View source for Dosso Dossi

{{short description|Italian painter (c. 1489–1542)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Dosso Dossi
| image            = Dosso Dossi (cropped).jpg
| image_size       =
| alt              =
| caption          = Self-portrait
| birth_name       =
| birth_date       = 1489
| birth_place      = [[Mantua]]
| death_date       = 1542 (aged 52–53)
| death_place      = [[Ferrara]]
| nationality      = [[Italy|Italian]]
| known_for        = [[Painting]]
| training         = [[Lorenzo Costa]]
| movement         = [[Italian Renaissance]]
| notable_works    =
| patrons          = [[Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara]], [[Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara]]
| awards           =
}}
'''Giovanni di Niccolò de Luteri''', better known as '''Dosso Dossi''' ({{circa}} 1489–1542),<ref>From: [[Battista Dossi]]</ref> was an [[Italian Renaissance painter]] who belonged to the [[School of Ferrara]], painting in a style mainly influenced by [[Venetian painting]], in particular [[Giorgione]] and early [[Titian]].<ref>Hartt, 617</ref>
From 1514 to his death he was court artist to the [[House of Este|Este]] [[Dukes of Ferrara and of Modena]], whose small court valued its reputation as an artistic centre. He often worked with his younger brother [[Battista Dossi]], who had worked under [[Raphael]]. He painted many mythological subjects and allegories with a rather dream-like atmospheres, and often striking disharmonies in colour. His portraits also often show rather unusual poses or expressions for works originating in a court.<ref>Hartt, 617</ref>
==Biography==
Dossi was born in [[San Giovanni del Dosso]], a [[village]] in the [[province]] of [[Mantua]]. His early training and life are not well documented; his father, originally of [[Trento]], was a [[bursar]] (''spenditore'' or ''fattore'') for the Dukes of [[Ferrara]]. He may have had training locally with [[Lorenzo Costa]] or in [[Mantua]], where he is known to have been in 1512. By 1514, he would begin three decades of service for dukes [[Alfonso I d'Este|Alfonso I]] and [[Ercole II d'Este]], becoming principal court artist. Dosso worked frequently with his brother [[Battista Dossi]], who had trained in the Roman workshop of [[Raphael]]. The works he produced for the dukes included the ephemeral decorations of furniture and theater sets. He is known to have worked alongside [[il Garofalo]] in the Costabili [[polyptych]]. One of his pupils was [[Giovanni Francesco Surchi]] (''il Dielai'').
Dosso Dossi is known less for his naturalism or attention to design, and more for cryptic allegorical conceits in paintings around mythological themes, a favored subject for the humanist Ferrarese court (see also [[Cosimo Tura]] and the decoration of the [[Palazzo Schifanoia]]). Dossi  employed eccentric distortions of proportion, which may appear caricature-like or even 'primitivist'. The art historian [[Sydney J. Freedberg]] sees this characteristic as an expression of the Renaissance [[aesthetic]] of ''[[sprezzatura]]'' (i.e. "studied carelessness", or artistic nonchalance). Dossi is also known for the atypical choices of bright pigment for his cabinet pieces. Some of his works, such as the ''Deposition'' have [[wikt:lambent|lambent]] qualities that suggest some of [[Antonio da Correggio|Correggio]]'s works.  Most of his works feature Christian and Ancient Greek themes and use oil painting as a medium.
The painting ''Aeneas in the Elysian Fields'' was part of the ''Camerino d'Alabastro'' of [[Alfonso I d'Este|Alfonso I]] in the Este Castle, decorated with canvases depicting [[bacchanalia]] and erotic subjects including ''Feast of the Gods'' by [[Giovanni Bellini]] and ''Venus Worship'' by [[Titian]]. The frieze paintings were based on the [[Aeneid]]; this scene by Dossi is book 6, lines 635–709, wherein [[Aeneas]] is guided over the bridge into the [[Elysium|Elysian Fields]] by the [[Cumaean Sibyl]]. [[Orpheus]] with the lyre flits in the forest; in the background are the ghostly horses of dead warriors.
In ''Hercules and the Pygmies'', [[Hercules]] has fallen asleep after defeating [[Antaeus]], and is set upon by an army of thumb-size pygmies, whom he defeats. He gathers them in his lion skin. Paintings depicting a powerful Hercules were commonly made for the then-ruler Duke [[Ercole II d'Este]]. The subjects of the ''Mythological Scene'' and ''Tubalcain'' are unknown.
[[File:Dossi dossi, lucrezia borgia, 1518 circa02.jpg|right|thumb|''Portrait of a Youth'', now claimed to be a portrait of [[Lucrezia Borgia]] by Dosso Dossi, [[National Gallery of Victoria]].]]
