci has been endorsed by Dott.ssa Francesca Baldassari after seeing the painting in the original.
1 Oil on copper, 14.3 by 13.7 cm, inscribed on the reverse: Comm. Bartolomeo Clementi/ Vicenza; sold, London, Christie’s, December 8, 2005, lot 1.
2 See, for example, Dolci’s pair depicting The Annunciating Angel and The Virgin Annunciate in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. nos. 3827 and 3826; reproduced in F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Turin 1995, pp. 124-5, cat. nos. 97 and 98.