_Carlo Dolci_ (Florentine: 1616-1686).
Carlo Dolci, the son of a Florentine tailor, is, like his
contemporary Sassoferrato, a good instance of the affected
religious school described in our introduction to the
Later Italian Schools. He was of a very retiring and pious
disposition, much given, we are told, to melancholy. Every one
who looks first at the pictures of similar subjects by earlier
Italian artists will be struck by something sentimental and
effeminate in Dolci's conceptions. Similarly in his execution
there is an over-smoothness and softness, corresponding to
"polished" language in literature (see _Modern Painters_, vol.
iii. pt. iv. ch. ix. § 7). In the Dulwich Gallery is a St.
Catherine of Siena which is one of Dolci's _chefs d'oeuvre_.