The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2023

Adoration of the Shepherds

c. 1670

Carlo Dolci

(Italian, 1616–1687)

Italy, 17th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 108 x 90.2 x 7.7 cm (42 1/2 x 35 1/2 x 3 1/16 in.); Unframed: 88.6 x 70.5 cm (34 7/8 x 27 3/4 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1968.22

Location

not on view

Description

The historical significance of the Baroque painter Carlo Dolci, a precocious artist whose skill was recognized early by the leading Florentine patrons of his time, is often diminished due to his traditionalist compositions. Having gained local reputation as a talented portraitist and painter of religious narrative, Dolci's anti-Mannerist technique dismissed many of the leading Baroque trends as superfluous, retaining an unobtrusive and placid style in the manner of those before him. Having been a devout follower of the brotherhood of St. Benedict, Dolci draws upon a strict Christian iconography in his depiction of the shepherds' witness account of the birth of Christ. --Charles Eppley (January 2009)

Citations
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich, Elizabeth Eastlake, and Algernon Graves. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &C. &C. London, United Kingdom: J. Murray, 1854. Mentioned: p. 15-16, vol. III
Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, Associated with the British School. London, United Kingdom: Printed by Wm. Clowes and Sons, 1870. Reproduced: p. 198
Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig, Germany: W. Engelmann, 1907. Reproduced: p. 387
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 116 archive.org
“La Chronique Des Arts: Les Oeuvres d’art Entrés Dans Les Musées Du Monde Entier En 1968.” Gazette Des Beaux Arts (February 1969): 1–118. Reproduced: P. 64, no. 271
"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXXII, no. 1 (Spring 1969): 69-86. Reproduced: P. 72; mentioned: P. 75
Pillsbury, Edmund P. Florence and the Arts; Five Centuries of Patronage. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971. Reproduced: no. 16
Dizionario enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli incisori italiani dall'XI al XX secolo. Torino, Italy: G. Bolaffi, 1972. Reproduced: p. 166, vol. IV
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 140 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 336; Mentioned: p. 337-338
Baldassari, Francesca. Carlo Dolci. Torino, Italy: Artema, 1995. Mentioned: p. 34-35
Ellis, Charles S. "An 18th Century Florentine Provenance for Some Pictures in the Gerini and Cowper Collections." Paragone: mensile di arte figurativa e letteratura 83 (January 2009): 71-78. Mentioned: P. 74; reproduced: Pl. 67
Ingendaay Rodio, Martina. I migliori pennelli: i marchesi Gerini mecenati e collezionisti nella Firenze barocca : il palazzo e la galleria, 1600-1825. Milano, Italy: Biblion, 2013. Reproduced: p. 316, fig. 207
Baldassari, Francesca and Anthony Brierley. Carlo Dolci: complete catalogue of the paintings. Florence, Italy : Centro Di, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 86-87, no. 10
Straussman-Pflanzer, Eve, and Francesca Baldassari. The Medici's Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence. Wellesley, Massachusetts: Davis Museum at Wellesley College, 2017. Reproduced: p. 88
Ellis, Charles S., and Paola Gibbin. Lord Cowper: un conte inglese a Firenze nell'età dei Lumi. Firenze : Edizioni Polistampa, 2022. Reproduced: unnumbered insert, tav. 15
Exhibition history

Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, United Kingdom (1881).

The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence. Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, MA (February 8-July 9, 7/9/2017); Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC (August 4,2018 - January 14,2019).

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971).

Carlo Dolci: Firenze, 1616-1686. Palazzo Pitti, Firenze, Italy (organizer) (June 30-November 15, 2015).

The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence. Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, MA (organizer) (February 8-July 9, 2017); Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (August 4, 2017-January 14, 2018).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.22