The "Blue" Madonna

Taken at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL.

Carlo Dolci, attributed to
Italian, 1616-187, active in Florence

The "Blue" Madonna, c. 1670
Oil on Canvas

Bequest of John Ringling, 1936, SN 136

In this painting, the popular subject of the Madonna of Sorrows, or Mater Dolorosa, is endowed with a physical presence and simplicity that has affected many pious viewers. The combination of sweetness and melancholy is typical of the religious pathos of Carlo Dolci's works. The artist was particularly well known for his paintings of solitary figures, as seen in this work. His skill as a portraitist informed his religious pictures, as his religious figures frequently hvae the feeling of psychological portraits. This personal approach to devotional painting echoed the demands of the Council of Trent (1545-1536) for clear decipherable religious art.

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul,
and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
~Henry Ward Beecher

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