Recently, "Portrait of a Youth" at the National Gallery of Victoria, has been identified by the museum as a portrait of [[Lucrezia Borgia]] by Dosso Dossi, having previously been regarded as the portrait of an unknown young male by an unknown painter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/ngvs-renaissance-mystery-woman-revealed/2008/11/25/1227491534785.html|title=NGV's Renaissance mystery woman revealed|publisher=Brisbane Times}}</ref>
In Ferrara, among his pupils were [[Gabriele Capellini]], [[Jacopo Panicciati]], and [[Giovanni Francesco Surchi]].<ref>*{{cite book | first= James R.|last= Hobbes| year=1849| title= Picture collector's manual adapted to the professional man, and the amateur| pages=  77 | publisher=  T&W Boone |location=London | url= https://books.google.com/books?q=intitle:picture+intitle:collector's }}</ref>
==Selected works==
[[File:Dosso Dossi 010.jpg|thumb|''Jupiter Painting Butterflies, Mercury and Virtue'', c. 3rd decade of the 16th century, Lanckoroński Collection, [[Wawel Castle]]]]
[[File:Battista Dossi, ritratto di Alfonso I d'Este - Modena.jpg|right|thumb|Portrait of [[Alfonso I d'Este]]. с. 1530,  Galleria Estense, Modena]]
[[File:Dosso Dossi 003.jpg|thumb|''Circe and her Lovers in a Landscape'', <br />at the [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
*''Holy Family with Donors'' (1514, [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]])
* ''Aeneas in the Elysian Fields'', (1518–1521, [[National Gallery of Canada]], [[Ottawa]])
*''The Virgin Appearing to Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist'' (1520s, [[Uffizi]] Gallery, [[Florence]])<ref>Web Gallery of Art. [http://www.wga.hu/html/d/dossi/appearin.html The Virgin Appearing to Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.] Retrieved September 23, 2008.</ref>
*''Jupiter painting Butterflies, Mercury and the Virtue'', (1524, [[Wawel Castle]], [[Kraków]])
* ''Mythological Scene'', c.1524; oil on canvas, 164 × 145&nbsp;cm, [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], Los Angeles<ref>J. Paul Getty Museum. [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=826 Mythological Scene.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718085414/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=826 |date=2010-07-18 }} Retrieved September 23, 2008.</ref>
*''[[Allegory of Music (Dossi)|Allegory of Music]]'', (1530s, [[Museo Horne]], [[Florence]])
*''Allegory of Fortune'', c.1530; oil on canvas, 178 × 216.5&nbsp;cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles<ref>J. Paul Getty Museum. [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=943 Allegory of Fortune.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070530105954/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=943 |date=2007-05-30 }} Retrieved September 23, 2008.</ref>
*''[[Portrait of a Woman (Dosso Dossi)|Portrait of a Woman]]'', 1530–1535; oil on canvas, [[Musée Condé]]
* ''[[Virgin of the Assumption and St. Michael the Archangel]]'', c.1533–34, [[Galleria nazionale di Parma]]
* ''Three Ages of Man'' or ''Rustic Idyll''; 77.5 × 11.8&nbsp;cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
* ''Aeneas'', [[Barber Institute]], Birmingham
* ''Hercules and the Pygmies'' [[Universalmuseum Joanneum#Alte Galerie|Alte Galerie of the Joanneum]] Graz
* ''Tubalcain (Allegory of Music)'' [[Museo Horne]]
* ''Witchraft'' ''Stregoneria'' (Choice of Hercules between Vice and Virtue) [[Galleria degli Uffizi]]
* ''Saint Michael'' (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden)
* ''Saint George and the Dragon''  (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden)
*''Portrait of a Warrior'', Uffizi Gallery, Florence
*''Portrait of a Youth'', portrait of [[Lucrezia Borgia]], [[National Gallery of Victoria]]<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/25/2429076.htm Infamous Renaissance woman subject of mystery portrait] – Australian Broadcasting Corporation 26 November 2008, retrieved on 26 November 2008.</ref><ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/gallery-unveils-portrait-of-infamy/2008/11/25/1227491546419.html Gallery unveils portrait of infamy] – ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 26 November 2008, retrieved on 26 November 2008.</ref>
*''The stoning of Saint Stephen'', [[Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum]], Madrid, on loan to the [[Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya|MNAC]] Barcelona.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/dossi-dosso-and-battista/stoning-saint-stephen|title=The Stoning of Saint Stephen|website=Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref>
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
*[[Frederick Hartt|Hartt, Frederick]], ''History of Italian Renaissance Art'', (2nd edn.)1987, Thames & Hudson (US Harry N Abrams), {{ISBN|0500235104}}
*{{cite book |title=Dosso and Battista Dossi; court painters at Ferrara |first=Felton |last=Gibbons |year=1968 | publisher=Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press}}
*{{cite book | author=J. Carter Brown| year=1986| title= The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the 16th and 17th Centuries| editor= National Gallery of Art |publisher=Cambridge University Press |edition=First | pages= 111–128|isbn=978-0521340199}}
*{{cite book | first= Sydney J.| last= Freedberg| year=1993| title= Painting in Italy, 1500–1600| editor= Pelican History of Art| pages=315–322 Penguin Books Ltd}}
*{{cite book | first1=Luisa | last1=Ciammitti | first2=Steven F. | last2=Ostrow | first3=Salvatore | last3=Settis | year=1998| title= Dosso's fate: painting and court culture in Renaissance Italy| publisher=Los Angeles: [[Getty Research Institute]] for the History of Art and the Humanities | isbn=0-89236-505-6 }}
==External links==
{{commons}}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/66839 ''Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara''], a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100706033617/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1019 Short biography and pictures] at the J. Paul Getty Museum
*[http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/d/dossi/ Images of some paintings]
*[http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=712 Gallery at MuseumSyndicate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913060401/http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=712 |date=2010-09-13 }}
*Works by Dosso Dossi at [http://www.censusferrarese.com/galleria/index.php?lang=eng&autore=Dossi+Dosso Census of Ferrarese Paintings and Drawings]
{{Dosso Dossi|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dossi, Dosso}}
[[Category:1490s births]]
[[Category:1542 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from the Province of Mantua]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Ferrara]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:Italian court painters]]