Carlo Dolci’s Ecce Homo, with its strong emotional impact, was intended in all likelihood for a private chapel. The flesh, reflecting Dolci’s typically slow and meticulous brushwork, accentuates the pathos-filled mood of this Ecce Homo, transforming it into an icon that is more divine than human, unmoving in time and space.
Stylistic evidence allows us to date the painting towards the end of Dolci’s career, most probably the second half of the 1670s, when his painstaking, scrupulous brushwork was enhanced by his enamelled treatment of light. The extremely fine brush strokes with which Dolci painted his Self-portrait now in the Uffizi (1674) recur in this Ecce Homo, a subject of which he was particularly fond from the start to the very end of his career, as shown by the numerous exemplars that have either come down to us or of whose existence we know from the sources.
Before 1842
Paris, Casimir-Pierre Périer (1777 – 1832).
Bristol, Daniel Wade Acraman (1775 – 1847).
1842
London, Christie’s, 22 August 1842, lot 60.
Before 1883
Faversham, William Thomas Townend Hall († 1883).
1883
London, Christie’s, 14 July 1883, lot 61, as «Carlo Dolce, Christ Crowned with Thorns, in Rosewood case, and with easel stand».
After 1883
Dorset, Colonel John Bullen-Symes Bullen (b. 1847) and Mrs. Blanch Mary Bullen (née Townend, † 1886), Catherston-Leweston, and Marshwood Manor.
Before 1912
Yorkshire, Elizabeth Wheler, née Hall († 1912), Ledston Hall.
2020
London, Christie’s, 15 December 2020, “Property from a Family Trust”, lot 33, where it was acquired by the present owner as a bequest to the Gaudium Magnum Foundation, Lisbon.
Depicted in a half-bust pose with the crown of thorns on his head, the grieving figure of Christ occupies virtually the whole of this large octagon. The inclination and bronze pallor of his face, riven by deep shadows, and his hands clasping his body in an embrace to secure his garments turn the figure into a fully-fledged mask of pain. Beneath the blue lapis lazuli cloak, a symbol of divine resurrection, we can make out his blood red tunic, reminding us of the torments of his martyrdom. The light of his halo and the coils of his long golden locks are enhanced by the dark ground.
The flesh, reflecting Dolci’s typically slow and meticulous brushwork, accentuates the pathos-filled mood of this Ecce Homo, transforming it into an icon that is more divine than human, unmoving in time and space.
The image, with its strong emotional impact, was intended, in all likelihood, for a private chapel.
The picture’s stylistic features allow us to date it towards the end of Dolci’s artistic career, when his lenticular and punctilious brush strokes are enhanced by a brilliant, almost enamel light, thus probably in the second half of the 1660s. Close comparison with the Self-portrait, signed and dated 1674, now in the Gallerie degli Uffizi (fig. 1)1, and with the Corsham Court Christ Blessing, which can be dated to c. 1680 (fig. 2), confirm the suggested date.
In depicting himself in his Self-portrait, Dolci seeks to lay the emphasis on his scrupulous professionalism as an artist. In his right hand he holds a drawing showing him intent on his task, with his pince-nez glasses, palette and extremely fine brushes, attired in working clothes and hat. This superb piece, with few variants – the absence of his working tools, his palette and brushes – by comparison with the drawing in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe in the Uffizi (1173 F), was painted for Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, the recipient of both the painting and the drawing, thus honoured with a dual tribute. At a time when speed and prompt dexterity in painting were held in ever greater esteem by patrons (one has but to think of the success of Pietro da Cortona, a champion of the Baroque style, or of Luca Giordano of Naples, nicknamed “Luca Fa presto”, “Luca works quickly”), Dolci deliberately swam against the tide, promoting a naturalistic vision in a 16th century style whose luminaries had been Andrea del Sarto and Bronzino. The extremely fine brush strokes with which Dolci painted his Self-portrait recur in this Ecce Homo, a subject of which he was particularly fond from the start to the very end of his career, as shown by the numerous exemplars that have either come down to us or of whose existence we know from the sources.
Francesca Baldassari
- F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci. Complete catalogue of the paintings, Florence 2015, p. 286.
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How to cite:
F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci. Ecce Homo, in Gaudium Magnum Foundation. The Painting Collection, ed. V. Rossi, with T. Borgogelli and A. Marengo, Lisbon 2026.
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